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"Full Metal Jacket" was really the last great film from Kubrick before his death (with all due respect to "Eyes Wide Shut"). At the same time, it is a movie that has perplexed me as well. It always seemed to be two movies in one. The first half being the most definite version of basic training ever put on film. The second half shows the marines in battle where they come into contact with the have been trained to fight and kill. I haven't really been able to put the two parts together regardless of how much I like the movie. So with this review, I'm gonna try to put it all together if I can. The first half of the movie where we see the recruits getting stripped down to the bare minimum and built back up into killing machines is the best part. The opening shot with all the recruits getting their heads shaved completely is a brilliant image as it illustrates the first step in seeing these men completely stripped of their individuality. Then we meet the drill seargeant who is one of the most intense characters as well as one of the most loathesome ever put on screen. It's astonishing to hear that R. Lee Ermey was not originally cast in this role. Some other actor was cast, and Ermey was originally hired as a military consultant as he was once in the Marine Corp and even served a couple tour of dutys in Vietnam. This guy had done his research to the point where he met with Stanley and said he should play the part. It's both frightening and horrifying as to the lengths Ermey's character will go to in order to build his scum dwellers into killers. Gets right in their face and screams their heads off and gives the men names that are not flattering and will stay with them for as long as they are Marines and as long as they are alive. Then you have Matthew Modine who is one of those actos who has been in every other movie since this one came out. He is great as Joker, a Marine who manages to hang onto a piece of himself throughout basic training, only to lose most of it in combat. Of course, the most memorable performance in this movie is that of Vincent D'onofrio who plays Gomer Pyle, a recruit who somehow stays in basic training regardless of how lousy he is in it. It was the first of many times we would see just how far D'onofrio will go to play a part. There's no other reason why he would have passed out all those times on the set of "Law & Order - Criminal Intent." Furthermore, he gained 70 pounds to play this role, and that's more than Robert DeNiro gained to play Jake LaMotta in "Raging Bull!" The Kubrick glare that is on full display on this film. D'onofrio does it the best as his character grows more and more insane as he gets abuses hurled on him by Ermey and the rest of the recruits. By the end of his role in the movie, he outdoes Jack Nicholson's Kubrickian glare that he perfected in "The Shining." Matthew Modine achieves this glare at the end of the movie when he finally sees up close what he is shooting at. Stanley Kubrick's touch and style are very evident here with the atmosphere being very cold and unforgiving. He left his own mark on this movie as all great directors do. I have already talked about the acting, but aside from the particulars, there is not a single weak performance in this movie. I also like Stanley's choice of music in this movie. The songs fit each scene perfectly. I also loved Abigail Mead's sparse and heavily atmospheric score that covers the images and the mood of the film completely. This is a masterpiece of filmmaking, even if it does appear flawed to many. Is this the best war film ever made? Many critics seemed to think so when the movie was released. I'm not so sure. There are actually a number of war movies that I have still not seen like "The Big Red One" and "Platoon" among others. All the same, I have to say that I would "Apocalypse Now" (either version, original or redux) ahead of "Full Metal Jacket" just because that was even more breathtaking and risky than what Kubrick came up with. "Full Metal Jacket" was released sometime after "Platoon," so it may have suffered some in comparison. I miss Stanley. He led a great life and left with a volume of great movies that will be with us for all time. Still, his death felt so unfair. It felt like he left us far too soon. There were still some movies that only he could have made (excluding "A.I."), and now we will never get to see them. I guess that's what so depressing about his passing. We spent years and years and years after "Full Metal Jacket" to see what he would do next. It looked like "Eyes Wide Shut" was a warmup to what he was planning to do next. email this review to a friend
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