Review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Loireal — 25 Feb 2004
[***PLOT SPOILERS***] At the start of this film, I was laughing uncontrollably from the cliche of a tough boot camp instructor treating recruits like sh.t smudged a minion times against their mother's faces.
He kept calling them degrading names such as sluts, pussies et. al. But then as the movie progresses on, I was drawn to Private Pyle, who had an obvious bad case of A.D.D. Initially, I was quite irritated of him with his clumsiness and slow pick up abilities to their unforgiving trainor.
Due to Pyle's excess weight which obviously made him unable to keep up with the harsh physical rigors of training, he was kept from eating sweets and the teacher found out how Pyle caped a doughnut.
He was made to eat it infront of his classmates while they were punished for him. Everytime he f...ed up, it was his classmates who paid for it. He was beaten with bricks [Ed: Soap, actually] while he was prevented from making a sound by his co-trainees when they got fed up of him.
The only one who used to bear with him by necessity, Private Joker, didn't do anything about it. After it, Pyle cried like a child bullied in a kindergarden yard. And it was my first time to really sympathize with a character, I bawled like a baby too.
I was just so moved how nobody stood up for him. It's been two days since I've watched FMJ, but the face of Pyle keeps haunting me. The cinematography of the film and the plot when they got to 'Nam sucks big time, but kudos to Kubrick for tugging my cynical heart.
It's kinda new for me to be troubled by a film character, and for that, good job Kubrick.
This review of Full Metal Jacket (1987) was written by Loireal on 25 Feb 2004.
Full Metal Jacket has generally received very positive reviews.
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