User reviews

Though I've read only a couple of dozen of the nearly 500 comments on this film, I didn't see any from ex-Marines who'd had the Parris Island experience. I went through PI in 1957. The time period in the picture would have been about 1967, since the in-country sequence includes the '68 Tet Offensive. Little had changed in those 10 years except the switch from M1s to M16s.

For the most part Kubrick got Parris Island right on the money. And why shouldn't he have, since his screen DI, Lee Ermey was in fact a real DI before he started acting (he played another DI in "The Boys of Company C," an earlier and lesser Vietnam flick)? He had a built- in technical adviser. The screams and insults and profanity and physical punishment were all part of the DIs armamentarium. When you're facing up to 75 young strangers you need to immediately establish absolute authority and hang on to it for 13 weeks. Furthermore, you want to break the breakable as soon as you can. My platoon had its Private Pyles and though none ended up as he does in "Full Metal Jacket," I remember that they simply disappeared from our ranks, never to be heard from again. Nothing Ermey as Sgt. Hartman does is exaggerated.

Kubrick, however, does exaggerate. Speaking of Pyle's ending, it's almost impossible for me to imagine that a recruit could manage to sneak a clip of live rounds away from the rifle range. Every shooter at the range has his own rifle coach, and every single round is very carefully accounted for. Kubrick started the killing one scene too early.

I've read that DIs nowadays are forbidden to use the time-honored f-word, and are not allowed to lay hands on recruits. I don't know if that's good or bad for training (I had my face slapped hard my first day of boot camp and that was just for openers), but then all of us old-timers like to brag about how tough it useta be!

A final note: It's interesting to compare "Full Metal Jacket" to another attempt at a portrayal of Parris Island, Jack Webb's "The DI," made around '55 or '56. Webb tries for authenticity, but as I was to learn a year or so later, his PI was a boy scout camp.

I finally got around to watching this for the first time.

The first half is a 10/10, the second half is a 7/10 and falls apart into what seems like every war movie's clichés, even though it's good enough.

The first half is a masterpiece of filmmaking- there's almost no flaws, the pacing is perfect, the acting great, it has an instant classic type experience to it you'll never forget.

The second half is good, decent but it doesn't rival the first half and its perfection. That makes its let down even more pronounced.

So overall, I give it an 8/10 because you can't overlook the drop in quality of the second half.

8/10

Strange, as I sat to watch Full Metal Jacket for the first time in years, what I remembered most was Lee Emery's Sgt Hartman's rantings and Vincent D'Onofrio. In fact, it was Vincent D'Onofrio's Pvt Lawrence, known as "Gomer Pyle" that made this Stanley Kubrick film, truly memorable. I'm noticing this more and more as I get older and revisit old films. The performances, certain performances, even in supporting roles allow a film to keep growing with the passing of time. Full Metal Jacket a shattering film or I should say, two shattering films. The first part, the training, the intro is a masterpiece practically impossible to match up, so, the second part doesn't match it. But, still. A film-experience. Vincent D'Onofrio's performance even more powerful now, 30 years later. Enormous! The British skies over Vietnam is another reminder than an artist's eye knows no boundaries.

I was a Marine at Parris Island in 1977 and I can certainly tell this film is very accurate in every respect right down to the blanket party scene. The base that they used in England looks very much like Parris Island, right down to the Grinder and the barracks in the background. The part where they are running on the road with Joker carrying Pyle looks like the road to Elliots Beach. The Cadence is true to life as well as Senior Drill Instructor Hartmans dialect, all of the comments I can say 100% that I have heard on The Island and had them used on me. For a person who was there it had me fooled, although the O-Course and the rifle range are completely different in layout and looks. The inside of the barracks and the head are identical to the real thing. For anyone viewing this film trust me it doesn't get any closer to being Parris Island and I would say that the "Gunny" saw to that. As far as the in country segment it looks pretty much like the real photos I saw in USMC training films.

"With flowers and my love both never to come back ... It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black". So sings the man whose throbbing song marks the film's end, merciless lyrics to describe thematically a story that is as wrenching as it is mesmerizing.

There are no villains in this film, only heroic victims. The villains are all off-screen, comfy behind mahogany desks, or dressed for success and giving shrill speeches about how maintaining peace requires war. Strange logic.

