Full Metal Jacket is a 1987
war filmWar films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
produced and directed by
Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel
The Short-TimersThe Short-Timers is a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel by American former Marine Gustav Hasford,about his experience in the Vietnam War. It was later adapted into the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket by Hasford, Michael Herr, and Stanley Kubrick....
by
Gustav HasfordGustav Hasford was an American writer. His semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers was the basis of the film Full Metal Jacket.-Biography:...
and stars
Matthew ModineMatthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
,
Vincent D'OnofrioVincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...
,
R. Lee ErmeyRonald Lee Ermey is a retired United States Marine Corps drill instructor and actor.Ermey has often played the roles of authority figures, such as his breakout performance as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, Mayor Tilman in the Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in...
,
Arliss HowardArliss Howard is an American actor, writer and film director.-Life and career:Howard was born in Independence, Missouri in 1954, and graduated from Truman High School and Columbia College at Columbia, Missouri. Howard established his career with stand-out roles in Full Metal Jacket and Ruby...
and
Adam BaldwinAdam Baldwin is an American actor, known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
. The film follows a
platoonA platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
of U.S. Marines through their
trainingUnited States Marine Corps Recruit Training, commonly known as "boot camp", is a program of initial training that each recruit must successfully complete in order to join the United States Marine Corps...
and depicts some experiences of two of them in the Tet Offensive during the
Vietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. The film title refers to the
full metal jacket bulletA full metal jacket is a bullet consisting of a soft core encased in a shell of harder metal, such as gilding metal, cupronickel or less commonly a steel alloy. This shell can extend around all of the bullet, or often just the front and sides with the rear left as exposed lead...
used by
infantryInfantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
rifleA rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
men.
Plot
In 1967, during the Vietnam War, a group of new
United States Marine CorpsThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
recruits arrives at
Parris IslandMarine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is an military installation located within Port Royal, South Carolina, approximately south of Beaufort, the community that is typically associated with the installation. MCRD Parris Island is used for the training of enlisted Marines...
for training. After having their heads shaved, they meet their senior drill instructor,
Gunnery SergeantGunnery Sergeant is the seventh enlisted rank in the United States Marine Corps, just above Staff Sergeant and below Master Sergeant and First Sergeant, and is a staff non-commissioned officer...
Hartman (R. Lee Ermey). Hartman employs draconian tactics to turn the recruits into hardened marines prepared for combat. Among the recruits are Privates "Joker" (
Matthew ModineMatthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
), "Cowboy" (
Arliss HowardArliss Howard is an American actor, writer and film director.-Life and career:Howard was born in Independence, Missouri in 1954, and graduated from Truman High School and Columbia College at Columbia, Missouri. Howard established his career with stand-out roles in Full Metal Jacket and Ruby...
), and the overweight, bumbling Leonard Lawrence (
Vincent D'OnofrioVincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...
), who earns the nickname "
Gomer PyleGomer Pyle is a bubbly, gentle, rural auto mechanic character played by American singer/ television actor Jim Nabors. Gomer Pyle became a character on the TV sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, when actor Howard McNear, who played Floyd the barber, suffered a stroke and took a respite from acting. Jim...
" after attracting Hartman's wrath.
Unresponsive to Hartman's discipline, Pyle is eventually paired with Joker. Pyle begins to improve with Joker's help, but regresses when Hartman discovers a doughnut in Pyle's foot locker. Believing that the recruits have failed to improve Pyle, Hartman adopts a
collective punishmentCollective punishment is the punishment of a group of people as a result of the behavior of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions...
policy: Every mistake made by Pyle will reward Pyle and earn the rest of the platoon punishment. The platoon is forced to do pushups while Pyle is humiliatingly forced to eat a doughnut. In retaliation, at night the platoon
hazesHazing is a term used to describe various ritual and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group....
Pyle with a
blanket partyA blanket party is a means of corporal punishment or hazing conducted by a peer group. Blanket parties are most frequently conducted by groups within the military or military academies...
, restraining him to his bunk and beating him with bars of soap wrapped in towels. After this incident, Pyle undergoes a personality change, becoming a model marine. This impresses Hartman, but worries Joker, who recognizes signs of mental breakdown in Pyle.
After graduation, each recruit receives an assignment to an
occupational specialtyA United States military occupation code, or a Military Occupational Specialty code , is a nine character code used in the United States Army and United States Marines to identify a specific job. In the U.S. Air Force, a system of Air Force Specialty Codes is used...
