Nothing new, but well done

Rating: 7/10 (3 June 2017)

"Full Metal Jacket" offers no new insights on the Vietnam war. Stanley Kubrick tells us nothing in this film that Oliver Stone hadn't already told us just a year before, in "Platoon". But it's still a memorable movie experience. The first third is both a clichéd "Marines-in-training" story with an expected tragic ending, and a profanely funny satire on militarism (Lee Ermey as the commanding drill instructor is the life of the movie). The middle section is shapeless and doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but the final segment, about a group of marines ambushed by an unseen sniper, is extremely well done: you feel as if you are there with them. It's an uneven, often obvious, but still powerful film. *** out of 4.