My Review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) · 3:38pm Nov 22nd, 2024
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today. This morning, I will be reviewing a 1987 War/Thriller movie called “Full Metal Jacket” directed by the late Stanley Kubrick. I gotta say that this movie was quite bold in giving its intriguing take on the Vietnam War; the vision was crystal clear, and it did not hesitate to go to its darkest corners.
This movie is about a young wisecracking private named Davis (dubbed “Joker”) who goes through a rigorous training process for the Vietnam War. He would soon grow to become a solider ready for battle…but at what cost?
First of all, the acting in this movie is astonishingly and—to be quite blunt—terrifyingly spectacular. Every actor did not hold back the brutality of their acting skills and demonstrated how committed they were to this storyline. Whenever a historical war is being involved, there’s no fooling around obviously.
I believe the biggest stars in this film for me were Matthew Modine & the late R. Lee Ermey. Matthew displayed his calm demeanor and humorous personality in a consistent manner throughout his acting. His character went through so much shit in his earlier life and witnessed some horrific acts before he moved on to a higher life as a Marine.
He may have been ready for war, but whenever it came to psychological warfare, he was more or less slightly intimidated by it. Think about it: he tried to help Pyle get everything done right in his training but couldn’t help him save himself from the mental breakdown he fell victim to.
This was seen again at the end of the movie when he had to make a choice between leaving the enemy sniper alone to suffer in agony or put her out of her misery. He witnessed her writhing in internal torment which was almost similar to what Pyle went through. Different circumstances, yes, but they were all part of the psychological warfare.
This is what this movie is trying to show us: the powers that be want to breed killers out of men for war and treat them harshly in order to make them the way they want them to. They got want they wanted with Pyle but at the cost of two lives: his & that of the drill instructor.
Private Davis had to not let his guard down at any moment and showed that in times of war, he had little choices to make. I might be reading too much into this, but his arc (if you can call it that) was just interesting to me.
The late Lee Ermey was incredible as the drill instructor for the entire first act of the movie. What’s even better is that the actor’s experience as a former drill instructor actually helped him improvise about 50% of his lines, especially the vulgar insults.
His character was harsh, foul-mouthed, and stern with all the trainees as one would expect. But even so, you can tell he wanted to bring the best out of those men. Sadly, his final moments weren’t exactly the best because his stupidity got the best of him. Is it really a good idea to scream at the top of your lungs at someone who’s pointing a loaded weapon directly at you?
He should’ve kept his tone lowered like he did the very moment he learned that the full metal jacket was live. That was his opportunity to help him out which would’ve been a decent way for him to go out. Although Pyle was long gone at that point, it still would’ve showed he had some humanity in him.
Moving on, the cinematography is excellent! The way the camera moves around, zooms in to give a point of view from a character, and so on…is so good. It enhances the experience of anyone watching this and makes us feel like where in the movie we’re watching.
Furthermore, the action was pretty decent. It gave a pretty realistic adaptation of what the Vietnam War was like and how brutal it was. When they showed all the shots of men getting wounded in combat, it almost looks so real. The visuals are pretty good even though this film is from the late 80s. I’m impressed!
If there’s some things I didn’t like about it, it would be the way they paced the movie. Right after the first act is completed, the characters spend about 30-40 minutes doing random stuff with some action thrown in here & there.
It felt like the movie didn’t know where exactly to move on after such an iconic first act with the drill instructor and crew. At least during the third act, it found its place again so that it can somewhat parallel to the first act.
I’m saying all this to say that I didn’t particularly enjoy the second act. It was slow, meaningless, and dull compared to the first & third acts. But overall, I still find the movie very enjoyable to watch. So with all that said, I’ll be more than happy to give it a solid 7/10.
Peace!
This was my father's 2nd favorite movie (after M*A*S*H). He especially resonated with Drill Instructor Hartman (being a former drill instructor himself).
I do agree that the movie shows the reality of (at the time) modern warfare.
One thing I did think about the 2nd act was that it was slow paced deliberately to show a shock to the men arriving. They had just finished basic (and seen the death of Pyle and Hartman), so they believed themselves ready for war. However they experienced the reality of Vietnam was not just shooting, but everything so it throws the men (and the audience) off-kilter.
One thing I have heard is that the show is about losing and regaining your humanity. The first act was being trained to ignore your humanity and the ending scene (where the men sing the Mouseketeers song) was them starting to regain it. What are your thoughts?
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That's an interesting way of looking at it. That would explain why I feel like there was some parallels between the first & third acts. And I can see the intention behind the second act, but my issue with it is the way it was executed. It felt like pointless filler more than anything, but that's just my opinion.
i've seen most of this movie. it's pretty suspenseful. though saving private ryan still remains as my favorite war movie. (i've written so many times that's my favorite my reason is i watched in sophomore year in high school and it made a large impression on me). but that's just my thoughts.
Interestingly, in the novel the film is based on the Gunnery Sergeant is even worse, being an outright sadist. Ermey used his experience in the military to rework the character to somebody trying to do his job but is a horrible judge of character. In other words, this is what a bad drill instructor looks like.