First it's boot camp, a dreary prospect at best, for an ordinary group of young American men. Here, a sadistic drill Sargent, in colorful language, barks out orders and insults straight from Hades. It's do or die, almost literally, for our greenhorns. It's an ordeal of blackness from which some may never recover. Still, the grunts learn a valuable lesson; namely, that life is mostly physical, not mental. It's a lesson some ivory tower college professors never learn.

But then it's on to an even blacker black ... Vietnam. Combat scenes are rendered believable by effective visuals and terrific sound effects: pounding percussion, amplified sounds of equipment and footsteps across explosive debris, and an always present, ever-so-subtle ... echo. Potent and torturous, these scenes convey a Zen-like immediacy, an impending sense of doom. And then at film's end, those lyrics ...

Composed of two, barely overlapping, parts, the script's structure is a bit unorthodox. But the film works, owing to an intensity that never lets up. R. Lee Ermey is of course terrific as the harsh drillmaster. Casting of the young lions is okay, though a tad weak in one or two cases. Insertion of pop songs of the era works well, to amplify the cultural disconnect between a war-torn Vietnam and an indifferent America.

Like reading a history book, watching an occasional war movie is good for the soul. It puts one's problems in perspective. For that reason, this particular war movie is better than most. It's riveting, intense. And the sense of impending blackness hovers ever present over the story's heroic victims, like the sword of Damocles.

Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket seems like an uncompleted film, but to me that's poetic justice to one of America's uncompleted wars. The film is harsh and doesn't turn a blind eye to the atrocities of Vietnam. Kubrick is the true master of atmosphere in film. He makes you feel like you are there. Friends of mine have commented that they only like the first half of the film and that the second half falls apart. I believe Kubrick sets up the first half to be an understandable reflection of the terror that would eventually enter the lives of these soldiers during war. It is easy to identify with being picked on because we all have in some way. Not all of us, on the other hand, have fought in war. Kubrick is the master.

The first half of "Full Metal Jacket" is so intensely entertaining that director Stanley Kubrick can be forgiven for the slight come-down that follows. The opening scenes draw us into the strict world of "maggots" training to join the ranks of real men, otherwise known as Marines. We see the characters humiliated, yelled at like children, beaten and, in one tragic case, broken down. It's an unpleasant yet fascinating place to visit from the comfort and safety of our living room couches. Yet once the action shifts to the Vietnam War, when you would expect even better, something is lost. The characters seem less real and the atmosphere less intriguing. Overall, however, there aren't many faults to find with this effort, but be forewarned that it's certainly not for younger viewers.

SPOILER: Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 realistic Vietnam war film and is one of the best films of the 80's ever made, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay by Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford was based on Hasford's novel The Short-Timers (1979). Full Metal jacket (1987) was Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 7 wins & 9 nominations. It is one of my personal favorite war movies. I love this movie to death.

A superb ensemble falls in for for Stanley Kubrick's brilliant saga about the Vietnam War and the dehumanizing process that turns people into trained killers. Joker (Matthew Modine), Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin), Gomer (Vincent D'Onofrio), Eightball (Dorian Harewood), Cowboy (Arliss Howard) and more experience boot-camp hell pit bulled by a leather lung D.I. (Lee Ermey) viewing would-be devil dogs as grunts,maggots or something less. The action is savage, the story unsparing the dialog spiked with catching humor. From Basic training rigors to Hue City combat nightmare, Full Metal Jacket scores a cinematic direct hit.

