"What Are We? Lost?"

Rating: Null/10 (31 March 1999)

This is a remarkable film. It could be described as two films - the Boot Camp story of a 1967 draft of marine recruits, then the entirely separate tale of marines in combat in Vietnam. It is a film about disorientation, about struggling to make sense of the senseless: Private Pyle flounders hopelessly and never gets into the Marine Corps mindset, then later Joker and the others lose their way in the weird wonderland of war-ravaged Hue. These failures to comprehend are metaphors for America's national bewilderment.
With its first image, the film seizes our attention. Recruits are having their hair shaved off. We watch young men being stripped of their individuality while an incongruous country tune extols the war effort. Country music is inaccessible to these boys, appealing as it does (in 1967, anyway) to an older generation, and the song's unquestioning patriotism is at odds with the sentiments of many youngsters scooped up in the draft. This clash of opposites, and its resulting confusion, will be a recurring motif throughout the film.
The drill instructor (Lee Ermey) transcends the stereotypes to give us a bravura performance. This cruel, foul-mouthed monster is, paradoxically, admirable and very funny. That the infliction of such misery should provide a string of belly-laughs is central to the film's purpose. Our objectivity is impaired because we are both attracted to and repelled by Sergeant Hartman.
Kubrick was famously uninterested in actors. His concerns were always the wider ones, the movement of events which sweeps the humans along. It is 20 minutes into the film before anybody speaks as a person (as opposed to a military automaton). If the culmination of the Boot Camp saga is a little too sensational, it is certainly well depicted. The sense of loss and foreboding carries us forward to Vietnam.
Private Joker (Matthew Modine) is now a journalist in the Marine Corps, another instance of dislocation - he must both fight and comment on the fighting. His habit of slipping into 'John Wayne' has its significance - he retains an ironic perspective on the USA's war aims, but is also very much involved in doing his bit at the sharp end of the war.
The Tet Offensive has stuttered into being and died. The Americans seem to be reasserting control in 'their' Vietnam, but in reality the death-blow has been delivered to American morale. Marines will continue to fight and die, but henceforth this unwinnable war will be in its endgame. The nightmare panorama of Hue symbolises the quagmire of the war, as does the lone sniper who pins down a Marine unit with ease: the big military machine is powerless against its tiny adversary, and nothing makes any sense.
The ancient capital city of Vietnam, Hue was of enormous psychological importance to both sides in the conflict. Its position close to the DMZ made it a barometer of the war's progress. The communists captured and held it during 'Tet', a devastating blow to the South's credibility. The clearing of the city by the Americans was a laborious, long drawn out affair.
The Hue of the film is astonishing. These scenes were filmed in London's derelict docklands, out of which Kubrick has created an entirely convincing 'nowhere', an eerie tangle of shattered concrete which burns - literally - like hell. The marines cannot find their way through this meaningless wasteland, another symbol of the national loss of proportion and purpose. Striding back out of this gloomy moonscape, the marines sing the Mickey Mouse Song with gusto. It is hard to know whether the grunts are being ironic about American values, or whether this is just another symptom of the crazy disorientation everybody is undergoing.
A lot of films have taken us through Boot Camp, sounding off about comradeship, self-discovery and the American Way of soldiering. A lot have tried to deal with Vietnam, but none has succeeded in providing palatable conclusions. For me, "Full Metal Jacket" will stand the test of time, because it alone captures the disorientation which is at the core of the Vietnam experience.
There are many like it, but this one is mine.