Release Year: 1987 Rating: R Duration: 116 minutes Other Title: Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket Director: Stanley Kubrick Producer: Jan Harlan, Michael Herr, Philip Hobbs
In this riveting look at military life during the Vietnam conflict, Stanley Kubrick, who made the powerful antiwar classics PATHS OF GLORY (WWI) and DR. STRANGELOVE (the cold war), once again explores the behavior of men in battle. FULL METAL JACKET (1987), adapted from Gustav Hasford's novel THE SHORT TIMERS, is broken down into two very different parts. The first half of the film focuses on the training of a squad of Marine grunts on Parris Island, and more specifically on the troubled relationship between the brutal drill sergeant (a frightening Lee Ermey) and an oafish misfit (a brilliant Vincent D'Onofrio) who just happens to be a sharpshooter. The second half takes the grunts to Hue City, where the climactic battle of the 1968 Tet Offensive, and the turning point of the Vietnam War, took place. The story is told through the eyes of Private Joker (Matthew Modine), a cynical aspiring photojournalist who is forced to fight for his life and the lives of his fellow recruits.
FULL METAL JACKET, very much like every other hard-hitting film about the Vietnam War, is an shocking, emotional depiction of the war that effected almost everyone in America. This film is more like PLATOON than any other in the way that it chronicles the struggles of a young man (Private Joker, played by Matthew Modine) during his tour in the Vietnam War. However, FULL METAL JACKET gives the audience an insight into combat life very rarely seen before: boot camp. These sequences are considered to be the best part in this three act film, even though I found the later portions to be equally stunning.
