Review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Vince N — 30 Jan 2016

The genius of Stanley Kubrick applied to the Vietnam War. This film is starkly divided into halves. The first at military training camp and the latter in war action.

The cinematography is as great as you would expect from Kubrick. This is his typical low on dialogue, high on visuals method that is his trademark. In my opinion, no one comes close to this master.

Full Metal Jacket does not have American propaganda such as Saving Private Ryan. It is much more personal. It is more of a study of the soul of its protagonists similar to All Quiet On The Western Front (1930).

This should be regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It reminds me how great a film-maker Kubrick was. He made few films, but each was arguably a masterpiece. This is contrasted to Spielberg, whose Hollywood production machine and big budgets churn out poor, good and great movies of all kinds, but not the art of a master class,.