, with most being sent to the infantry; Joker is assigned to Basic Military Journalism. On the platoon's last night on Parris Island, while Joker is on fire watch he discovers Pyle in the bathroom loading his rifle with live ammunition. Joker attempts to calm Pyle, who executes drill commands and recites the
Rifleman's CreedThe Rifleman's Creed is a part of basic United States Marine Corps doctrine. Major General William H. Rupertus wrote it during World War II, probably in late 1941 or early 1942. All Marines learn the creed at recruit training and they are expected to live by it...
. The noise awakens the entire platoon and Hartman, who confronts Pyle. Pyle fatally shoots Hartman, and then commits suicide in front of Joker.
In January 1968, Joker has become a corporal and a Marine War correspondent in Vietnam with
Stars and StripesStars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests,...
, assigned to a public-affairs unit with Private First Class Rafterman (
Kevyn Major HowardKevyn Major Howard is a Canadian actor best known for his role in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.After acting in high school, Howard moved to Los Angeles and Hollywood in the late 1970s....
), a combat photographer. Rafterman wants to go into combat, as Joker claims he has done. One of Joker's colleagues mocks his inexperience, claiming he does not have the
thousand-yard stareThe thousand-yard stare or two-thousand-yard stare is a phrase originally coined to describe the limp, unfocused gaze of a battle-weary warrior...
of a man who has seen war. Gunfire interrupts their argument: the North Vietnamese Army begins the Tet Offensive and attempts to overrun the base.
The journalism staff is briefed the next day about enemy attacks throughout South Vietnam. Lt. Lockhart sends Joker to Phu Bai. Rafterman accompanies him to see combat. There, they meet the
Lusthog SquadThe Lusthog Squad is a fictional Vietnam team introduced first in The Short-Timers by Vietnam veteran Gustav Hasford. The squad was also featured in its sequel, The Phantom Blooper, albeit with most of its members changed...
, where Cowboy is now a Sergeant and second-in-command. Joker accompanies the squad during the Battle of Huế, where their commander Lt. Touchdown (
Ed O'RossEd O'Ross is an American actor perhaps best known for playing the giggling spectacled gangster Itchy in Dick Tracy, ruthless Georgian mobster Viktor Rostavili in Red Heat, and tough-then-alien-possessed police detective Cliff Willis in The Hidden.-Early life:O'Ross was born Edward Oross in...
) is killed by the enemy.
During patrol, Crazy Earl (Kieron Jecchinis), the team's new squad leader, is killed by a booby trap, leaving Cowboy in command. The squad becomes lost in the rubble and Cowboy orders Eightball (
Dorian HarewoodW. Dorian Harewood is an American actor. He first garnered attention for his portrayal of Simon Haley in the ABC miniseries Roots: The Next Generations.-Career:...
) to recon the area. A sniper wounds Eightball and the squad medic Doc Jay (John Stafford) attempts to save him against orders, being shot and wounded himself. The sniper leaves the men wounded to draw out more of the squad. Cowboy learns that tank support is not available and orders the team to prepare for withdrawal. The squad's machine gunner, Animal Mother (
Adam BaldwinAdam Baldwin is an American actor, known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
), disobeys Cowboy and attempts to avenge his friends. He discovers there is only one sniper, but Doc Jay and Eightball are killed when Jay attempts to indicate the sniper's location. While maneuvering to locate the sniper, Cowboy is shot and killed.
Animal Mother assumes command of the squad. Under the cover of smoke grenades, the squad advances on the sniper's position. Joker discovers the sniper, an adolescent female, and attempts to shoot her, but his rifle jams and alerts her to his presence. As Joker is about to be killed, Rafterman shoots the sniper. As Animal Mother and the squad converge, the mortally wounded sniper repeatedly begs for death, prompting an argument about whether or not to kill her. Animal Mother decides to allow a mercy killing only if Joker performs it. After some hesitation, Joker shoots her with his sidearm. The Marines congratulate him on his kill as Joker stares into the distance, displaying the thousand-yard stare. The Marines march toward their camp, singing the
Mickey Mouse MarchMickey Mouse March , is the opening theme for the The Mickey Mouse Club TV show, broadcast weekday afternoons in the US from October 1955 to 1959, on the ABC television network...
. Joker states that despite being "in a world of shit" that he is glad to be alive, and is unafraid.
Cast
- Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
as Private/Corporal/Sergeant James T. "Joker" Davis. The narrator who claims to have joined the Corps to see combat, and later becomes an independent-minded combat correspondent. Joker wears a peace-sign medallion on his uniform as well as writing "Born to Kill" on his helmet, which he explains as an expression of JungianCarl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
philosophy concerning the duality of man.
- Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...
as Private Leonard "Gomer PyleGomer Pyle is a bubbly, gentle, rural auto mechanic character played by American singer/ television actor Jim Nabors. Gomer Pyle became a character on the TV sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, when actor Howard McNear, who played Floyd the barber, suffered a stroke and took a respite from acting. Jim...
" Lawrence. An overweight, clumsy, slow-witted recruit who becomes the focus of Hartman's attention for his incompetence and excess weight. D'Onofrio was required to gain weight for the role and added 70 lbs to his frame, for a total weight of 280 lbs. This weight gain broke the record for the largest weight gained for a role set by Robert DeNiro for Raging Bull (1980), a record D'Onofrio still holds. It took him 9 months to shed the excess weight.
- R. Lee Ermey
Ronald Lee Ermey is a retired United States Marine Corps drill instructor and actor.Ermey has often played the roles of authority figures, such as his breakout performance as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, Mayor Tilman in the Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in...
as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The Parris Island drill instructor who trains his recruits to transform them into Marines. R. Lee Ermey actually served as a US Marine drill instructor during the Vietnam War. Based on this experience, he ad libbed much of his dialogue in the film.
- Arliss Howard
Arliss Howard is an American actor, writer and film director.-Life and career:Howard was born in Independence, Missouri in 1954, and graduated from Truman High School and Columbia College at Columbia, Missouri. Howard established his career with stand-out roles in Full Metal Jacket and Ruby...
as Private/Sergeant "Cowboy" Evans. A Texan who attends boot camp with Joker and Pyle. He becomes a rifleman and later encounters Joker in Vietnam, where Cowboy takes command of a rifle squad.
- Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin is an American actor, known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
as Sergeant "Animal Mother". the nihilisticNihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
M60 machine gunThe M60 is a family of American general-purpose machine guns firing 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges from a disintegrating belt of M13 links...
ner of the Lusthog Squad. His helmet bears the inscription: "I Am Become Death", a quotation from the Bhagavad GitaThe ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
.
- Dorian Harewood
W. Dorian Harewood is an American actor. He first garnered attention for his portrayal of Simon Haley in the ABC miniseries Roots: The Next Generations.-Career:...
as Corporal "Eightball". The African-American member of the Lusthog Squad, insensitive about his ethnicity (e.g. "Put a nigger behind the trigger"), and Animal Mother's closest friend.
- Kevyn Major Howard
Kevyn Major Howard is a Canadian actor best known for his role in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.After acting in high school, Howard moved to Los Angeles and Hollywood in the late 1970s....
as Private First Class "Rafter Man". Rafter Man works as a combat photographer in the Stars and Stripes office with Joker.
- Ed O'Ross
Ed O'Ross is an American actor perhaps best known for playing the giggling spectacled gangster Itchy in Dick Tracy, ruthless Georgian mobster Viktor Rostavili in Red Heat, and tough-then-alien-possessed police detective Cliff Willis in The Hidden.-Early life:O'Ross was born Edward Oross in...
as Lieutenant Walter J. "Touchdown" Schinowski. The commander of the Lusthog Squad's platoon.
- John Terry
John Terry is an American film, television, and stage actor.-Early life:Terry was born in Florida, where he attended Vero Beach High School. He was also educated at the prestigious Loomis Chaffee prep school in Windsor, Connecticut, and began a career building original custom log homes in North...
as Lieutenant Lockhart: The PAOPublic Affairs is a term for the formal offices of the branches of the United States Department of Defense whose purpose is to deal with the media and community issues. The term is also used for numerous media relations offices that are created by the U.S. military for more specific limited purposes...
Officer in Charge and Joker's assignment editorIn journalism, an assignment editor is an editor – either at a newspaper, or radio or television station – who selects, develops and plans reporting assignments, either news events or feature stories, to be covered by reporters.....
.
- Kieron Jecchinis as Sergeant "Crazy Earl": The squad leader, he is forced to assume platoon command when Platoon Commander 2LT Walter J. Schinowski is killed. As in the novel he carries a BB gun
BB guns are a type of air gun designed to shoot projectiles named BBs after the birdshot pellet of approximately the same size. These projectiles are usually spherical but can also be pointed; those are usually used for bird hunting. Modern day BB guns usually have a smoothbore barrel, with a bore...
, which is visible just before he dies.
- John Stafford as Doc Jay: A Navy corpsman attached to the Lusthog squad.
