a great war film, if not the best ever made

Rating: 10/10 (25 May 2002)

From the dehumanizing of boot camp, to the battered cities of Viet Nam, the viewer follows a compassionate Pvt. Joker. Through this dark journey, and with Kubrick's ability to control absolutely everything to fit the film, he creates a highly detailed and realistic war atmosphere. Not only does Kubrick create in rich detail the "world of s**t" that soldiers live in, he puts you right there with them. Kubrick creates the enveloping sensation of being there as few Directors can. Beginning with the training and on to the real thing, you are the soldier. The action is highly satisfying, and as a bonus in this genre of movies, the film is also thematically pleasing. Kubrick's film-making genius allows him to make a war movie which greatly bypasses the usual substance one finds in such a film. Most movies in this genre will present the viewer with a basic "war is hell" theme, and back it up with loud, violent combat action. In Full Metal Jacket Stanley Kubrick looks, as he usually does, deeper into the human disposition. In this case, war's true affect on human nature. With Full Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick takes the highly controversial events of the Viet Nam war, and portrays it in a way to show us the things which we often wish to ignore. Although, with all the dark images presented, Kubrick still leaves the viewer with a grateful view of life. Kubrick, as has been said many times before, is genius.