Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

  • 97% of critics liked it
    (60 reviews)

  • 93% of users liked it
    (280,684 ratings)

Stanley Kubrick's return to filmmaking after a seven-year hiatus, this film crystallizes the experience of the Vietnam War by concentrating on a group of raw Marine volunteers. Based on Gustav Hasford's novel The Short Timers, the film's first half details the volunteers' harrowing… More

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In Theaters
Jun 17, 1987 Wide
Warner Bros.

Critic Reviews

  • Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

    Full Metal Jacket is not a realistic film -- it is horror-comic superrealism, from a God's-eye view -- but it should fully engage the ordinary movie grunt.

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

    This is the most tightly crafted Kubrick film since Dr. Strangelove, as well as the most horrific; the first section alone accomplishes most of what The Shining failed to do.

  • , Variety

    An intense, schematic, superbly made Vietnam War drama.

  • Geoff Andrew, Time Out

    Kubrick's direction is as steely cold and manipulative as the régime it depicts, and we never really get to know, let alone care about, the hapless recruits on view.

  • Desson Thomson, Washington Post

    Although the elements of the story are simple and precise, Kubrick infuses a dreamlike, fatalistic quality.

Read all 22 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Jonathan H


    Kubrick surprisingly only made two films in the 80s . His follow up to The Shining, well-made as it is, is not without certain flaws and is by no means top-drawer Kubrick. However, it is punctuated with incredible moments in spite of its shortcomings, including a grueling opening-act… More

  • Matthew Samuel M


    Weaker than other Kubrick films, Full Metal Jacket is still a good film but drags on without much progression in the plot.

  • Carlos M


    A powerful and cynical film that portrays with dark humor and acid criticism the dehumanizing side of war. R. Lee Ermey and D'Onofrio are fantastic, stealing the show in the most memorable scenes; even so, the second part never achieves the same level of excellence of the first… More

  • KJ P


    This particular film is a hard one to review. To me, it feels like two very different films. The first half is a story about the events leading up to the main war, while developing superb characters and a conclusion to the first act that is breathtakingly brutal. I felt like… More

  • Martin S


    This was good...I'm not sure why it was good. It's not a story from start to finnish. Things just happen....then more things happen. It's good things but....still.....carry on...

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

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Cast

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