I Am Become Death

Rating: 8/10 (21 April 2008)

After a gruelling marine training programme, the flippant Private Joker finds himself a military journalist covering the US-North Vietnam war in 1968. When he hooks up with a platoon on a search and destroy mission in Hue City, he finds he will need all his courage, intelligence and humour to stay alive and sane ...
This is arguably the greatest war film ever made; anybody anywhere thinking of joining the military should see it first before signing up. The incredible thing about it is that dramatically it's not in the least bit realistic - like all Kubrick's work it's highly stylised and meticulously orchestrated - and yet somehow it's also the most realistic film anyone's ever made about combat, military training and what it really means to be a solider. Based on the book The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford, and brilliantly scripted by Kubrick and Michael Herr, it unflinchingly shows what happens to men in extreme circumstances and how the dehumanising process of training affects them differently; Joker escapes through his sardonic humour and Pyle simply goes insane - these two performances by Modine and D'Onofrio are simply outstanding in every respect. The entire ensemble are great but there are two other memorable turns, by Ermey as the hard-as-nails drill instructor in the first half and Baldwin as the psychotic Animal Mother in the second. Much of the film's authentic atmosphere is due to Ermey, a former real-life marine, who was the technical adviser on the movie, trained the cast and delivers a performance from which there is simply no escape. The photography is simply breathtaking in its fluidity and composition. Every frame is artfully rendered and almost every scene is powerful and hypnotic. The blue nightmare of Pyle's beating, the unforgettable murder-suicide confrontation, Animal Mother's astonishing charge towards the sniper's hideout, the down-and-dirty tracking shots through smoky ruins; all are brilliantly constructed. Astonishingly for a story set in Vietnam, virtually all of the location shooting was done in east London in condemned factories, retro-fitted and dressed to look the part thanks to brilliant art direction work by Anton Furst. Only Kubrick would have the audacity to pull of such a masterstroke (he lived just outside London and hated going on location) and the results are breathtaking. The eerily effective electronic music was composed by Kubrick's daughter Vivian (using the pseudonym Abigail Mead), combined with highly effective period songs, particularly Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones. Trivia - the voice of Murphy, the radio dispatcher, is none other than Stan the Man himself. This is a tough movie for sure - there aren't many chuckles and it doesn't have anything complimentary to say about the human race - but its drama is potent and profound. Part of Kubrick's genius was not to preach in his films, but to simply present his stories and his characters and encourage us to judge them for ourselves. Full Metal Jacket is about what conflict really does to people. Too many war films moralise, simplify, omit the unpalatable and show actions without consequences; this movie puts us through the wringer, forces us to identify with people we'd rather not, and weaves an intense suspenseful story of the depths of human folly. Outstanding.