Review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Amanda C — 18 Mar 2018

Frankly, I loved the film. It was a little disorienting, in that there are essentially two different parts of the film. I got so invested in Pyle's story and watching that evolve, that I found myself having to readjust when the film segued into following Joker's story.

Up until Pyle shot himself, I had assumed that this story was about Pyle. It was interesting to me that the perspective seemed to change in each part of the film. The first part seemed to be more from Pyle's perspective, to then set up the second part of the film being from Joker's perspective.

It made me feel intrigued by the psyche of the men in the military. It made me also feel concerned for how the constant negating and invalidating affects these men. The pace of the film was also interesting.

Things sort of seemed to have a slow build in the beginning up until Pyle's emotional turn took place. For me, the same thing happened in the second part of the film when Joker and his crew were backed into a corner with the Vietnamese.

In both parts of the film, it was interesting that there was this slower-paced nonchalant approach to setting up these stories, however, once things got going we very much-so "zoomed in" to the conflict in the story and what was going on.

Music was a big part of the movie, however, in these moments Kubrick chose to have no, or very little, music be a part of them. For me, it allowed me to be more attentive to what was going on and what was at stake.