Not Up To Kubrick's Usual Brilliance

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2009)

"Dr. Strangelove" director Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" qualifies a cynical, blistering, and profane expose of the U.S. Marine Corps, its dehumanizing mentality, and the amoral experience of the Vietnam War. Sadly, despite the talent involved, "Full Metal Jacket" doesn't eviscerate the Vietnam War with either the same intensity or insight as either Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" or Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter." The cast consists of unknown newcomers, including Mathew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, Dorian Harwood, Arliss Howard, John Terry, and Ed O'Ross. D'Onofrio delivers the best performance as a crazy recruit, while former Drill Sergeant R.L. Emery steals the show. His dialogue and use of rampant profanity will stick in your mind long after this film fades. Kubrick makes good use of the Nancy Sinatra tune "These Boots Were Made for Walking."
Taking Gustav Hasford's minor novel "The Short Timers," Kubrick penned the screenplay with Hasford and Michael Herr. The first 45 minutes takes place on Parris Island in a Marine Boot Camp where a Looney tunes drill sergeant subjects his raw recruits to the worst that he can dish and turns into killers. Indeed, the first scene shows the principal actors for the Boot Camp scene getting their heads shaved clean in a barber shop. The second half occurs in Vietnam before the Tet Offensive.
Amazingly, Kubrick—because he hated to leave England—lensed the entire film on location in England. Unfortunately, the riveting first half at Parris Island overshadows the second half in Vietnam, and the film concludes rather lamely with a drawn-out sequence involving a female sniper who pins down our heroes in an urban setting. Incidentally, as surprising as it is when she is revealed as the sniper, it is interesting to note that Private Joker (Mathew Modine) foreshadows this revelation as the outset of the Vietnam sequence when he observes that NVA officers are sometimes women. Several memorable scenes occur in the Vietnam sequence, particularly when Private Joker questions the helicopter gunship gunner how he can kill women and children. His response that he leads them more is ghoulish. Private Joker's run in with a high ranking officer about his helmet plastered with stickers is funny, too. The soundtrack boasts several Top 40 hits from the era that fit in with the storyline, especially Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking."
What a letdown for Kubrick.