A Masterpiece? No, but it has it's moments

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2006)

Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is, to many people, regarded as being a "masterpiece" or a "classic". What I believe is that it's overrated. It's an okay film overall, but it shows us nothing new about the Vietnam war that we haven't already seen in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now or Oliver Stone's Platoon. The only thing new or memorable about Full Metal Jacket is R. Lee Ermey's unforgettable performance as a foul-mouthed, tough-as-nails drill sergeant. That's the one thing people will always remember about Full Metal Jacket. The opening scenes in boot camp are pretty interesting, but once the film actually gets to the war it isn't as memorable, or as great as other films have certainly captured the Vietnam war. It has a few moments where it touches greatness, but as a whole the film suffers quite a bit.
Another problem with Full Metal Jacket is the lack of interesting or decent characters. I didn't particularly like any of the soldiers in this film, which is a first. None of them are really worth cheering for. And when we get towards the end and they're getting killed off it's hard to have any real sympathy for them. The desired emotion Kubrick wants is for us to care, and to feel sad for them dying and getting shot up, but I sit there, emotionless, not caring. This is to war films, what a comedy is that doesn't make you laugh pretty much pointless. The good war films, the memorable war films allow you to sympathize with the soldiers getting killed, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and even the recent Jarhead can accomplish this, but sadly Kubrick's film does not. Then again maybe that's what Kubrick intended for all along, but if so why?
I think Full Metal Jacket, as a war film is okay, but I don't see what many people hail as being brilliant about it. It follows a pretty familiar path that many Vietnam films have followed before, and doesn't show us much that we haven't already seen. The stuff in the beginning with Leonard(played by Vincent D'Onofrio), a private whose tormented and driven psychotic is still quite haunting and memorable, but again, the beginning are the only truly captivating moments of this film. Full Metal Jacket adds to the war genre, but doesn't improve upon it, at least that's what I think.