Probably my all-time favorite movie

Rating: 10/10 (1 June 2000)

Kubrick obviously didn't like women, or at least didn't understand them. That quibble aside, he was, without question, a remarkable director and filmmaker. Thus, when you apply his considerable talent to a very male-dominated story (marines in Vietnam), you get one of the greatest movies ever made.
Simply put, this is a masterpiece. You laugh at the over-the-top ravings of a drill seargent as he pushes a group of young men through boot camp. But this film is like a sore ribcage; it makes you pay for laughing. Overall, Full Metal Jacket is an eclectic mix of darkly humorous and dark, period. The soundtrack is creepy, and the visual aesthetic is creepy. The existential content of the film creepy. It's a movie I will think about until the day I die. Because films are so diverse in style and content, I find myself unable to state definitively that one movie is THE greatest movie ever made. However, Full Metal Jacket is probably my favorite movie. If you have not yet seen it, you most certainly should.
Gustav Hasford's The Short Timers (on which Full Metal Jacket was loosely based), is worth reading as well.