Wonderfully thought provoking

Rating: 8/10 (8 June 2019)

Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is celebrated as one of the best depictions of the Vietnam War and perfectly captures the dehumanizing process of war. The movie is essentially split up into two halves, the first half set in a bootcamp and depicting the main characters being humiliated and hardened into killing machines for the US marines. While the second half focuses on the soldiers after they have been deployed in VIetnam and now the war has a dehumanizing effect on the soldiers.
The performances are great, from Vincent D'Onofrio's pvt. Pyle to R. Lee Ermey's Sgt. Hartman to Matthew Modine as Pvt. Joker, all of whom delivered stellar performances that indicate the great machine that is the military boot camp system and war as a whole, its effects on the human psyche.
Over the years there has been countless analysis and breakdowns of Full Metal Jacket, its themes and what it all means. I think that just goes to show the brilliance of Kubrick, to him it isn't about giving audiences a question and an answer but to present us with a rhetorical question that we can sit with and discuss amongst each other. I really enjoy the ambiguity of each key scene yet it is presented in such a way that as an audience you wouldn't just take for what it is, there is a sense that everything means more than face value and thus, is the beauty of Full Metal Jacket.