This film neither blows nor sucks: it punches the viewer right in the gut

Rating: 10/10 (26 July 2007)

"In Vietnam the wind doesn't blow, it sucks". This not-so-subtle tag-line (which actually led to some posters being censored in Canada) was used to advertise one of the most brutal war films ever made, one that still resonates with rage and gravitas: Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.
Based on Gustav Hasford's novel The Short-Timers, the movie can be distinctly divided in two sections. The first one takes place on Perris Island, a boot camp facility where newly recruited Marines are trained before going to fight in Vietnam. It is a brutal training, its aim being solely to turn innocent men into killing machines, and the lifelessness these soldiers are moving towards is evident from the opening sequence, where they all get their heads shaved without as much as blinking. That, however, is nothing compared to how they must put up with their instructor's foul-mouthed orders: Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) is one of the scariest film characters of all time, his verbal abuse of every single soldier, especially an obese kid he renames Pvt. Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio), being much worse than anything they could possibly experience in Asia.
This point is proved in the movie's second half, entirely set in the 'Nam, where Pvt. Joker (Matthew Modine), having completed his training, leads the rest of the unit in a series of bloody missions, behaving in a way that openly contradicts the nickname he was given by Hartman.
Kubrick made another war movie at the beginning of his career, and though Paths of Glory (1957) resembles FMJ in its open anti-militaristic position, those two films couldn't be more different: the WWI drama dealt with the injustice of war that takes place outside the battlefield, while Jacket explores the effect of conflicts on the human psyche. In fact, it can be said that the film's analysis of mental distortion is a sort of expansion of themes previously covered in A Clockwork Orange and The Shining, the director's almost morbid passion for humanity's downfall being at its most explicit in those features (there are also echoes of 2001 in the legendary bathroom scene, HAL's actions being mirrored by one of the soldiers).
Strangely, though, the build-up turns out to be more shocking and memorable than the pay-off, the Vietnam section clearly suffering from Ermey's absence. The most frightening thing about his performance is of course the fact that he isn't acting: a real Marines instructor who was hired as a consultant for the picture's first half, Ermey was so committed to the job Kubrick hired him on the spot. It is not hard to see why: there aren't that many actors who could be able to shout obscenities the way he does, relentlessly, without ever repeating himself or hesitating (that he also improvised a large part, perhaps even all, of his dialogue adds to the character's iconic status). Thus, how powerful and unflinching it may be, the movie feels a little weak once he's out of the picture (pun not intended). Also impressive is D'Onofrio: best known for Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Men in Black, his portrayal of the miserable, incredibly overweight Pyle (the actor reportedly gained so much weight he actually injured himself during the shoot because he was too heavy) is among the most gripping ever seen in any film, especially when Hartman's violent methods start ripping out his humanity.
Apocalypse Now is a great film for its seemingly mythological take on the Vietnam war; Platoon is a milestone because it shows the conflict exactly as it was, unfiltered and brutal; as for Full Metal Jacket, it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath for showing that not all insanity starts in the war zone: sometimes it is woken up earlier, by our very own fellow countrymen.
9,5/10