Kubrick returns to war

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2008)

Upon viewing Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" for the third time, and first time with a more critical approach, I found that this isn't a movie about war as much as it is about soldiers and the military mind. The war in pretty much incidental. It is just there because a movie about soldiers without some mention of war would be incomplete: it is was soldiers are meant for. It is what they are prepared and trained for. Then when the time comes and war starts, the soldiers go to work for better or worse.
This film doesn't glorify war nor does it really vilify it. War is horrible, no question about it. Many good people die, though many end up living. Many bad people die, though many end up living. Many friendships are broken due to loss, though many are formed through camaraderie. As I said before, the film is about the soldiers and upon viewing this film you can see what soldiers have to do as a part of their job. Thus, it is no mistake that the ever perfectionist director Stanley Kubrick chose Vietnam as his film's war-zone. It was an enormously complex era in the US military with many people for the war and many against. It was also a time when military training was different then it is now and the Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is an embodiment of that past. He cannot be vilified since he does what he was trained to do and does it out of necessity. Same with all the other soldiers, thus it is not the soldiers who should be blamed. It's the upper brass who deserve blame and Kubrick leaves them out of the film probably since he wasn't trying to point fingers at anyone or anything. Even with films like 'A Clockwark Orange' it is apparent that Kubrick would rather present the problem from many sides and then let his own audience engage in the analysis. He was director who engaged his audience and he did it very well.
What he was trying to say was an anti-war message, but only in part. The bulk of the matter at hand is that you give credit where credit is due and credit is due when work has been done. And who does the work, the real tough and dirty work in a war? The soldiers, and they go through hell doing it. Some don't make it even out of basic training let alone war. Thus, it is a good idea to support your troops, but question the war. --- 9/10
Rated R for violence and profanity. Ages 13+