Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2001)

Throughout his life, director Stanley Kubrick made films that got people talking, both pro and con. FULL METAL JACKET is one such example. Though far less emotional and much more analytical than any film about the Vietnam war, this film is nevertheless a brilliant piece.
The first 40 minutes of this film deal with Marine boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. And they deal with it in a way that no previous film ever dealt with it, thanks to Lee Ermey's inventive and scathingly vicious, profanity-laden performance as Drill Instructor Hartman. We see the recruits torn down and built up into remorseless killing machines, praying for war. But one of them, the overweight Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio), is about to show us how a remorseless killing machine can malfunction due to one slight imperfection.
Once the scene shifts to Vietnam, we find ourselves in the middle of the Tet Offensive, and the realization, as seen by the characters portrayed by Matthew Modine, Arliss Howard, and others, that war is most certainly hell. The most horrifying part is when the platoon led by Howard is caught off guard in the bombed out city of Hue by a VC sniper. It is there that the true mettle of these men is revealed.
A lot of reviewers have mentioned that the first forty minutes of FULL METAL JACKET make the last 76 minutes seem routine by comparison. I don't think that's the case. Kubrick is very remorseless in his war scenes and how he handles the violence. Certainly he takes his swipes at the military in a scathing way reminiscent of DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, and, thanks to Modine, even rips John Wayne's flag-waving patriotism apart ("Is that you John Wayne? Is this me?). In truth, however, unlike a lot of war films, even PLATOON, Kubrick's film is not merely anti-war, it's apolitical; it does not take sides on the issue. Complimented by solid acting and a faithful recreation of the Hue battle (filmed in an abandoned gas works plant near Kubrick's home base of London), FULL METAL JACKET is a riveting movie, a must-see for those who appreciate great filmmaking from a consumate master.