Review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Tony P — 24 Jun 2017

The film from 1987 marks something of another comeback for director Stanley Kubrick.

It was released to positive reviews but I can see some chinks in the film.

It focuses on raw recruits to the US Marines at the time of the Vietnam War. The psychological horrors it brought to some of these recruits is focused on.

The film is split into two main acts. The first half of the film focuses on the training of a platoon of marines on Parris Island, in the U.S.

One of the recruits Private Lenny Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio) struggles with army life and the loud rule of the Sergeant (Lee Ermey).

For about an hour of the film we see the portly Lawrence be for want of a better word be bullied by his commanding officer and fellow recruits before he snaps.

The warning signs are all there. The raised eye facial expressions that are a trademark of Kubrick films (A Clockwork Orange and The Shining spring to mind.).

The recruits become competent users of killer weapons and are warned by the Sergeant himself in one scene how ruthless killers like Lee Harvey Oswald were trained to shoot by the US Marines.

The second half of the film is set in Vietnam itself in a variety of locations.

Here the film became confusing as it drifted from one set piece to another. However the overriding theme that 'normal' civilians become killers for want of a better word or witness killing is the main theme.

A film that shows the real horrors of conventional wzrfare to recruits to the army 'conscripted'.