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Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must own
Review: This is by far one of the better war movies out there. Athough i have heard it can be confusing to the first time viewer it is an absolutly great film. Even though not a comedy, the film has humerous twist.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth it
Review: I watch this movie about 10,ok I lost count by now.The thing I like best about this movie is that it is not a comedy but still funny.Gunnery Hartman is hilarious.He did a great job playing a senior drill sargeant.At first he wasn't even choosen for this role.He was on the set to show how a drill sargeant would act and did such a good job they gave him the role,thank god.This movie is a must see and own.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: War! Huuuuh! What Is It Good For...?
Review: I'm of the opinion that both sequences of Kubrick's war drama are equally compelling. However, when they find out who the sniper in the war ravaged building is--it seems like it could be more than one of those killers up there--well, that's good cinema, period. And you can't help but feel the irony when the soldiers sing the tune to The Mickey Mouse Club. This moovy is epic, but not overbearing. It's got realness and rawness in it...don't expect buffoonery, or every thing being a set up for rim shot jokes ala TV's MASH. War is insanity, war is intensity and Kubrick attempted to show that here.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Kubrick's darkest, most surreal film
Review: This is definitely Kubrick's darkest film. The performances given by Vincent D'Onofrio, Matthew Modine, and R. Lee Ermy stand out and give this beautiful film it's surreal, depressing mood. But of all of them, Vincent D'Onofrio stands out the most with his heartbreaking performance as Private Leonard Pyle. As I write this review, the thing that sticks in my mind is that one scene in which Pyle shoots Drill Sergeant Hartman and then himself.

And, of course, Kubrick's use of light, space, and camera movement make this another one of his darker films. This film would best be described as a mix of Apocalypse Now and Taxi Driver, in terms of atmosphere and lighting, as well as some elements of plot. I think anyone interested in film or in war, or the Vietnam War specifically should check this out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What is your Major malfunction Private Numbnuts?!?
Review: Full to the brim with classic and memorable lines and phrases, This film is truly amazing. Every single character in the film portrays his role exceedingly well. The best performances for me include :- Pvt. Joker (Matthew Modine), Gunnery Seargent Hartman (R. Lee Ermey), Pvt. Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) .. and I think the best actor in the film - Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin).
Baldwin is outstanding in this film.. his character is intriguing and interesting.. he also has a courageness about him that everybody watching the film looks up to. It's a tragedy he wasn't recognised for his performance at the Oscars.

All round, this is a great film. If you see a better War film let me know... I wanna see it!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Half a Good Movie.
Review: Stanley Kubrick is one of my all-time favorite movie directors. He was an unparalleled master of technique and form, releasing unequaled classics like "A Clockwork Orange," "2001," and "The Shining." But even great directors have at least one subpar movie in their resume, and this puppy is it. "Full Metal Jacket" is really two films blended into one. The first half is easily the more effective of the two. Here, we get an unflinching look at the day-to-day training of the Marines during the Vietnam war. The recruits are humiliated, verbally assaulted, and endure the most rigid of physical regimens. It's simultaneously unsettling and hilarious. But the minute these recruits go to war, it all goes downhill. This is quite possibly the first Kubrick movie that nearly put me to sleep. The war sequences are unexciting and perfunctory, and they pale in comparison to the rawness of the vastly superior Coppola masterpiece "Apocalypse Now." But there are definitely Kubrick touches that help make the film interesting. A lot of the photography recalls the clean and sterile images of "A Clockwork Orange." In addition, one scene, which looks like it could have been lifted from "The Shining," has the camera zoom into a recuit wearing the most demented facial expression. Kubrick diehards may want to give this a whirl, but if you're a fan of war movies, the final verdict is this: you've seen it all before. And better.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Private Joker was the star
Review: This movie about Marine Basic Training and The U.S. Marines in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive is very educational and entertaining. First, Gunnery Sargent Hartman is the most loved and hated man among the recruits. Second, it shows how people in the rear areas lived. Third, it shows how life was during the 1968 Tet offensive. Matthew Modine as private joker is the man who stole the show.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Semper Fi Is For Real
Review: First off, I have to come clean. I first saw Full Metal Jacket in its original theatrical release. About all that stayed with me was the scene in the head that ends the second third of the film. I bought it at the recommendation of my son, a newly-commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Marines. He calls FMJ the "Marine Movie." He also calls the time period "one shameful chapter in Marine Corps history." The routine abuse of recruits depicted in the film no longer happens. Even so, the film gets it right on both counts. Marine training, even thirty years later, is as demanding as Kubrick depicts. It has the same goal: the creation of "indestructible men (and now, women)" who can kill as many of the enemy as possible. The experience of Marines in combat, especially in Vietnam, is as the film demonstrates. As he undergoes training that will qualify him to lead a platoon, I asked my son about the incident that leads to the second cold-blooded killing. Could it have happened that Marines would become so lost that they would be at the mercy of a sniper? Absolutely, he replied, adding that Marines view the prospect of urban warfare with trepidation: "There is an infinite number of places where the enemy could be." Further, he said, Cowboy made the right call, even though it resulted in the deaths of three Marines.

Even though I was in the streets in a different way during Vietnam (and could not have seen combat anyway--I'm blind in my right eye and right-handed), I am convinced that Semper Fi is for real. "Semper Fi, do or die, gung ho, gung, ho, gung ho." The Marines are indeed the best we have, the inspiration for Army Rangers and Delta Force and Navy SEALS. They have raised the bar in ways that I didn't appreciate. Run, don't walk, to see this movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: How normal boys become killing soldiers
Review: One thing that most war movies overlook is the process by which normal boys can be programmed to kill an unknown enemy in a foreign land. "Full Metal Jacket", however, provides a convincing and thought-provoking analysis of this phenomenon.

The film begins with a 50 minute boot camp sequence, arguably the most entertaining part of the film. During boot camp, the group of Privates are verbally and physically badgered by Drill Sargeant Hartman. His very vocal use of racial slurs and extremely crude vulgarities shocked even myself, who normally can tolerate such language. But that seems to be Kubrick's intent. He wants us to experience how demoralized the young men must feel. As these men are shocked into obedience, it becomes easier to understand why they would do anything they're told to, even kill.

The high adrenaline first half of the film might make you think the second half is boring. But don't dismiss the 2nd half, because I think this is where Kubrick really tries to make his point.

Shifting to Vietnam, the films follows the path of Joker, one of the privates from the boot camp. Joker has managed to maintain his identity whereas other soldiers seem programmed and brainwashed. When asked why they are in Vietnam, the other soldiers simply reply, "to kill." Whereas Joker sarcastically replys, "I wanted to see exotic Vietnam, the jewel of Southeast Asia. I wanted to meet interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture ... and kill them. I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed kill." Joker seems to understand the irony killing for peace, as expressed by his writing "Born to Kill" on his helment, while wearing a peace sign on his jacket.

A movie like "Full Metal Jacket" seems very appropriate in our current world situation where once again there are those in leadership who seem bent on using war to obtain peace.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Of golf balls and garden hoses
Review: Like "The Shining," this is, objectively, not a good movie. Unlike "The Shining" though, it doesn't stay entertaining all the way through. The first half is alternately harrowing and hilarious and should dissuade any intelligent, sane human being from joining the Marines. R. Lee Ermey screaming his head off for forty-some minutes makes for an intense forty-some minutes, but even in boot camp, the thinking viewer may realize that nothing is actually happening, except that Vincent D'Onofrio is turning into Jack Nicholson. So this is another flashy but empty Kubrick film.
But the quotes from the first half are permanently engrained in my head. "How tall are you, private?"


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