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Summary: One of the best movies ever made.
Review: This movie is one of the greatest movies ever made. The first part is my favorite, and Drill Instructer Hartman is super funny. I think the first part is better, but the second part of the movie is just as good, but the comedy level isn't the same. All in all this movie is worth owning because you will want to watch it again and again.
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Summary: DVD specs
Review: I just wanted to correct some previous user reviews and set the record straight. Full Metal Jacket was recorded in Mono so there is no stereo, Dolby, or DTS sound available unless sobebody goes in a creates it. You are not getting cheated on the sound. Also, regarding the aspect ratio. This DVD is NOT pan and scan. There is a difference between Pan and Scan and Full Screen formats. Full Screen is when they shoot the film in 4 x 3 and matte the top and bottom in the theatre to make it widescreen. They do this so they can transfer the movie to full screen format on VHS without losing any of the image. Pan and Scan is used when the movie is actually shot wide. They transfer it to 4 x 3 on video and then pan across the wide image to show you the most "important" part if the image. The remaining image is chopped off. Kubrick shot Full Screen and chose to matte the top and bottom for theatre presentation. He chose NOT to matte the image when transfering the films to DVD and VHS. You are not losing any of the image on this DVD.
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Summary: "Private Joker!"
Review: Many war films have come, and many war films have gone. But Stanley Kubrick's film about Marine basic training and the Vietnam war will always have a lasting effect on the public. The film begins at Parris Island, South Carolina. Here men are trained to become Marines. Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (R.Lee Ermey) introduces himself to the new recruits. The real first person we meet is Pvt.Joker (Matthew Modine) who has joined the Core to kill! Right along side him is Pvt.Cowboy (Arliss Howard) who is from Texas. But Pvt."Gomer Pile" (Vincent D'Onofrio) is an over weight young adult that should have known better to join at his situation. From the get go, Hartman rags on Pile non-stop. It's here and for the next 40 minutes we get the most realistic view of bootcamp and Kubrick's best work. Ermey is so mesmerizing that he should have recieved an Oscar for his performance. Joker and Cowboy get through basic with a few but not to many problems. But for Pile it's hell on earth, and Joker must take him under his wing so he can make it. After graduation the film shifts to a busy city in Vietnam. This is pretty much part two of the film. Joker who's job in the Core is working for "Stars and Strips" is not that happy. He would much rather be with some of his former friends he made at basic. But not to worry to long, soon after the Tet Offensive begins and all hell breaks loose all over Vietnam. Joker who is working on a story runs into Cowboy in his infantry unit. Here we meet the last memorable character since the opening scene's. Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin) is a gun-ho Marine. He carries around a machine gun and if he is not being shot at or shooting at someone else, he is not having fun. The last focus of the film is turned to a patrol that is searching for a sniper. What takes place after that I'll let you find out. But Stanley Kubrick's film is not easy to forget. It has several lines that stay in your head all the time. But most of all he has given us the best view of bootcamp then on to war, that any movie has attempted to do. It is by far his best film. Many will argue but thats because this is his least family movie out there. Even more than (Eyes Wide Shut) R. Lee Ermey gave the best performance he ever gave in front of a camera. Kubrick's filming and his skill to shape this film is no less than that of excellance. (Oscar nomination went to it for Best Adapted Screenplay.) Grade:A
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Summary: War is a bunch of ... jarheads ripping up foreign lands
Review: ...Kubrick's masterpiece seems a lot more like the era that I remember; it's also a much better reflection of the attitude of GIs I knew who didn't know or care what they were fighting for and resented the people they were supposedly helping as much as those people resented them. And Lee Ermey is, literally, the real thing. His DI would tear off Berenger's and Dafoe's heads...This is war without the heroism, romanticism, and High Ideals of all the other dreck that has been evacuated out of the bowels of Hollywood. The best movie about war that I've seen since Kubrick's earlier Paths of Glory.
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Summary: ...but I am alive and I am not affraid.
