a superb, grim, cold, moving film

Rating: 10/10 (8 October 2006)

A preliminary note: anyone who liked this movie well enough to read comments should know that a considerable amount of detail in both it and _Apocalypse Now_ had origins in a 1968 Japanese novel called Into a Black Sun, by a Japanese war correspondent working in Vietnam at the time. It took about 20 years to be translated into English, but it's in American paperback now. I recommend it.
I just saw this movie for the first time since it was deployed in movie theaters in '87. As then, I was knocked out by what a great film it is. I can't help but contrast it with such movies as Apocalypse Now and Barbarians At The Gate, both movies that I admire, but let's face it, they are florid and melodramatic. Full Metal Jacket is anything but. It is so cold and hard in tone that it freezes your bones. At the same time, both the cinematography and sound track are so good, so effective, that the watcher can't look away from the movie.
This is classic Kubrick, in my opinion: the correct correlation of visual and audio information, with a plot that is so horrifying that one lies awake for awhile.