Kubrick Takes Us Through Boot Camp

Rating: Null/10 (20 June 2008)

Stanley Kubrick jumped on the Vietnam band wagon that was raging in the mid-1980s and delivered this schizophrenic movie. The first half is about the brainwashing of a platoon of draftees during boot camp led by perhaps the most memorable screen drill sergeant in history; the second half follows this platoon as they head off into the war. The first half is fascinating and feels distinctly like a Kubrick film; the second half feels like a hundred other combat films.
The biggest problem with "Full Metal Jacket" is that it was made too late. By the time Kubrick got around to this, Francis Ford Coppola had long since given us "Apocalypse Now" and Michael Cimino "The Deer Hunter." Those two movies alone contain so much iconic imagery about Vietnam (Coppola's especially), that no Vietnam film since has shown us something we haven't seen before. That's why the first half of Kubrick's film is so good -- it portrays a part of the war that frequently gets left out, the deliberate dehumanization that begins while recruits are still safely on American soil. The film deflates after the boot camp sequences and never totally recovers.
But still, this IS a Kubrick film after all, and it's still very good, despite its flaws. It's certainly way better than the Vietnam film from the 80s that everyone remembers most, Oliver Stone's "Platoon".
Grade: B+