Reviews of Full Metal Jacket

Jacket Potato!

Posted : 11 months, 2 weeks ago on 30 November 2008 01:58 (A review of Full Metal Jacket)

''The deadliest weapon in the world is a marine and his rifle. It is your killer instinct which must be harnessed if you expect to survive in combat. Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and strong you will hesitate at the moment of truth. You will not kill. You will become dead marines and then you will be in a world of shit because marines are not allowed to die without permission. Do you maggots understand?''


Story follows a group of Marine recruits from the harrowing experience of boot camp to the horrifying battlefronts of Vietnam.

Matthew Modine: Pvt. Joker

Adam Baldwin: Animal Mother

I was not expecting Full Metal Jacket to live up to expectations but thankfully i was wrong. Stanley Kubrick generally does some weird films and as soon as it begins you know your in for a treat.

This isn't just a war film, it's a study of people being transformed, moulded into reliable killing machines. The boot camp scenes are brilliant and R. Lee Ermey as Gny. Sgt. Hartman is iconic. I just couldn't muster myself to stop laughing at the beginning.
Private Pyle played by Vincent D'Onofrio is fascinating as a man who depicts what happens when your pushed to far and how it can make your whole being snap if you let it. The resulting conclusion of boot camp in a toilet left me blown away at how far it went.

Vietnam and it's war is shown up in a scene where we see a soldier shooting anyone from a helicopter, adeptly saying if they run there Vietcong if they don't, there a persistent Vietcong. It's sick but it so funny in a black humoured way. Shows the whole fucked up state of the dirty War on both sides.

The music is effective, definitely reminded me of 2001 and Clockwork Orange. I loved the songs like these boots were made for walking and the song on the credits what a finish.
Haunting droning haunting music used in the scenes at night at the boot-camp were chilling to me and the final scene.

The shock when you find soldiers you cared about shockingly die. Its tear inducing, and the identity of the sniper when they find the culprit near the end, that was heartbreaking.

Full Metal Jacket is another classic like The Deer Hunter that not only focuses on war but also on the people fighting it.

''Seven-six-two millimeter. Full. Metal. Jacket.''

Pending Full Review and Re-writes...

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Full Metal Jacket review

Posted : 2 years, 2 months ago on 24 August 2007 06:09 (A review of Full Metal Jacket)

Along with Platoon, this has to be one of the best Vietnam war films around. Starting at the training camp, FMJ follows a Vietnam-bound squad through training at the hands of one of the most recognisable and memorable characters in film history - played by R. Lee Ermey. His rants are the stuff of legend, and out of anything in this film, his character will probably make the most lasting impression.

The second half of the film follows Private Joker during the war. He eventually meets up with a former academy friend and his platoon. As a photogropher, Joker sees some of the most outrageous sights of the war, but when his platoon gets lost and devastated by a sniper, he has to swap his camera for a rifle and transform into the type of person he has almost looked down upon for the rest of the film.

The begining scenes are the most famous, but I think it's the ending scenes which are the most powerfully portrayed. It's rare to see a vietnam film detailing urban combat as opposed to jungle fighting, but this film managed to catch the desolation and fear of such a scenario perfectly.

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