Full Metal Jacket

UK Release Date. 11 September 1987
Certification. 18
Running Time. 1 hour 56 mins
Director. Stanley Kubrick
Cast. Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard, Matthew Modine.
Rating. 75%

Review.

Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket is based on ex-US Marine Gustav Hasford’s autobiographical novel, The Short-Timers.

Divided into two distinct halves; Full Metal Jacket is a journey that begins with the brutal indoctrination of would-be US Marines and ends with the chaotic and morally ambiguous realities of combat in Vietnam.

In the first half of the film, the gruelling boot camp - The Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Parris Island, South Carolina - Kubrick exalts in the dehumanising process of turning fledgling recruits into killing machines. The director uses stark imagery to highlight the means by which soldiers are conditioned to fight, shedding their individuality and becoming cogs in the military machine. 

In the second half of the film, the focus shifts to Private J. T. ‘Joker’ Davis (Matthew Modine), who is sent to Vietnam as a journalist for the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Here, the film transitions into a commentary on the absurdities and horrors of the Vietnam War. Our conduit's journey as both a soldier and a reporter leads to a series of confrontations with the brutal and unforgiving landscape of war, culminating in the cauldron of The Battle of Huế.

The film's diptych structure is designed to equate the trauma of training and combat. The now iconic opening chapter features a staggering performance by R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The new recruits are systemically brutalised by the seemingly unhinged drill sergeant through an unrelenting barrage of abusive language and intimidation. Ermey, whose portrayal of Sergeant Hartman used real-life experience of drill instructors to deliver a performance that is both terrifying and surprisingly darkly humorous. The non-stop stream of (impressively creative) foul-mouthed abuse is supposed to burn survival instincts into these empty vessels. But in the case of Private Leonard ‘Gomer Pyle’ Lawrence (Vincent D’Onofrio), this torrent of abuse and bullying leads to a breakdown that results in one of the film's most dramatic moments.

But it’s only over the course of the ambling, uneven second act that we come to see how pathetically pointless it is to try and prepare young men for the disorienting unreality and nihilistic savagery of warfare. Once away from the brutality of the boot camp and into the casual atrocities of the Vietnam War, even the director seems bereft of purpose. Kubrick has made his point - a soldier must shed his humanity and become an unemotional machine to contend with the battlefield itself.

Full Metal Jacket was the last of Stanley Kubrick's films to be released during his lifetime [Eyes Wide Shut was released six months after his death]. By the time Full Metal Jacket made it into the cinemas, it had been somewhat overtaken and overshadowed by Oliver Stone's Platoon. Nonetheless, Kubrick's film was nominated for the 1988 Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium. The film goes far beyond the genre's typical portrayal of soldiers in combat, and provides a powerful insight into the breakdown of the human psyche under the immense pressure of war. The chilling commentary is paired with a stark visual style, utilising the precision and coldness Kubrick was famed for, making Full Metal Jacket an immersive experience where every frame seems to speak to the brutality of the conflict.