Almost Like A Documentary

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2005)

FULL METAL JACKET is a great movie, but despite what the critics or other fellow users might have written, this is NOT the best Viet Nam movie. FMJ has an almost "documentary" like feel to it. You can pretty much cut the movie in halves; the first one being the brutal boot camp training the draftees have to go through. Lee Emrey's role as the brutal D.I. is perhaps the movie's most memorable performance. The second half is basically on-the-field action of some sorts. Don't expect bodies being hacked and maimed in a non-stop barrage of bullets and shrapnel. What we get instead is the camaraderie that exists between the soldiers, what their views are of this war (which are quite disparate!). It is during this last half that FMJ adopts a "documentary" feel. True, the very few combat scenes are done with the grace and excellence that Stanley Kubrik is well known for. The eerie orchestral music will remind you of THE SHINING and some "period" music (Sixties Pop) is thrown in for good measure.
I haven't seen PLATOON, which many say it is THE ultimate Viet Nam War movie, but if you ask me which movie deserves that praise, I'd probably say THE KILLING FIELDS or maybe even THE DEERHUNTER. Still, FULL METAL JACKET is a very entertaining movie that views the Viet Nam war from a different perspective.