Review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Dillinger P — 26 Mar 2015

Stanley Kubrick's take on novel The Short Timers, is in equal amounts hilarious and haunting, although very much a film of 2 halves, this outing does offer up a whole bunch of satire, violence and punch for its buck, but sadistically manages to inject some ferocious comedy into the mix.

We follow a bunch of new recruits in the American marine core, during the Vietnam war, it opens light heartedly enough, country music highlighting a montage of hair shaving and outstandingly whitty monologues from Lee Emery as the iconic Gunnery Sgt Harmen, howeven soon the trials of war and the pressure and treatment of cadets become too much for some members.

Flash forward some time from that and we are stuck with a few of the team as they plough through Vietnam, killing innocents and making videos like superstars. If that seems like a huge leap in synopsis its because this is very much a lop sided film.

The first section is tremendous, up there with some of his best work, brilliant cinematography with continual moving shots, give the film a subtle sense of pace and Lee Emery's performance alone with Vincent D'Onofrio totally roll the ball forward, giving us a training session worth remembering.

It manages to balance everything right, comedy, brutality and satire all with an underlying disgust as the sequence comes to a brutal conclusion. Kubrick's film then jettisons us forward with little mention of anything prior apart from the characters of Private Joker, Matthew Modine and Private Cowboy, Arliss Howard.

Here we the film turns fully satirical, honing in on how biased the american propaganda was that not even their own troops fully understood why they were there, in a round about way summing up what the rest of the world was thinking at the time.

It's not that the second half is bad, quite the opposite but put side by side with the first and it is so mismatched you cant help but be jolted out the movie for multiple viewings. It feels almost like the first section should be the entire movie, however with its length, Kubrick feels the need to bundle in the next part, either that or the complete shift in tone is intended to make us feel the way we do.

Regardless it is jolting and takes a lot of repeat viewing until getting used to the step. The entire film looks, sounds and illuminates perfectly, the subtle music throughout the piece give a sense of time, pace and emotion, while bookended with iconic, of the time songs.

The war torn Vietnam is also outstandingly realized, industrial wastelands strew with fire up the side of buildings as snipers and booby traps lay waste to soldiers, really give a sense of guerilla warfare.

Yet the film isnt perfect, the majority of characters are very one note and alienating. This adds a peculiar air to the piece but at times seems a little jarring, there at times seems like there is a little too much filler, the film packs such a punch, however its so prolonged that the effects start to wear off after the hour mark.

Its brilliant and fun and diabolical all at the same time, its just not the tightest effort ever committed to cinema, which is a shame because when this film is good, it is really fucking good.