Starring: Adam Baldwin, Bruce Boa, Tim Colceri, Vincent D'Onofrio, Harry Davies Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: May 15, 2007 Running Time: 116 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1987
Product Description: The story of an 18-year-old marine recruit named Private Joker - from his carnage-and-machismo boot camp to his climactic involvement in the heavy fighting in Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 085391163114 Manufacturer No: 116311
Amazon.com: Stanley Kubrick's 1987, penultimate film seemed to a lot of people to be contrived and out of touch with the '80s vogue for such intensely realistic portrayals of the Vietnam War as Platoon and The Deer Hunter. Certainly, Kubrick gave audiences plenty of reason to wonder why he made the film at all: essentially a two-part drama that begins on a Parris Island boot camp for rookie Marines and abruptly switches to Vietnam (actually shot on sound stages and locations near London), Full Metal Jacket comes across as a series of self-contained chapters in a story whose logical and thematic development is oblique at best. Then again, much the same was said about Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, a masterwork both enthralled with and satiric about the future's role in the unfinished business of human evolution. In a way, Full Metal Jacket is the wholly grim counterpart of 2001. While the latter is a truly 1960s film, both wide-eyed and wary, about the intertwining of progress and isolation (ending in our redemption, finally, by death), Full Metal Jacket is a cynical, Reagan-era view of the 1960s' hunger for experience and consciousness that fulfilled itself in violence. Lee Ermey made film history as the Marine drill instructor whose ritualized debasement of men in the name of tribal uniformity creates its darkest angel in a murderous half-wit (Vincent D'Onofrio). Matthew Modine gives a smart and savvy performance as Private Joker, the clowning, military journalist who yearns to get away from the propaganda machine and know firsthand the horrific revelation of the front line. In Full Metal Jacket, depravity and fulfillment go hand in hand, and it's no wonder Kubrick kept his steely distance from the material to make the point. --Tom Keogh
DISGUSTING MOVIE! I SERVED IN THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES. THIS MOVIE IS GARBAGE. IT IS FILLED WITH DISGUSTING PERVERTED SEXUAL JOKES. THERE IS NO COMBAT UNTIL 1 HOUR AND 15 MINUTES INTO THE MOVIE. THE COMBAT SCENES ARE EXCELLENT. BUT AS A WHOLE. THE MOVIE STINKS.
Full Metal Jacket Awesome movie!! If you were ever in the Marines or trained as a Naval Officer under the Marines prior to the mid 80's, you will greatly appreciate the first half of this movie. Highly recommend it!!
Kubrick Misses The Mark What a gyp! I had hoped Full Mental Jacket would challenge Apocalypse Now and Platoon for film supremacy as far as Vietnam War storytelling was concerned, but, in my opinion, it fell way short of its target. Full Metal Jacket could easily have been named Full Mental Straight-Jacket for Private Pyle's (psyche collapse at the end of the first act). It demonstrates the mental breakdown of a new recruit, who was not too well put together in the first place; the systematic deconstruction of individual recruits in boot camp was a common design and practice by drill instructors on both coasts - MCRD in San Diego, CA and at Paris Island, NC. Lee Emery's depiction of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman was genuinely scary. I suppose his history as a real life drill instructor had alot to do with his character's authenticity and power. This was a casting coup for Kubrick, but that's where the genius ended. Every other character came off as unbelievable, paper thin, and one-dimensional. Pyle's schizophrenia can be seen as America's conscience and attitude about the war. On some level this worked, as America turned against itself during that time when the pressure got to be too much, not unlike Private Plye shooting Sgt. Hartman and then himself. The only surprise in the entire film. After Act I the film took a steep nose dive and never recovered before it crashed and burned somewhere near Hue City. Interestingly, all three of these Vietnam War movies are narrated by a protagonist, but Kubrick's Private Joker was the weakest character of the bunch. Compared to Lieutenant Willard (Martin Sheen) in Apocalypse Now and Private Taylor (Charlie Sheen) in Platoon, Matthew Modine's soulless depiction of a war correspondent was never within the whelm of belief or sympathy. Far from it. He was, for my part, unlikable from beginning to end. His only action of merit was when he busted a cap in the wounded VC sniper at the very end of the film. Finally a heroic, and merciful act, but even that can be up for debate. "Hard corps", oh yeah! Private Joker's only act of redemption, and Kubrick's, too.
Good movie on the Vietnam conflict, but quite over-praised Full Metal Jacket shook the world when it came out onto the big screens back in 1987. It was then supposed to be one of the best movies ever made on the Vietnam conflict. I was in my late teens when I went to watch it. If you're old enough to remember this era, it was right when America was putting a lot of focus and attention into exorcising its old nightmares of the south east jungle chaotic defeat. Full Metal Jacket was among the last of the movies based on this theme to reach the audience in the 80's.
I still remember having had mixed feelings about this movie: it was as close to a video report as was possible back then and, to some extent, it was quite new and unprecedented. The effect was that, both in terms of format and contents, it felt quite realistic and altogether encompassing. The story has the viewer involved in it, suffering along with the rookies before getting engaged on the battlefield.
The first half of the film is probably the most noteworthy for the quality of its depiction of the US military's brainwashing of its youth before fielding them as fresh meat to the hungry war beast. Beyond that first half, and although the actors' play is top notch and some fights are of almost mythical reach (I'm thinking about the NVA's female sniper scene for instance), the second half of the film -the one that takes place on the Hué battlelfield- is heavily impacted by a tough, FAKE touch, ie, the movie was actually shot in a derelict part of London, with fake vegetation, palm trees and overall buildings. It's so blatantly obvious that it killed in me the bonding with the movie that I had felt right until then. It probably was for budgetary reasons that Kubrick opted for that movie location, but to this day, I still don't understand why he did not go for the Philippines, or Thailand for instance. With that "little" correction, the movie would certainly have ranked, in my opinion, among the Top3 best Vietnam conflict movies ever made.
Not a good film Of all the Vietnam films Ive seen, I think this one is the most disappointing. Not the worst, but considering Kubrick is the director, the expectations automatically grow and by that measure, it is hugely disappointing. From boot camp (which actually is the best part of the film) to Nam, the film never seems to find a correct note. Maybe Kubrick was trying to make a more surreal film about Vietnam, maybe in a way a satire, Im not sure. In any case, it never really works consistently. The subject of Vietnam has produced some of the most haunting films ever, but not in this case. I would put a lot of that blame on the cast. Not once did I believe that any of these characters were real. They came off as second rate actors trying to play soldiers and that is a huge problem with the film. It needed serious actors.
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