Half a film from half a genius

Rating: 4/10 (27 July 2002)

Kubrick must rank with Hitchcock as the most overrated director of our time. Full Metal Jacket is one of his pretentious half-failures. The first part of the movie is quite compelling. The real-life drill sargeant is so good that we overlook the fact that the other characters might as well be carrying cardboard sandwiches with what symbol they are supposed to represent. The second part of the film is supposed to, I think, contrast the chaos and reality of the battlefield to the order and artificiality of the parade ground. This was done beautifully in Kurosawa's two masterful scenes in Ran. Needless to say, Kubrick is no Kurosawa, and is not up to the task. The man has no understanding of how to shoot an action sequence, or how real people, not symbols interact. This artificiality, which was tolerable in the first part makes the second part completely laughable. I once saw a very good snippet of Godard (himself vastly overrated..), comparing shot by shot, the sniper scene with real footage from Vietnam and lamenting upon how static, sterile, and lacking in excitement the Kubrick version is. I think all the weaknesses are summarized in the "surprise" climax of the film which I found to be completely out of place and as dated as the film and its director. The years have been much kinder to Platoon, or even Apocalypse Now.