Full Metal Jacket is a strange film in that it doesn't really follow a traditional narrative. It's sort of just a day in the life of a soldier during the Vietnam War. We spend the first 45 minutes getting to know Private Pyle (after Gomer Pyle) and his relationship with drill sergeant Hartman. Suddenly, they're taken completely out of the picture, and the film spends the remaining hour on Joker, one of the supporting characters up to this point. Themes and ideas are carried over to the second half, but the second half could easily be re-edited to be it's own film.
It's a film that requires multiple watches to get the nuances of the ideas it's trying to explore. It's critical of the war machine and how governments prepare their soldiers for war. In addition to it driving an innocent, mentally unfit recruit like Pyle to something unstable, Hartman uses Lee Harvey Oswald and a school shooter as examples of great shots in the firing range scene. You'd think he'd give examples of great military snipers who killed enemies from far away, or make a point how this power can be mishandled in the wrong hands and therefore you must be mentally fit and have a good moral compass to use it properly, but no, all he cares about is making killers. Joker just wants to be a military journalist, and the whole "born to kill" shtick is just an act. His only kill isn't really necessary, he just euthanized someone another soldier shot. He had the opportunity for the first shot, but since he still has a moral compass, hesitated at the moment of truth as Hartman warned. It brings a new meaning to the "I'm still alive" speech. He did it as validation, nothing more.
This is one is Kubrick's weaker films in my opinion. Obviously it's still great, coming from one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, but I have my own gripes with it. The unorthodox structure fails to keep investment and suspense for me. There was some fake looking blood, which suprised me considering all the effort Kubrick put into getting all that Kensington Gore for The Shining elevator scene. The only way I can make sense of the murder/suicide scene is if it was a dream. Unless the policies were different back in the day, why is Pyle allowed to take ammunition off the firing range? Why is no one else running when they hear the gunshot? Why is Joker still his normal self at the beginning of the Vietnam sequence, with no PTSD?
Despite my gripes it's still a very well made and enjoyable film, and is definitely worth a watch.
It's a film that requires multiple watches to get the nuances of the ideas it's trying to explore. It's critical of the war machine and how governments prepare their soldiers for war. In addition to it driving an innocent, mentally unfit recruit like Pyle to something unstable, Hartman uses Lee Harvey Oswald and a school shooter as examples of great shots in the firing range scene. You'd think he'd give examples of great military snipers who killed enemies from far away, or make a point how this power can be mishandled in the wrong hands and therefore you must be mentally fit and have a good moral compass to use it properly, but no, all he cares about is making killers. Joker just wants to be a military journalist, and the whole "born to kill" shtick is just an act. His only kill isn't really necessary, he just euthanized someone another soldier shot. He had the opportunity for the first shot, but since he still has a moral compass, hesitated at the moment of truth as Hartman warned. It brings a new meaning to the "I'm still alive" speech. He did it as validation, nothing more.
This is one is Kubrick's weaker films in my opinion. Obviously it's still great, coming from one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, but I have my own gripes with it. The unorthodox structure fails to keep investment and suspense for me. There was some fake looking blood, which suprised me considering all the effort Kubrick put into getting all that Kensington Gore for The Shining elevator scene. The only way I can make sense of the murder/suicide scene is if it was a dream. Unless the policies were different back in the day, why is Pyle allowed to take ammunition off the firing range? Why is no one else running when they hear the gunshot? Why is Joker still his normal self at the beginning of the Vietnam sequence, with no PTSD?
Despite my gripes it's still a very well made and enjoyable film, and is definitely worth a watch.