Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" was on my mind recently, so I dug it out of my DVD collection and popped it into my Pioneer DVD player. I got that big Stanley Kubrick DVD box set with the remastered editions of each film. This is opposed to the edition that came out immediately after his death. That set had the shittiest prints of the movies available. Did you see all the grain on "The Shining?"

"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. When Stanley said that the part had already been cast, Ermey got in his face and told him to stand straight when he addressed him. The way Ermey saw it, the actors needed to be whipped into shape, and he was the one to do it. After seeing the movie, you can see why.