Not a great film, but one that's provocative and serious.

Rating: 7/10 (15 August 2001)

Bizarre yet fairly entertaining perspective from one Marine, Joker (Matthew Modine who is also the film's narrator) who fought in the Vietnam War. The late Stanley Kubrick who directed the movie, divided it into two seperate parts (one for basic training and the other one based only in combat) or three if you want to count to reporting in the field.

One of the problems that I had with the movie is that it lacked appeal and to top that off, the drill instructer, Hartman (R. Lee Ermey, a former D.I. in real life) spends most of his time, shouting out nasty and outrageous comments towards some of the men. He even gives out nicknames to some men for any reason like Cowboy (Arliss Howard), who is from Texas. And the one who is targeted the most by Hartman is Vincent D'Ofornio, whose character is dubbed "Gomer Pyle". D'Ofornio's character is a bit on the pudgy side and struggles at just about everything except for sharpshooting.
After he survives basic training, Joker is a member of "Stars and Stripes", a militarized version of a magazine like "TIME" or "Newsweek". Modine unleashes some gentle and colorful humor to superior officer here even though the John Wayne impersonations are lame.
During one assignment in the city of Hue during the Tet Offensive, Joker and his partner, Rafterman (Kevin Major Howard), a photographer find the infantry unit that Cowboy is in and introduces themselves to the unit. Nearly all the members have unusual nicknames and my favorite one of the bunch is Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin), who is the unit's wily gunner and the first meeting that he has with Joker is hilarious as the two swap questions and putdowns.
This half is much better than the first as the unit patrol a part of the city which lies in ruins due to the severe fighting. Kubrick gradually lets the suspense and fear build and it works wonderfully. The best exhibit of that when Joker quietly confronts a sniper.
The performances here are nice, but the best parts of the film is Abigail Mead's score, a mix of oldies and composed bits are great and Doug Milsome's cinematography is done to sheer genius. "FULL METAL JACKET" may not be a great film, but one that's provoctive and serious.