Some can hack it, while others, while hardened on the outside, get their insides scrambled. The film’s title, “Full Metal Jacket,” is a similar metaphor as “A Clockwork Orange.” In this case, a “full metal jacket” refers to a hard-cased bullet with soft material on the inside, such as lead. The Marine Corps wants killers.” But although the men are born again hard, trained to act and kill without fear, they are still human. Private Joker (Matthew Modine) observes that “The Marine Corps does not want robots. Lee Ermey) takes his “maggots,” tears them down, and builds them into Marines. The first forty-five minutes of “Full Metal Jacket” are similarly dedicated, as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. The movie in Kubrick’s career most similar to “Full Metal Jacket” is “A Clockwork Orange.” Anthony Burgess’s own explanation of the novel’s title is that it's a metaphor for “.an organic entity, full of sweetness and agreeable odour, being turned into a mechanism.” In the movie, Alex is subjected to the Ludovico Treatment, where he is conditioned into a man incapable of moral choice.
Few people in real life act like people do in Kubrick’s films, but the characters serve their purpose of illustrating larger themes. Certainly, members of the United States Marines have shown their admiration for Kubrick’s film, something I’ll get to a little later.Ī common trait in much of Kubrick’s work is the almost mechanized way in which his characters speak and behave. Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” had already scooped “Full Metal Jacket” by a year and won the Best Picture Oscar when Kubrick’s film was released in 1987, a year that also saw three other major films about the Vietnam war: “Hamburger Hill,” “The Hanoi Hilton,” and the Robin Williams comedy “Good Morning, Vietnam.” By the time “Full Metal Jacket” came out, there seemed to be a general feeling of “we’ve been down this road before” (something that would later be a factor in Kubrick’s plans to cancel his film “Aryan Papers” after Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” opened in 1993).īut like nearly all of Stanley Kubrick’s films, the years have been kind to it, and I would bet money that among the general movie audience, “Full Metal Jacket” stands alongside “Apocalypse Now,” “Platoon,” and “The Deer Hunter” as one of the best Vietnam films. Roger gave it a thumbs down, saying it was a disappointment, while Gene thought it was brilliant, and chided Roger for giving “Benji, the Hunted” a thumbs up on the same program. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel famously sparred over the movie on their TV show. It’s been called the least of Kubrick’s war films, and has often been dismissed as a two-act movie that falls apart halfway through.
Stanley Kubrick’s “ Full Metal Jacket” has earned its share of praise and hand-wringing since its debut 25 years ago.
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