Review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Allen G — 31 Mar 2016

When a film is such that, regardless of how disturbing its contents may be, you forget that it is a film and transport yourself into the situations on display, it has succeeded in entertaining you, engaging you and affecting you and thus it has accomplished its goal.

This is one of those films.

In a setting where the boundaries of humanity are forever blurred, this film pushes that uncertainty to the core and gives us a glimpse into the extremes that war can cause and the unnatural outcomes it can lead to.

It's slow and overbearing but it's simply one where that feels like the correct way forward- it's the only way to counteract the sheer aggression, this isn't a war action movie with a dark edge, it's a dark center with a war action movie edge and that requires a different tone, a different approach and a different understanding of the world. One that, in this case, is a harrowing and thought-provoking idea.

Kubrick was born to make a war movie and this film was born to be yet another Kubrick masterpiece (there's a 'Born to Kill' reference in there but I'm not smart enough for that).