A Film Of Two Halves

Rating: 7/10 (1 September 2002)

FULL METAL JACKET has one of the most bizarre structures in film history. The first half of FMJ is rightly regarded as being one of the great segments of cinema . Kubrick/Herr/Hasford`s razor sharp script takes us on a blackly comical tour of the horrors of basic training with Sergeant Hartman , private Joker and Leonard Lawrence being the central characters , but then the film cuts to the battlefields of `Nam with only a couple of characters like Joker and Cowboy linking the two segments . Also disappearing is much of the first half`s wit with only the irony of American firepower bringing down tower blocks in retaliation to a sniper being the only real clever and knowing aspect to the script . It`s confusing too because with the exception of Joker and co. the rest of the film doesn`t really tie in with the basic training segment , perhaps the film would have worked a lot better if the entire film was taken up with the basic training ? And I can`t help noticing that much of the terrain doesn`t really resemble the jungles of South East Asia , as everyone knows FMJ was filmed in and around London and it often shows. Still it`s a film worth watching if only for the basic training scenes which are certainly more convincing than those seen in HEARTBREAK RIDGE . A couple of questions though ...
If there`s any former USMC men out there could you write in and tell us how realistic the training scenes are ?
I used to be in the army myself ( Royal Engineers ) but we never EVER called instructors " Sir " . In fact if someone in the British army made that mistake they`d receive the reply " Don`t f****** call me sir . I work for a living " along with a few other choice insults . Is it a common practice for American recruits to call their instructors " Sir " ?