The bravura opening section is enough reason to watch this

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2014)

Stanley Kubrick anti-war film Full Metal Jacket was one of a cycle of 80's movies that focused on the war in Vietnam. As is typical of the director it has a meticulous attention to detail. It's a film in two acts, the first is set in a training boot-camp in America and the second part is set in Vietnam proper. In both scenarios we follow a group of young marines. The movie has an unusual dynamic in that the first section is by far the stronger. It's a harrowing account of the way that young recruits are dehumanized as part of a training programme designed to turn them into merciless killers. This section is primarily about two people – Sergeant Hartman the drill instructor and Private Pyle the simple-minded recruit who suffers a nightmare trying to conform. R. Lee Ermey - an actual ex drill instructor – is unforgettable as Hartman. He is equally terrifying and hilarious. Scary because he is so convincing and his heavy tactics are so harsh but funny in that the inventively profane dialogue he constantly barks out is often pretty amusing in a black comedy sense. The way that Kubrick handles this section is perfection and events progress to an unforgettable climax.
The second half of the movie can only suffer by comparison. It's far more conventional and closer to other standard war films. I think one issue is that Matthew Modine's Private Joker is simply no match to the Hartman/Pyle dramatic axis that underpins the first half. Joker comes across as a smart aleck and not particularly interesting, although in truth none of the marines from the second half of the movie really feel very likable or easy to empathise with and this does effect the dynamic a little. But the story also loses overall focus in the latter half and sort of peters out to a certain extent. This is not to say that there isn't anything good about this part of the film because it's still very well made with several good set-pieces but its flaws ensure that the film as a whole falls short of the masterpiece it could have been given the excellence of the opening act.