First Kubrick film I've ever watched, pretty dam good

Rating: 9/10 (15 October 2018)

Stanley Kubrick has made many movies that people either love or hate, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Eyes Wide Shut, movies that are not very popular but are liked by some people, Barry Lyndon, Dr. Strangelove, Paths of Glory, and there are his movies that everyone pretty much loves, The Shining, and the movie I will be reviewing today, Full Metal Jacket. I picked this up at my local library on blu ray and watched it on a friday night. On the way home, my dad asked me what movie I got, I showed him the blu ray, and he was like "that's a very good movie" and yeah that was all. Watching Full Metal Jacket, it didn't remind me of other good war films I've seen. It was very different from Saving Private Ryan, Dunkirk, Hacksaw Ridge, it is really unique, probably the most unique war film I've ever seen. The storytelling and the elements in the story about the Vietnam war really made it raw. That's how I'd describe the movie, raw. R. Lee Ermey really gave one of the best performances in history in this movie, in my opinion. Even though he was on screen for about 15 minutes, he made those 15 minutes so intense, so great, and gives the movie dark comedic scenes. I think his performance as Sgt. Hartman is one of the best performances of all time. Vincent D'Onofrio's performance as a private that struggles in the beginning of the movie because of military training camp being too hard for him, and R. Lee Ermey's character being a hard mentor, challenging Vincent D'Onofrio's character physically and mentally, it is really compelling stuff. The part where he shoots Sgt. Hartman, then shoots himself, is one of the most jaw dropping scenes of all time. The look on Vincent D'Onofrio's face in that scene haunted me for the rest of that night. There is also another main character in this movie named Joker, (that's his nickname). He is in this military camp with Vincent D'Onofrio's character, and he goes through this camp, watching horrific things happen, you really get into the shoes of this character. The next acts of this movie is Joker going to Vietnam and experiencing the war. This part of the movie was really different from the first part back on Parris Island. A lot of people thought this 2nd part of the movie was not as good as the first part, but I thought both parts were great. The Vietnam war was portrayed so rough and raw in this movie, it was pretty breathtaking. The message/allegory of this story was so beautiful and 100% true, it really makes me look at war differently. The only issue I have with this movie is that I thought the movie really dragged at the middle of the film. Not much things were going on, there wasn't really much of a direction either, it just kind of felt like the story was going nowhere. Other than that, I thought this movie was really good. 9/10