The film focus on a two-segment look at the effect of the military mindset and war itself on Vietnam era Marines. The first half follows a group of recruits in boot camp under the command of the punishing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. In the hell camp the dehumanizing process turns people into trained killers. From boys in to a trained mean machine killers. It's the late 1960s at Parris Island, South Carolina, the U.S. Marine Corps Training Camp, where a group of young Marine recruits, after having their heads shaved, are being prepped for basic training by the brutal Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey), whose orders are to "weed out all non-hackers". Hartman gives each of the Marines nicknames; one pragmatic recruit who talks behind his back becomes "Joker" (Matthew Modine); a Texas recruit becomes "Cowboy" (Arliss Howard). And finally Leonard Lawrence, a 6-foot 3-inch, 280 pound, slow-witted recruit with low intelligence and ambition becomes "Gomer Pyle" (Vincent D'Onofrio), and the focus of Hartman's brutality, because the overweight boy cannot keep up with the other more physically fit recruits in the grueling obstacle courses. The first half more focus on training basics preparing recruits before they ship them to Vietnam and point view story telling from Private James T. "Joker" Davis (Matthew Modine) and about torture physics of a young men who is a marine recruit in the platoon lead by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman his Parris Island drill instructor who tortures him by punish his whole squad for his mistakes. And how that young man turns in to a killing mean machine that blows Hartman's head off! And than Pyle sits down on a toilet, places the muzzle of the weapon in his mouth and pulls the trigger, killing himself.

The second half shows one of those recruits, Joker, covering the war as a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, focusing on the Tet offensive. The film now more focus on one of those recruits Private Joker (Matthew Moddine) from the boot camp Parris Island, who is in Da Nang Vietnam, reporting on the Vietnam War for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. He and his partner, combat photographer Rafterman (Kevyn Major Howard), meet a prostitute (Leanne Hong) in the streets and encounter a thief (Nguyen Hue Phong) who steals Rafterman's camera. When they return to their base, they are given new assignments, but Joker wants to go to the front lines to get a good story. Joker and Rafterman are assigned to Phu Bai, a Marine forward operating-base near the ancient Vietnamese city of Hue, Joker is reunited with his team recruit from his training boot camp Paris Island, Cowboy and his unit, the Lusthog Squad, before they met Cowboy's Unit they are go trough They go to the mass grave and find over 20 bodies in a mass grave that have been covered with lime.

The film is Staney Kubrick's best realistic Vietnam War film of all time. One of my all time favorite Vietnam War flicks from the 80's, the other film is Platoon (1986) Once more there's excellent cinematography - check out the haunting, almost claustrophobic landscapes of Vietnam. The combination of the demented treatment the recruits receive in boot camp with the combined "hours of boredom, seconds of terror" feel of the Vietnam scenes is intense and not for everyone, but feels REAL. I love how the film focus more in a city of Hue and the battlefield starts their. The battle scene sequences are outstanding and Terrific!They look real, There are dozen's of body's out their. We first see Tank driving trough the city of Hue the city's are filed with fire, burning buildings and destroyed houses and street is full of blood. Sergeant Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin),the nihilistic M60 machine gunner of the Lusthog Squad is one of the most beloved characters in the movie and he is at best a supporting cast member. But you wouldn't even think about Animal Mother being just another guy. He is so memorable that you look at him as one of the stars of the show.

'Born to Kill' - written on Joke's helmet. Is sequent that it has to do with the "duality of Man" according to Jung. 10/10

Goddamn you Stanley Kubrick. For me Clockwork Orange set the standard a long time ago for cinematic perfection; FMJ just raises the bar. Sitting around with bored in-laws I quietly slipped this into the DVD player, 20 minutes later conversation has ceased and everybody is absorbed. Predictable Kubrick really, stunningly lit, musical soundtrack that is oh-so-right, and the cinematography -Jesusmotherofmary. Ten years before anybody had thought of picking up a movie camera and running with it, Kubrick had perfected the technique. War is hell? -it sure looks a vision of hell. Stunning in every way.

R. Lee Ermey dominates this Stanley Kubrick directed Vietnam War drama, as he plays profane, no-nonsense, ultra tough Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, who belittles, browbeats, and insults the marine recruits in brutal boot camp training. Vincent D'Onofrio plays a slow-witted recruit who gets it the worst from Hartman, until he finds out that he is quite good at shooting... Mathew Modine plays "Joker", since he has an overt sense of humor that also captures the attention of Hartman, whose relentless, unmerciful verbal attacks take their toll in ways he didn't imagine... Film then picks up later, as Joker is a war correspondent for Stars & Stripes, who witnesses first hand the insanity of Vietnam...

R. Lee Ermey so dominates the first half of the film(in an unforgettable, searing portrayal of dehumanization) that, when his part is over, it leaves a looming shadow over the rest of the film that is never lifted, though it is still a well-presented look at the war, though nothing exceptional. Worth watching for Ermey, who should have received an Academy Award!

