Full Metal Jacket poster & wallpaper

Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio

Story follows a group of Marine recruits from the harrowing experience of boot camp to the horrifying battlefronts of Vietnam.

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93% liked it

173,329 ratings

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96% liked it

53 critics

R, 1 hr. 56 min.

Directed by: Stanley Kubrick

Release Date: June 17, 1987

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DVD Release Date: June 29, 1999

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Stats: 19,797 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (19,797)

  • SirPant
    September 4, 2009
    SirPant
    A film of 2 halves, it shows the real, ugly and stupid side of war. Kubrick made the last great war film, everything after this is just special effects. Brilliant!
  • DragonEyeMorrison
    June 29, 2009
    DragonEyeMorrison
    Great first act, completely pointless second half.
  • 76Majikat
    June 26, 2009
    76Majikat
    Stanley Kubrick?s ?Full Metal Jacket? is one of the best war films made in my opinion. It?s very much a film of two parts, which I feel is the secret of the films' success. In the first part we see the training of the recruits, in the second we see them go to war, I've not seen...( read more) any films from this genre that show both.

    Admittedly I preferred the training part to the war part, but enjoyable throughout regardless. I felt Matthew Modine who played Joker was a great character in the film.

    Many of the action shots of injury etc were very well done and apart from the colour of the blood were fairly realistic.

    Glad I finally got around to watching this film, had many reviews for it and everyone else seems to have already watched it.
  • sononothing
    April 25, 2009
    sononothing
    The career of Stanley Kubrick seems to be him taking on a popular genre and blowing the competition out of the water. 2001 was his answer to the sci-fi films of the 1950's and '60's. A Clockwork Orange defined the ultra violent films that would follow it during the 1970's. The Sh...( read more)ining was his attempt to make a good, psychological horror film. Full Metal Jacket follows the line by tackling a genre that exploded during the mid 1980's: the Vietnam war film. From Platoon to Rambo the topic had been tackled, starting with glorious fare like Apocalypse Now and the Deer Hunter. Now it was Kubrick's turn.

    The film is unlike other war films. Instead of taking you straight to the "shit" it opens with a group of recruits in the Marine Corp going through basic training. Each character is given a new name by the drill sergeant (played by the incredible R. Lee Ermey) that they go by throughout the rest of the film. The narrator is Private Joker, a name given for being a smart ass on the first day. Joker is almost like a modern day John Boy Walton thrust into the Vietnam era equipped with all the cynicism that writers had during the era. The other character that Kubrick pays particular attention to is nicknamed Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) for being what Sgt. Hartman (Ermey) calls a "disgusting fat body!". Pyle is a screw up, only being good with his gun. otherwise he is a failure at discipline who incurs the wrath of Hartman and the other members of the platoon.

    The main reasoning for basic training is explained by the sergeant early on. He's there to train killers. His job is essentially to put them through hell and weed out the failures and push on the killers into the jungles of Vietnam. Consider his job as quality control. As an example when Hartman announces the assignments for the recruits he announces that Joker is going into military journalism, leading Hartman to explain that he's not Mickey Spillane. He's a killer. Of course quality control fails sometimes...

    The film shifts gears during its second half, almost becoming another movie. We still follow Joker into the jungles of Vietnam, but it's vastly different from Paris Island. Buzzed hair and pristine uniforms have given way to shaggy hair, untucked shirts, and insubordination to his superiors at times- something that Hartman would have kicked the shit out of him for. Set during the Tet Offensive Joker is sent out with a new photographer to follow the carnage during Tet. He stumbles onto a buddy from boot camp Cowboy (Arliss Howard) and ends up following his platoon into some heavy "shit" in small urban eras throughout Vietnam.

    The film is a question: Did Hartman create killers? Through all the screaming and war faces was he able to turn average boys into hardened killers to be dropped into the jungle and kill everything they see. You get your answers throughout the film, realizing that every one of these men had a Hartman pushing them to kill, kill, kill. We find out the answer to that question numerous times. Some men had it in them and some men didn't. What's striking is that in the end the boys haven't really gone considering the song they all sing together to close the film.

    Kubrick creates a great atmosphere considering he never left England to make it. Casting the film with relative unknowns, including Ermey who was only an advisor before being picked by Kubrick to take the Hartman role, Kubrick created a film filled with what could be called the boys next door. They could be our sons, brothers, nephews, paperboys, or the kid that mows our lawn. Boys thrown into hell. Kubrick shoots the film in a style that feels guerrilla compared to Kubrick's other work, which is high end compared to most directors. He directs the film with basic military precision except for two shots that will remain in your head, each one coming from one of the halves of the film. The first is a view of Hartman shouting at you while your on your knees from a nice gut shot. A grisly shot that shows an animal hovering over you. The second is the view from a Vietnamese snipers nest. Kubrick crafts the shot so well you feel like you're in the head of the sniper.

    Full Metal Jacket is another masterpiece from Stanley Kubrick. It's a well produced war piece that was a breath of fresh air compared to Rambo and Missing in Action. In many ways it's superior to Platoon in that it gives us more explanation in the demeanor changes of men in war time situations. It's also well paced and doesn't drag in any parts as compared to a few parts of Platoon.

    I've often said that directors fall into two categories: Hitchcock and Kubrick. Hitchcock directors can take the same basic premise and make a masterpiece over and over again. Kubrick directors can make a different film every time and still create a masterpiece. That fits Kubrick to a tee.
  • TheMachinist
    April 23, 2009
    TheMachinist
    "7-6-2 millimeter. Full. Metal. Jacket."

    This is a hard one to review. Basically it's one of the best war movies ever made and one of my personal favourites by Stanley Kubrick. What is it that makes it so special? Let's try to bring out the awesomeness of it for you to read...