Review: Kubrickian take on Vietnam and the soldiers war. Film is split into two sections throwing (gladly) traditional three part story stucture out the window. Positively brilliant first stint with Ermey's drill sergent screaming profanities centered in Kubrick's beautiful tracking shots. Though second half doesn't register the impact of the early boot camp scenes, the film culminates to a beautiful end. As with all SK films, the ending is poetic and powerful. No lectures when its over like Platoon's finale.
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Summary: Guy Knight is wrong. It's FULL SCREEN not Wide Screen
Review: I don't know where his copy came from but I have the original release and I have the new re-issue. THEY ARE BOTH 1.33 FULL SCREEN. This is NOT a Wide Screen transfer. If he has a widescreen version I'd love to know where he got it from as nobody I've talked to nor have ANY websites made any mention to it. AGAIN... THIS IS 4:3 format (Pan & Scan). -McHale
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Summary: IMPRESSIVE
Review: I've seen Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, and the Thin Red Line, among other war movies. AN had some good scenes, but the end was missing something. SPR had a superb beginning and end, but the middle was boring. TRL was just a mindless, boring movie. As for Full Metal Jacket, I was glad to see that all parts of the film are equally good. There may be some lag, but not much. The first part of the film deals with a very-neglected aspect of the military--boot camp. From what I've heard it's a little exaggerated. It's a movie, so what? It's never been so much fun watching someone get yelled at. All those witty jokes. Then there's the end of boot camp, which was very shocking. After that, the movie snaps to Vietnam. So what if there's no transition? Some people complain about not enough action. There's plenty of it, believe me. Any more shooting and they'd have to call it Rambo in Vietnam. The last part with the sniper was very well done, pitting the soldiers against a serious problem that required some thinking before letting the muscle take over. I might add that it was comical in a very dark way. Highly recommend this film.
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Summary: A Gripping Underrated War Epic
Review: Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is an excellent portrayal of the military mind and the war's affect on it. It follows the characters on in two parts, boot camp and the war. The boot camp scenes are probably some of the most realistic I've seen, and the second half is just as realistic. Full Metal Jacket is an excellent film, but has been overshadowed by some equally realistic vietnam pictures such as "The Deer Hunter", "Apocalypse Now" and "Platoon." For this reason, it is not talked about at all. To answer a reviewer before me, his DVD is the "Pan and Scan" version which was released a couple years ago. This one, due out June 12, 2001 is a re-mastered edition with a superb widescreen transfer. I got a copy of mine early, and the transfer is excellently done. Warner Brothers really did a great job on these DVD sound and picture compared to most of their other releases. I was real impressed by the sound, it came out of my speakers with fearce force and anger, just like the war itself. I recommend Full Metal Jacket if you like films about war (Vietnam specifically), and/or films directed by the great Stanley Kubrick. You won't be upset if your expectations aren't too high (this isn't Stan's best work).
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Summary: The Long-Timers
Review: Buried (ritually?) in the credits of this movie is the real reason for its unseemly bifurcation of plot and story. Readers of Gustave Halbert's "The Short-Timers" will be entertained by the most realistic portrayal of Parris Island Marine Corps recruit training but disappointed when, during the "war" half of the movie, Kubrick shifts Joker's climactic "murder" scene to be one where he confronts the wounded teenage Viet Cong woman who has decimated his squad with accurate sniper fire. The realism of the first half of the movie would lead us to expect not one heartbeat of hesitation--thus there is no real tension in this scene. Too bad he didn't retain Halbert's dilemma of having Joker face killing his own man who had been repeatedly riddled by the sniper's bullets. Nonetheless, reviewers are correct in describing the film as a series of disconnected episodes, actually a patchwork of scenes that simply represent Vietnam cliches and touchstones of war's insanity. In this respect, it really is more faithful to the incomprehensible realities of Vietnam than a hackneyed naturalistic rendition, or the Vietnam incarnation of "High Noon," Oliver Stone's "Platoon."
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars, but we have issues here
Review: The movie was excellent, the acting superb, etc, etc. As a side note (which will become obsolete in a couple of weeks) why is it May 25 and I already have this DVD but the release date is June 12? Oh well. One issue I found with this DVD is that it 'has been formatted to fit _your_ screen'. I don't know about you, but I like widescreen. The only place this is indicated is in fine print near the bottom of the back of the case. Buyer beware.
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