'Full Metal Jacket' was a film that I had been meaning to watch for a while after all the good stuff I had heard about it.

It really is a film of two halves, unfortunately I didn't like the 2nd half.

The 1st half at boot camp was excellent, we saw a lot of character development and emotion as well as a lot of humour and really serious issues. R. Lee Ermey and Vincent D'Onofrio were just brilliant.

The 2nd half I didn't enjoy as much, it looked great and there was a lot of action but it was just a bit boring and felt really dragged out, whereas the 1st part just had everything that you wanted.

Glad I got round to seeing it but wouldn't watch it again, slightly disappointed after a really good start to the film.

6/10.

Full Metal Jacket is an excellent war film. All the characters are very well written, and represent very common characters in the military. There's always a class clown, a hardened individual that's respected, and someone who just isn't capable. The acting of Vincent D'Onofrio in this is exceptional, he only has a short amount of screen time, but his story is very sad and impactful. The second half of the film starts to become less enjoyable, but nevertheless it's still a good film.

Stanley Kubrick always managed to bring something new to his palate whenever he made a film. He brought dark comedy to the screen with Dr. Stranglove, an epic story with Spartacus, and a film more important for its efforts than box office potential in the film Paths of Glory. This is what makes Full Metal Jacket so entertaining.

Humor, horror and political commentary are the themes which shape Full Metal Jacket. From the overbearing drill sergeant to the war loving soldiers. It all seems to make sense within this film, never overstepping its bounds or being to subtle. Kubrick may have alienated some his hardcore fans with such a mainstream-type story, but then again, he helped mainstream movies take a bold step. What doesn't the current cinema owe Kubrick?

Arguably the first half of this movie is what this movie is remembered by. It's a incredible piece of acting and writing. It fully engages you and doesn't really let you go. Though it does at a moment become predictable where it will end. But being the bare witness to the demoralization and dehumanization of humans to turn them into killing machines is somewhat unmatched.

The second half however is underwhelming. Few of the things seen truly feel impactful and that's also due to the somewhat underwhelming performance, writing and directing of Pvt. Joker. I don't know why they did it but his emotional vulnerability is all over the place, one moment he doesn't even care about a fallen squad member, and then he does, there's no transition. And it made the character unbelievable and thus ruined much of the emotional turmoil for me. The second half felt simpler and cheaper to me in general, dumb, ignorant soldiers in a war they aren't supposed to be in. The acting just felt somewhat flat as well. Like the banter between Joker and Animal Mother. And the anti-war message was lacking to say the least due to a lack of visual despair and agony.

The directing and music is fantastic (though not that bird song..ugh), not much more to say there than you'll hear more than enough iconic soundtracks and beautifully shot scenes (set design mostly). Some practical effects and such feel lacking though and is inconsistent, one guy gets shot, blood splatters everywhere, another guy gets shot, and nothing, just falls down to the ground unconvincingly. This was especially bad during a ambush scene at basecamp where the enemies just ''played dead'' it seemed and fell with grace.

So yeah, I'll remember this movie for its first half, but I almost already forgot most of the second half...definitely not one of Kubrick's best.

One of the greatest war movies ever, a statement very few will dispute. I will therefore not illustrate this point : thousands have done it before me, often brilliantly.I'd rather lay the stress on Kubrick's modernity in "Full Metal Jacket". Indeed the USA being once again at war, it is interesting to compare the way they wage war these days with the way they did back in the sixties. And the comparison is edifying. Just apply the following statements to Iraq and you will realize NOTHING HAS CHANGED : - the marines are trained to become killing machines without being taught minimum knowledge about the people they come to defend. - the boys know nothing about the Vietnamese and reason according to American standards : for instance "Cow-Boy" complains half-jokingly half-seriously that there are no horses in Vietnam. Another example is the soldiers singing the Mickey Mouse Club hymn after fighting, which strikes as particularly out of place. - they try in vain to impose democracy through gruesome violence and destruction. Such similarities abound and testify to the film's absolute - and unfortunate - modernity. I wish Kubrick was still with us. I also wish George Bush and his advisers had seen this masterpiece and - most of all - understood its message. They would have avoided another bloody war doomed to fail.