a prime example of why Kubrick is over rated....

Rating: 6/10 (9 September 2001)

'Full Metal Jacket', like every other Kubrick film, is full of great imagery and fine performances, most notably here from the always fantastic D'Onofrio. What is also the case with every Kubrick film is the uneven pace with which the movie progresses. There are always great scenes, and then long droughts that are sluggishly paced. This movie has a few great scenes, most of which are in the first half of the movie, all in the bootcamp.

The first forty five minutes or so, which do take place in the bootcamp, are brutal to watch. D'Onofrio is fantastic as the tortured Pyle. The rest of his "brothers" are good as well. The bootcamp scenes are probably the most realistic and brutal ones ever shot of such events. The cruelty exerted upon everyone by the drill sergeant is shown without softening anything up. It shows how people are trained to be killers and how the army(or marines)take ordinary people and systematically break them down. It is very well acted, shot, directed and executed. The first forty five minutes were great, and the last scene in the bootcamp is extremely powerful. After that it is all downhill.
The last hour or so is just a basic Vietnam movie. Its really nothing that you wouldn't see in movies such as 'Platoon', or the great 'Apocalypse Now'. There is much devestation, and issues of morality. Almost all of the scenery is on fire and engulfed in a thick black smoke. No originality at all, and the pace slows down to a crawl. It becomes another pretentious Kubrick vehicle that is self serving, and to be honest, bland and rather boring. On top of that, I thought that the musical choices at the end of the movie were rather horrible and out of place as well. However, if you do sit through the rather boring and standard hour, you will get the only good scene in the section, which also happens to be pretty much the last scene in the movie. But it was a really good scene.
Had the movie been more bootcamp, or only forty five minutes long, I would highly recommend it. As it stands, I feel Kubrick is highly over rated and generally ruins his films with his own pretention. If you want a good vietnam movie, watch 'Apocalypse Now', as they don't get any better than that. It has the same issues, but its absolutely a great movie, and 'Full Metal Jacket' is not. I will give it 6 out of 10, but that is mostly for the bootcamp section of the movie.