Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The real war is the fragility of the mind.
Presentation:
As far as psychological aspects of war goes, Stanley Kubrick’s war film feels like one of the most subversive. The Vietnam War is the perfect setting for this because of its infamous chaos, unorganized and pointless nature. Kubrick doesn’t focus as much on the futility of the war compared to Apocalypse Now but opts to inspect the psychological aspects as he does with all his other movies. The most memorable aspect of this film focuses on the training leading up to the war, though both parts are substantial. However, it ends up feeling like a 2 part movie rather than a complete cohesive film, not necessarily in a bad way, but this makes it one of the more intellectually exciting war films rather than action oriented.
Conclusion:
This is one of my favorite war films. It’s extremely memorable and the performance from R. Lee Ermey will be ingrained in your mind. But the film builds up a main conflict between two characters to not have as much presence later on, shifting the presence of the film to the less charismatic squad for the second half and making the film feel slightly disjointed. It doesn’t make the film any less enjoyable, but feels less cohesive as a whole and like a snapshot rather than a fleshed out story. Still a great experience which won’t disappoint fans of Kubrick’s subversive psychology.
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Recommendations
A war thriller at the peak of the French wave.