From boys to men to boys

Rating: 6/10 (3 August 2013)

Events of dehumanization as learned scene by scene as coldly dictated by director Stanley Kubrick. Our Marines are always rallying around something white trying to hold onto their own values, themselves and, overall, their sanity. Much like "The Deer Hunter", this anti-war film is broken down into two parts, one prior to war, and then into the beast itself. While one movie shone an extra light on those stateside, Full Metal Jacket stayed with our boys and to what was left of themselves; their boyhood instincts (to defend each other) and their Mickey Mouse marches which drove the point home. This cold film doesn't bring you into each character as others might, but war is not about one person, is it? It is full of dogma (first to go, last to know), direction (our marines got lost) and dehumanization (see the first hour alone to hear the non-stop rant of Gunnery Seargent Hartman (Lee Ermey). Brutal and darkly funny, this is what I held onto as our narrator, Joker (Mathew Modine) is simply trying to fend off the brainwash, while it bounced off of Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) whose story tells us all Kubrick needed to say. That is why the second half of the film in Viet Nam seemed only to serve the audience a follow up and adventure as to what happened to some of our original boot camp marines. I still found the film both detached and personal, as if I was trying to fend off the disgracing of my viewers' soul. I like this film due to that internal struggle of whether or not to view war as acceptable.