FULL METAL JACKET
A film review by Craig Good
Copyright 1987 Craig Good
Stanly Kubrick hasn't made a movie since THE SHINING, making FULL METAL JACKET one of the most anticipated films of the year. It would be a mistake to call it a "me too" follow-up to PLATOON, but comparisons between the two films are going to be unavoidable. What they share in common, along with APOCALYPSE NOW, is the very real sensation that you have just lived through something. There are images and emotions that will stick with you for the rest of your life.
FULL METAL JACKET is a filmic experience. A skilled director communicates ideas which cannot be conveyed in any other medium. This is not a narrative film so much as an intense slice-of-life work. FULL METAL JACKET sets itself apart from other Vietnam films from the very start as the characters and the audience are first put through boot camp. Dark humor and the patent absurdity of the filthy-mouthed Gunnery Sergeant make for lots of laughs. But the film takes sudden turns into the deadly serious nature of the job at hand. As cruel as the basic training appears, you can see it getting results. I was exhausted by the graduation scene, and I now understand better than ever before just how those deep bonds of brotherhood are forged between soldiers.
The action switches to Vietnam at the time of the Tet Offensive. Our protagonist, played by Mathew Modine, is working for the STARS AND STRIPES newspaper. He itches to see some action at the front. Then the VC bring some action right to the front gate of his base at Da Nang. We follow him into the most convincing and frightening war-torn city I've ever seen. The climactic scene is not the usual "big battle" (a temptation that befell even PLATOON), but a chilling encounter with a sniper. Throughout the film I felt the helplessness of the characters who were swept up in a war they tried to understand but could not.
More than any war film I can recall, FULL METAL JACKET shows how truly complex war can be, and how one could arrive at the conclusion that the only way to avoid a moral dilemma is to become amoral. It is a wringing emotional experience tempered by Kubrick's black humor and unerring eye for detail. Make no mistake, this is a rough film with verbal obscenities and blood by the bucketload. I am usually insulted and offended by screenplays which attempt to cover bankrupt dialogue with four-letter words, but this is the film where such language is mandatory. The script was written with a good ear for the slang of the time and place. Get a sitter for the kids and head for the theatre.
--Craig Good
...{ucbvax,sun}!pixar!good
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