Full Metal Jacket(1987)

**The second half is better than the first half.** A film of two halves. The first half of the fiim focuses on the training of raw recruits and features shenanigans we have seen countless times before - think _Stripes_ and _Police Academy_. The persecution of the fat guy - a scenario we had already witnessed in Stripes and Police Academy ( "_I could show a movie on your butt, fatso_!"- Lt Harris, Police Academy) is…

Reviewed on February 15, 2017

Released in 1986, <i>Full Metal Jacket</i> is Stanley Kubrick's film about Vietnam, adapted from a novel by the reclusive and bitter Vietnam veteran Gustav Harford, and then further expanded by acclaimed Vietnam journalist Michael Herr. The film breaks down neatly into two very different parts, though both are seen through the eyes of young United States marine J. T. "Joker" Davis (Matthew Modine). In the first…

Reviewed on July 31, 2018

The Marine's don't want robots - they want killers. This is the journey undertaken by Private "Joker" J.T. Davis, from brutal training camp to Vietnam itself. As most people know by now, Full Metal Jacket is divided very much into two different halves, halves that to me show the best and worst of the talented director, Stanley Kubrick. For the first part we are subjected to the training regime inflicted on wet…

Reviewed on October 6, 2020

**_Kubrick emphasizes Marine Corps boot camp and urban warfare in Vietnam_** A high school journalist (Matthew Modine) goes to boot camp on Parris Island where he helps a struggling recruit (Vincent D'Onofrio) before serving as a chronicler of the war. In Da Nang he witnesses the start of the Tet Offensive before going 58 miles northwest of there on the coast to experience the Battle of Hue. “Full Metal Jacket”…

Reviewed on June 14, 2025