my view of this film

Rating: Null/10 (1 June 1999)

What can I say? The 25 or so minutes starting with the boats coming upon the shore of Omaha beach are 25 minutes that I will never forget. The carnage and desensitization of Tom Hanks is breathtaking.
I tend to agree that the plot is very thin on this film, but its main redeeming value is how the traumatic events that occur in this film shape each character. Although everyone does an astounding job as far as the cast goes, Giovanni Ribisi embodies the WWII soldier the best. His portrayal as the medic is splendid, his performance makes his character seem as if he is the only one of the 8 soldiers with a shred of humanity left, telling the others to cover up the dog tags as a mass of soldiers march by, staring at the dog tags laid out across the table. His demise is all too real, it makes the viewer cringe because you feel for this character but you know there is nothing you can do to fend off the inevitable.
Besides the very well choreographed battle scenes and the explosive acting job EVERYONE does, this film leaves alot to be desired. If the opening 25 minutes fail to quench your thirst of seeing humanity at its worst, then Full Metal Jacket surely will. Definitely not the best war movie of all time, although very close. If Full Metal Jacket had such brutally honest scenes of violence such as Saving Private Ryan when it came to the battle scenes instead of its glorified hollywood violence, it would reign supreme as the best example of war on film to date.
My final thoughts: watch this movie if you want to be slapped in the face with the horror and tragedy American soldiers endured during WWII, but don't expect to be awestruck by the plot. The only downfall is that Saving Private Ryan did not portray that the war was equally as brutal for BOTH sides - with the exception of the scene where Captain Miller's group makes the lone German soldier dig graves for their fallen comrades. Was I the only one who didn't laugh at his last-ditched efforts to appease the Americans and make them spare his life? The final complaint would be that Spielberg did not tug at the strings of the viewers heart when the lead characters died - with the exception of Ribisi's character - whereas several scenes in 'Glory' brought tears to my eyes.