Brilliant first half, mediocre second half. Still an impressive movie, that made me sick to my stumach, in a "good" way...

Rating: 8/10 (29 September 2019)

The FIRST PART:
featuring the military training of new American soldiers destined for Vietnam is gripping, sickening, real and basically sums up the whole destructive power of war, while the soldiers havent even left America.
The intense drilling and dehumanizing of the soldiers during training in America is being portrayed with such chilling excellence, that it even gives a better understanding of the destructiveness of warfare, than showing real combat on the battlefield. It would have sufficed had director Kubrick only made an entire movie about nothing else but the training of soldiers in America. Unfortunately he didnt. This movie breaks in half in 2 parts.
The SECOND PART:
Kubrick is NOT an action director. He is a subtle, intelligent director for whom dialogue and character interaction are most important. The first part had all these qualities of true to life dialogue and great character interaction. In the second part however, trying to portray characters interact with each other during action combat scenes looks out of place at times. The photography and the film set (London) didnt look convincing at moments either, which detracts from the credibility of the combat scenes. The acting performances were a bit off as well in the second part, although it does end with a magnificent, yet sickening climax. Sickening in an impressive true to life kind of way, portraying the real horrors of war...
Despite the flawed second part it is still a very impressive movie, which I would recommend, because it trashes any beliefs that war is a glorious battle. Full Metal Jacket shows detailed personal suffering, until it makes me "sick". That "sick" feeling is Full Metal Jacket's best characteristic...because war is personal hell, multiplied by millions...