Review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Julia L — 10 Oct 2012

It should be widely known that Kubrick movies are not to be enjoyed, but endured. As a "cinephile" my choice was to endure them only once, just to know what one of the most overrated directors in the history of cinema was up to. I duly watched FMJ at the time of its original release and did not enjoy it. Back then it felt like a late arrival, saying nothing new after Apocalypse Now and Platoon. Devoid of the emotional impact of those two other movies, dry, slow-paced and boring.

Last night, I stumbled upon it on TV and out of curiosity I decided to give it another try, should my previous impression been marred by youthful ignorance. Alas not... In fact, years of movie-watching just enhanced my dislike for what looks more than ever like an half-baked, over simplistic war movie.

As everybody knows, FMJ is basically two movies stuck together, with little relation to each other. The first half takes place during a brutal boot camp, with lots of shouting and humiliation from a sadist drill sergeant, leading to "tragic events" of some sort. The second half takes place in Great Britain, standing for Vietnam and failing miserably at the task.

In no way the cold, gray UK could be mistaken for a sub-tropical country. In FMJ the actors keep their long sleeves down, no sticky heat, profuse sweating or ventilators flapping.

Besides being infamous for its fake, chilling location, the second part is almost ludicrous in every other aspect. From the dialogues, which sound like a parody of macho war movies, but are in no way funny, to character non-development, to sexist use of local prostitutes - not once, but twice.

We are shown twice what is basically the same scene (and the only female presence in the movie): a young Viet prostitute soliciting Joker and friends. Same scene some 15 minutes later, only this time the prostitute is pimped out by a local guy.

I could ask many questions about this movie⦠For instance if Kubrick was supposed to be over-meticulous and detail crazy how did he missed the fact that the UK does not look like Vietnam? How did he missed the fact that he has the same scene twice in the movie? etc...

In the poster's photo we have a helmet with "Born to kill" scribbled next to a peace sign, signifying the duplicity of human nature. This convey the full message you should get at the end of the movie, so you can spare yourself some time just taking a good look at the poster. If you want to add an additional layer of "meaning", perhaps you can infer that mankind (in the shape of main character Joker) is "naturally" good but can be trained to become "bad". Hardly a brand-new, mind-blowing concept.