    ...( read more)The characters. Private Gomer Pyle is a character that each and every one, who even remotelly call themselves filmbuffs, should now by name. Vincent D'Onofrio's performance gave him a career. It is so memorable and so... frightening. In the beginning he's just a typical slow kind of guy but because he can't help himself to avoid trouble, the abuse by his fellow maggots transform him to a quiet, isolated killer. The bathroom scene could easily be edited into a horror movie. More scarier than many scenes from films that try to call themselves horror films. Excellent performance!

    Animal Mother. Man, this is the ultimate Vietnam character. A crazy yet very loyal killing machine who will do anything to save his brothers in arms, just as long he woun't die doing it...

    "Better you than me."

    Adam Baldwin has become, during the last month or so (Firefly, Serenity, anyone?), a personal favourite of mine. Fuck Rambo, fuck James Braddock. Animal Mother is the one to remember. His portrayal is more than perfect, it feels real. At both times insecure and full of testosterone but ready to 'become death', as it is written on his helmet.

    Gunnery Sergenat Hartman. Would the movie be the same if Stanley Kubrick wouldn't have cast R. Lee Ermey as the drill instructor from hell. At first he was hired as a military advisor but because he was so good at it, and eager to perform, Kubrick did what he had to do.. Give R. Lee Ermey a career, just like D'Onofrio.

    "If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human, fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian shit. Because I am hard you will not like me. But the more you hate me the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps. Do you maggots understand that?"

    The hooker from Da Nang.

    "Me so horny. Me love you long time. You Party?"

    Nuff said.

    Those three main characters will live forever. Each and every one of 'em contribute so strongly to make "Full Metal Jacket" THE Vietnam movie to watch.

    The directing and cinematography. I just love the long shots in the movie. There's a lot of dialogue, mainly spoken by R. Lee Ermey, so prepare yourself for long shots and nice editing. Kubrick, as all of you should know, liked to take several takes of any scene. He even gave the actors the responsibility to give something that the actors self came in mind with. "How would you do this?", "Do you have any ideas?", "Make it more special". These are words that Kubrick could say to the performers. In the end, he was a very demanding director, but I guess Kubrick did that to a) get the best performance from the actors and b) make the best possible movie.

    The way Kubrick uses the music. When he's not playing 70's rock music, Kubrick uses a simple yet effective score made by his daughter Vivian Kubrick. There's no pompous instruments and that is what makes it so great. The score supports the strong scenes in a way that every filmmaker should study and understand.

    When I've read other reviews and articles about the movie, people complain that it doesn't look like Vietnam. The film doesn't look like a Vietnam war movie. Question? How many of you or those who have said these stupid things have actually been in Vietnam during the war. To me, Kubrick has done his best to make the shooting location closely similar to the actual place. It does look like a place of war..

    "Full Metal Jacket" is, and will always be, one of the best war movies ever made. It doesn't actually have that many battle scenes and it doesn't feast on the simple madness of the whole issue of war. It's more a character study/presentation of various different characters and on how these characters deal with the nearness of war.

    Effective, masked as simple, magnificent filmmaking. Only Kubrick can do it!
  • ElCochran90
    November 7, 2009
    ElCochran90
    Realistic and depressing portrayal of the psychology of suffering Vietnam vets, Kubrick style. It is a genius attempt and it deviates from Oliver Stone's patriotism and from Coppola's existentialist masacre. It is among the director's worst, but this war contemporary classic has ...( read more)been paralleled few times. An explosive, humorous ride.

    84/100
  • jeff954y
    November 7, 2009
    jeff954y
    A classic, listen to those commentaries of war veterans in the bonus material...
  • byronhitchens
    November 3, 2009
    byronhitchens
    I liked everything about this movie, even though i was never in the military other-than rotc in high school, this movie was like real military action, i like the actor R. Lee Ermey he realy made me felt as if it was real
  • kieranmcintyre100
    October 30, 2009
    kieranmcintyre100
    Kubrick is a great film director.
    this movie is great
  • lapd429
    October 26, 2009
    lapd429
    saw it right befor i went to paris Island loved it

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Critic Reviews

January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

[A] strangely shapeless film from the man whose work usually imposes a ferociously consistent vision on his material. full review

View more Full Metal Jacket reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • jackass001
    May 4, 2009
    jackass001
    show me your warface! :)
  • charles1991
    July 10, 2008
    charles1991
    this is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for figthing and this is for fun
  • Harsh4U
    September 9, 2006
    Harsh4U
    "Stanley Kubrick" is a genius,In this movie he shows what war is really about. War is never justified, war is never good. Therefore I think war movie should never glorify war but rather show it as what it really is: nightmarish hell.He also gives us a "grunts-eye-view" of military training and combat in a war that was particularly unpopular and well documented.

    Private Joker: My thoughts drift back to erect nipple wet dreams about Mary Jane Rottencrotch and the Great Homecoming Fuck Fantasy. I am so happy that I am alive, in one piece and short. I'm in a world of shit... yes. But I am alive. And I am not afraid.
  • jbpelican
    August 30, 2006
    jbpelican
    Fucken hilariouse. That job would so suit me, i love to talk shit about others.
  • andresh86
    August 20, 2006
    andresh86
    Cold, brutal portrayal of the training and subsequent field operations of the U.S Marine Corps. This is a must see for Vincent D'Onofrio's character alone!
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Full Metal Jacket Trivia

  • What does Joker have written on his Helmet in Full Metal Jacket?  Answer »
  • What is written on Matthew Modine's (Pvt. Joker) helmet in the film Full mEtal Jacket?  Answer »
  • In this movie, the actor that plays the drill instructor was actually a drill instructor in real life.  Answer »
  • What movie featured Marines Nicknamed Pile, Joker , Cowboy and Animal Mother, to name a few?   Answer »
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