About individualism at war. A memorable work, except for voiceover.

Rating: 10/10 (1 July 2004)

(SPOILERS! I pretty much describe what happens in the movie)
Its structure mirrors the experience of the individual at war. Not the entire war like Griffith's Birth of a Nation, not the family at war like The Patriot or Saving Private Ryan, or a platoon like The Thin Red Line or Platoon, but a very individual individual: as in an American who values his individual values and personal expression (Matthew Modine). What is his place in war - which is a collective institution, something the United States is not naturally. The US values individualism, which is the conflict at the centre of Full Metal Jacket.
The movie is all about the relation between the individual and the group: you start off by yourself in the barber's chair, yet to the barber (and to the audience, during the credits), you're just another face in a long line of anonymous recruits. Without realising it yet, you've already lost your individuality. Then, during basic training, you're with a misleadingly cohesive and small group of people, and the hard-ass drill-seargent (in a memorable turn from a real drill seargent that Kubrick hired to put the actors through realistic basic training and liked him so much he decided to use him in the movie) tries to make you all look and act the same, the way he wants you to act. But basic training ends, and you don't necessarily see the same people again - so we don't. Many characters we never meet again. Matthew Modine, being an individual, chooses the only way to express yourself at war, journalism. Then, when Modine finally goes out into the field, its not a large-scale depiction of an important manouevre, but a small-scale, just a small group moving around until they get into trouble, without any idea of the relevance of their specific actions in the large picture of the war.
I love Full Metal Jacket - its another highly sculpted and architectured work by Kubrick - and an unforgettable one, with great music. I always find the last part particularly visceral - with the sniper. A great metaphor for the uselessness of war. The group are not achieving anything by moving through this area, its just a routine movement from place to place, but they get themselves one by one knocked down by a sniper, because they can't just walk away, they can't stop themselves from involving themselves. And when they finally meet the enemy (SPOILERS WARNING!), they are nothing like they imagined - hardly a menace at all.
My only regret about Full Metal Jacket is the voiceover. You know how you sometimes listen to a voiceover and its really obvious that the actor who's speaking it has not made the film yet, or has no idea of his character, or anything to do with the situation. Matthew Modine's voiceover stands out for me as the single worst example of this, particularly in a phenomenal picture like Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.
9/10.