...Kubrick's notion of how the military changes ordinary people into killing machines.
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The reader may well find several things about this HD-DVD version of Stanley Kubrick's 1987 war epic "Full Metal Jacket" (as well as my review of the movie) unsettling.
First, perhaps because Warner Bros. present the film in 1080 high definition, they chose to transfer it to disc in dimensions close to its original theatrical exhibition size of 1.85:1. This would not generally be much cause for alarm (indeed, more like rejoicing), but it is unusual in that writer/producer/director Kubrick expressly asked that the final films he made be presented on video at the ratio of their original camera negatives, 1.37:1 (rendered on disc at 1.33:1).
Second, although you will pay a premium price for this HD-DVD, it contains virtually no extras. A theatrical trailer is about all you get. Obviously, the movie is the thing.
Third, while a lot of fans consider "Full Metal Jacket" one of the best war movies of all time, if not the best, I have never been fully able to reconcile the more routine action of its second half with the brilliant intensity and black humor of its first half. Thus, I look at the film both fondly and regretfully as a great could-have-been.
When I first came to "Full Metal Jacket" at its theatrical première, I did so with great expectations. I was and remain a devoted Kubrick fan. Kubrick is one of those great filmmakers who made so few films that almost anyone can have seen most or all of them and come away with a composite opinion. I started in 1957 with "Paths of Glory" (having missed at the time his several earlier films), and followed him through classics like "Spartacus," "Lolita," "Dr. Strangelove," "2001," "A Clockwork Orange," "Barry Lyndon," and "The Shining." For Kubrick to be tackling the subject of Vietnam seemed a no-brainer. It would be another classic, plain and simple.
But "Full Metal Jacket" and his final picture, "Eyes Wide Shut," were far more problematical for me than even "Barry Lyndon" had been. For instance, in "Barry Lyndon" Kubrick had subordinated the plot and characters to his own personal themes and artistic vision, much as he had done in "2001" (and virtually all of his movies, for that matter), yet it didn't bother me. There was enough going on elsewhere in "Lyndon" to satisfy me. But with "Full Metal Jacket" I left the theater vaguely dissatisfied. I had the feeling I had watched a movie only half of which I enjoyed.
Yes, many people consider "Full Metal Jacket" the best war movie ever made, and they may be right. Still, one has to understand that it is technically not a war movie as such, but an antiwar movie. That is, the film does not approach its subject matter with the intent to glorify war or even to present war objectively. Kubrick clearly wants his audience to know that war is more than hell (a trite and glorifying phrase, in any case); that war is a brutal, dehumanizing experience, and that those folks who start such endeavors are as loony as some of the characters the director portrays in his film. In this regard, Kubrick's slant on the events of war is more akin to Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" than it is to more traditional things like "Saving Private Ryan," "The Sands of Iwo Jima," "A Walk in the Sun," or even "The Thin Red Line" and "Platoon."
Kubrick based his screenplay on the novel "The Short-Timers" by Gustav Hasford. The director begins things during an eight-week Marine boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. Here we meet the characters of the story (many of whom we will later follow into combat) getting their first military haircuts. The shaved heads are an appropriate representation of the conformity the Marine Corps will impose upon them as they become mere look-alike pawns in the chess game of war.
First among the characters is Private Joker (Matthew Modine), "Joker" being the nickname his Senior Drill Instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Lee Ermey, before the R.) gives him the first day of training. Modine is fine, but it is Ermey's Hartman--one mean, foulmouthed son of a bitch--who steals the first half of the show. Ermey, a former real-life Staff Sergeant in the Marines, effectively portrays a character who is every young recruit's worst nightmare. "The more you hate me," he tells his men, "the more you will learn. I am hard, but I am fair.... You are equally worthless." Only I left out the profane expletives, which would have made the quotation three times longer.
Hartman takes a special pleasure in tormenting an overweight recruit nicknamed Gomer Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio, who gained an enormous amount of weight for the role), turning a sweet, simple, naive young man into a virtual monster. This is probably the single most striking metaphor in the film for Kubrick's notion of how the military changes ordinary people into killing machines. The climax of the movie's first half recalls Kubrick's previous picture, "The Shining," only the horror is even more real.
Part two of "Full Metal Jacket" follows the young soldiers into combat in Vietnam during the Tet offensive of 1968. The Marines assign Joker to the journalism pool, where he is to write pro-American stories for "Stars and Stripes." This doesn't sit too well with his rebellious spirit (he wears the slogan "Born to kill" on his helmet and a peace symbol on his vest, his way of suggesting the duality of Man), but it keeps him out of harm's way most of the time. That is, until he's ordered into action. Among his cohorts are "Animal Mother" (Adam Baldwin), a gung-ho tough guy in the field; "Eightball" (Dorian Harewood) and "Cowboy" (Arliss Howard), fellow squad members; and "Rafterman" (Kevin Major Howard), Joker's best buddy. Note that the use of nicknames tends to further rob the characters of their personal identity.
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