A Classic Because of What it Does Not Try to Be

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2002)

With a hole-proof script by a brilliant director (Stanley Kubrick) and two veteran soldiers and writers (Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford), it is no doubt that the product they would create would be flawless. "Full Metal Jacket" was crafted to sheer unglorified perfection. Its vivid portrayal of life in the hell of a 1960's bootcamp and to the grizzly life of Vietnam in the 1968 Tet Offensive is one that looks right in the eyes of the unaware naive viewer and dares them to look deeper. "Full Metal Jacket" is a classic in its own right, not because of what it attempts to be, but because of what it doesn't: the film does not try to glorify war with long speeches and cliched roles praising "good guys killing the enemy." If there was ever a movie that paid meticulous attention to every crescendo and decrescendo of its environment, then this is it: "Full Metal Jacket" is both full of careful detail and spontaneous genius. Probably the best, and only decent, film of the 1980's Vietnam War backlash.