Full Metal Jacket
1987 Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Synopsis
Vietnam can kill me, but it can’t make me care.
Marine recruits endure the grueling ordeal of basic training and later face the unrelenting Viet Cong during the 1968 Tet Offensive in this grim Stanley Kubrick drama, based on a novel by Gustav Hasford.
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For the full extent of my high school years (1988-92), I was a cadet in the United States Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. My fellow cadets and I worshiped the Boot Camp half of this film. R. Lee Ermey was like a god to us, and we memorized all of his speeches. But because we were so obsessed with the Ermey character, we never seemed to watch the second half. We apparently bought into the myth that it sucked.
Looking back now on that Boot Camp half that looms so large in my memory, I find two truths at work: First, it's been parodied so many times since then, frequently by Ermey himself, that it's initially hard to take…
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This film has always given me a deep sense of unease. This feeling particularly applies to the first part, which takes place at basic training. In fact, I feel that what the recruits are exposed to affect myself directly. The whole film deals with partial degradation of human dignity and the self, but the way Kubrick throws this in our faces already from the beginning grabs me every time.
The haircut-sequence is an important part of this. As before a surgical procedure, the skulls are prepared for the psychological interventions that will follow. Human hair, an important part of who you are, is left behind in a heap on the floor. By completely changing and standardizing appearance this helps alienating… -
Film #14 in Driver’s December Death Penalty AKA The December Project , which is part of Cinebro's The December Challenge. 1 month, 100 movies.
116 minutes
Listen up, maggots! Listen hard and listen well! Because Full Metal Jacket is something that I will motivate you to watch! Or I will PT you all until you F**KING DIE!
Full Metal Jacket makes other movies of it's kind look like worthless pieces of amphibian SH*T! And do you know why that is, you twinkled-toed commie b**tards? Because there isn't another film like it, numb-nuts!
Privates Joker, Cowboy, Pyle and Animal Mother are all out-f**king-standing, and eclipse all other non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve the beloved movie, and cast…
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There are only a handful of truly iconic war films and this most definitely belongs among them. It does not merely depict elements of war in a realistic way, it also intelligently critiques and satirizes our species' instinctive tendencies to wage war and the inescapable need for a communal spirit while cyclically purveying an 'us vs them' mentality.
In the first part, perhaps most famous for the foul mouthed genius of Lee Ermy, Kubrick shows us how the cogs are created in the machine that was the Vietnam war. By dehumanizing new recruits, Kubrick shows us the strengths and weaknesses of our race. When pushed, we can achieve anything we want. When thrust together we take care of our own…
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Film #13, Year 1987 in the June Summer Movie Blockbuster Challenge
Ranked 3rd on Movie Maestro's All-Time Favorite Movie List
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Where in the hell are you from anyway, private?
Private: Sir, Texas, sir!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Holy dog shit, Texas! Only steers and queers come from Texas, private Cowboy! And you don't much look like a steer to me so that kinda narrows it down!
This is the epitome of a guy's movie and it is not for the easily offended. There are endless hilarious quotes from this film, but most of them I would not repeat in public. This film has been on my top ten list since I first saw it in the late 1980's.… -
"I bet you're the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. I'll be watching you."
Gunnery Sergeant HartmanIt's quotes like the one above that make this film one of the funniest damn movies I've ever seen. The first half or so is full of dialogue like that and it cracks me up every time I watch it. If you've seen this film you know there's a pretty sharp change in tone for the second half of this film. The first few times I watched Full Metal Jacket the abrupt change was pretty jarring and I didn't like the second half as much…
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Another Stanley Kubrick film that hits the nail on the head. The movie starts with one of the most iconic scenes of all time and just doesn't fail to impress from then on out.
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It has been a while since I've seen this film. I still feel like it divided into two distinct halves with the first being near 5 stars and the second half just being an average movie for its genre.
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I'm able to marvel at this film while simultaneously completely hating it. Kubrick is a genius. A twisted genius.
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Intense.
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Adaption of Gustav Hasford's The Short Timers is divided into two sections, the first and superior is. Harrowing look at marine basic training on Parris Island and the second focuses on combat experiences in Vietnam. The first half is so strong, thanks in part to Ermey that the second half suffers in comparison. In fact, for me, the first half is as good as anything Kubrick has done. It's compelling, well acted and supremely well crafted. Is just a shame the second isn't anywhere near as watchable, it's slightly meandering and loses focus. -
It seems like the one good thing that came out of the Vietnam war was great fucking war movies. Born on the Fourth of July, Platoon, Deer Hunter and now Full Metal Jacket. The film is split into two parts, basic training and the soldiers doing battle in Vietnam. From the opening sequence, the film grabs you and doesn't let you go for an hour, and that's thanks to Lee Ermey as the tenaciously unforgiving General. He is ruthless, tough and punishing by nature, and this is his undoing. Vincent D'Onofrio gives the best performance in this film as the naive, some might say warped, cadet that turns on his drill Sargent. I was extremely disappointed when he died only…
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Film #13, Year 1987 in the June Summer Movie Blockbuster Challenge
Ranked 3rd on Movie Maestro's All-Time Favorite Movie List
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Where in the hell are you from anyway, private?
Private: Sir, Texas, sir!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Holy dog shit, Texas! Only steers and queers come from Texas, private Cowboy! And you don't much look like a steer to me so that kinda narrows it down!
This is the epitome of a guy's movie and it is not for the easily offended. There are endless hilarious quotes from this film, but most of them I would not repeat in public. This film has been on my top ten list since I first saw it in the late 1980's.… -
Kubrick, enough said.
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My favorite Kubrick film. Combining the hardships of boot camp and the even more intense stresses of war on new soldiers in Vietnam, this is a must see film.