Review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Grant S — 01 Jul 2016

Marine Corps Recruiting Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, mid-1960s. A platoon of raw recruits is receiving its first exposure to the training methods of the Marine Corps. In particular, they are being exposed to Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, a tough, loud, foul-mouthed senior drill instructor. Seen largely through the eyes of one recruit, Private JT "Joker" Davis We see their training at Hartman's hands, and the effect it has on one recruit in particular, Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence.

Some time later, Joker is now in Vietnam, has risen to Sergeant and is a correspondent for Stars and Stripes magazine. It is a reasonably cushy job until the Tet Offensive is launched. Joker, and his sidekick "Rafterman", get sent to Hue, a city taken by North Vietnamese forces in the offensive. They attach themselves to a Marine squad which includes a Parris Island buddy of Joker's, Sergeant "Cowboy". What follows is war at its most personal, intense and visceral.

Superb Vietnam War drama. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and adapted from a novel by Gustav Hasford, Full Metal Jacket is a searingly accurate and intense depiction of war and the military. We see the training, and how recruits are treated, we see the down-time between battles, where boredom is the most common issue, and then we see the intense, life-or-death struggles in battle.

A great story, superbly directed.

Solid performances all round. Matthew Modine plays the central character, Joker, and he does a great job. Vincent D'Onofrio does a solid job playing the not-altogether-there Gomer Pyle. Adam Baldwin provides the gung ho factor as Animal Mother.

Stand out performance and character goes to R Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. He absolutely dominates the first half of the movie and is legitimately scary as the drill instructor. Helps that he was once a Marine NCO himself...