Full Metal Jacket [R]

The fresh recruits at Parris Island are there to be trained as Marines: so they can fight for freedom and kill for their country in Vietnam. Ready to face the dehumanizing challenges of war Joker, Animal Mother, Eightball, Cowboy, Pyle, and their fellow men must first survive the challenges and trauma of their training camp hell where the abusive sergeant Hartman is all about breaking them entirely before building them up again as emotionless killing machines. 

A glowing comment on the back of this DVD cover promotes this movie as “the best war movie ever made” and I have to admit that I am inclined to agree. After various representations of the Vietnam War from Coppola’s Apocalypse Now to Stone’s Platoon and Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket sits as a Vietnam War film just off centre, wandering in its own direction in its own little world. What makes this movie stand out for me is the fact that it’s a completely different look at the war. None of the action or the battle sequences take place in the jungle with “Asian orange sunsets through the scrubs”, but in completely pulverised towns and urban spaces as well as the first half being set in the training camp: spaces that we never saw pictures of in the history books. This is what makes this movie special! 

The fresh recruits at Parris Island are there to be trained as Marines: so they can fight for freedom and kill for their country in Vietnam. Ready to face the dehumanizing challenges of war Joker, Animal Mother, Eightball, Cowboy, Pyle, and their fellow men must first survive the challenges and trauma of their training camp hell where the abusive sergeant Hartman is all about breaking them entirely before building them up again as emotionless killing machines. 

Based on the novel, The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford, Full Metal Jacket is a thrilling and captivating exploration into the dehumanizing effect of trauma and war. There are many examples of characters that cease to be men and turn into psychotic or emotionless killers: the two most poignant being the transformation of sweet, pudgy private Pyle into a manic ape-man with a stare that echoes that Alexander DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange and Jack Torrence in The Shining and the climactic first kill by Private Joker who wears a ‘peace’ symbol as well as the slogan ‘born to kill’ on his helmet to highlight conflicting duality of man. 

All the performances are top-notch with a special mention having to go to R. Lee Ermey who stars as Sergeant Hartman. With his ever-flowing, graphic and inventive stream of verbal torments and soul-crushing insults, this is a guy you don’t want to mess with! Here’s just a little taste of what he’s like: 

“I bet you’re the kind of guy who would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamned common courtesy to give them a reacharound!”

Enough said really. The script is packed to bursting with wondrous and unheard-of torrents of abuse and stuff like this. It’s wonderfully written! 

I want to also give a quick shout-out to the soundtrack here because it’s another thing in this movie that makes it awesome! I personally lost my shit when ‘Surfing Bird (The Bird is the Word)’ by the Trashmen came on! It’s the last song ever that I’d pick to work in a war movie, but Kubrick pulled it off! 

Starring Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dorian Harewood, Arliss Howard, Kevyn Major Howard, Ed O’Ross, John Terry, Kieron Jecchinis, Bruce Boa, Kirk Taylor, Jon Stafford, Tim Colceri, and Ian Tyler, Full Metal Jacket is a brilliant movie packed with war, trauma, drama, violence, bloodshed, and comedy. I personally found it a really refreshing depiction of the Vietnam War and as such, it stands aside from other wartime epics. I would highly recommend it!