- Tim Colceri
Tim Colceri is an American actor and comedian. He is most known for his role in the 1987 Stanley Kubrick classic Full Metal Jacket, where he played the door gunner who uttered the much-quoted lines "Get some!" and "Ain't war hell?"-Early life and education:Tim was born on June 15, 1951 in Canton,...
as the door gunnerA door gunner is a crewman tasked with firing and maintaining manually directed armament aboard a helicopter. The actual role will vary depending on the task given on a particular mission.- Origins :...
of the helicopter transporting Joker and Rafter Man to the Tet Offensive front. Inflight, he shoots at civilians, while enthusiastically repeating "Get some!", boasting "157 dead GookGook is a derogatory term for East Asians which came to prominence in reference to enemy soldiers. U.S. Marines serving in the Philippines in the early 20th century used the word to refer to Filipinos. The term continued to be used by American soldiers stationed around the world to refer to...
s killed, and 50 water buffaloThe water buffalo is a domesticated bovid widely kept in Asia, Europe and South America.Water buffalo can also refer to:*Wild water buffalo , the wild ancestor of the domestic water buffalo...
es too." When Joker asks if that includes women and children, he admits it stating, "Sometimes." Joker then asks, "How could you shoot women and children?" to which the door gunner replies jokingly, "Easy, you just don't lead 'em so much!...Ha, ha, ha, ha...Ain't war hell?!" This scene is adapted from Michael HerrMichael Herr is a writer and former war correspondent, best known as the author of Dispatches , a memoir of his time as a correspondent for Esquire magazine during the Vietnam War...
's 1977 book DispatchesDispatches is a New Journalism book by Michael Herr that describes the author's experiences in Vietnam as a war correspondent for Esquire magazine. First published in 1977, Dispatches was one of the first pieces of American literature that allowed Americans to understand the experiences of soldiers...
.
- Papillon Soo Soo
Papillon Soo Soo is a British model and actress, born to French and Chinese parents.-Career:Papillon Soo Soo appeared as Pan Ho in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill, the first of three films that she appeared in.She is also well known for playing the role of the Da Nang hooker who uttered...
as Da Nang Hooker. An attractive and scantily dressed prostitute. She is memorable for the phrases, "Me love you long time", "Me so horny", and "Me sucky sucky".
- Peter Edmund as Private "Snowball" Brown, an African-American recruit, the butt of Hartman's racial jibes.
Development
Kubrick contacted Michael Herr, author of the Vietnam War memoir Dispatches, in the spring of 1980 to discuss working on a film about the
HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, but eventually discarded that in favor of a film about the Vietnam War. They met in England and the director told him that he wanted to do a war film but he had yet to find a story to adapt. Kubrick discovered
Gustav HasfordGustav Hasford was an American writer. His semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers was the basis of the film Full Metal Jacket.-Biography:...
's novel The Short-Timers while reading the Virginia Kirkus Review and Herr received it in bound galleys and thought that it was a masterpiece. In 1982, Kubrick read the novel twice and afterwards thought that it "was a unique, absolutely wonderful book" and decided, along with Herr, that it would be the basis for his next film. According to the filmmaker, he was drawn to the book's dialogue that was "almost poetic in its carved-out, stark quality." In 1983, he began researching for this film, watching past footage and documentaries, reading Vietnamese newspapers on microfilm from the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, and studied hundreds of photographs from the era. Initially, Herr was not interested in revisiting his Vietnam War experiences and Kubrick spent three years persuading him in what the author describes as "a single phone call lasting three years, with interruptions."
In 1985, Kubrick contacted Hasford to work on the screenplay with him and Herr, often talking to Hasford on the phone three to four times a week for hours at a time. Kubrick had already written a detailed treatment. The two men got together at Kubrick's home every day, breaking down the treatment into scenes. From that, Herr wrote the first draft. The filmmaker was worried that the title of the book would be misread by audiences as referring to people who only did half a day's work and changed it to Full Metal Jacket after discovering
the phraseA full metal jacket is a bullet consisting of a soft core encased in a shell of harder metal, such as gilding metal, cupronickel or less commonly a steel alloy. This shell can extend around all of the bullet, or often just the front and sides with the rear left as exposed lead...
while going through a gun catalogue. After the first draft was completed, Kubrick would phone in his orders and Hasford and Herr would mail in their submissions. Kubrick would read and then edit them with the process starting over. Neither Hasford nor Herr knew how much they contributed to the screenplay and this led to a dispute over the final credits. Hasford remembers, "We were like guys on an assembly line in the car factory. I was putting on one widget and Michael was putting on another widget and Stanley was the only one who knew that this was going to end up being a car." Herr says that the director was not interested in making an anti-war film but that "he wanted to show what war is like."
At some point, Kubrick wanted to meet Hasford in person but Herr advised against this, describing The Short-Timers author as a "scary man." Kubrick insisted. They all met at Kubrick's house in England for dinner. It did not go well, and Hasford was subsequently shut out of the production.
Casting
Through
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, Kubrick advertised a national search in the United States and Canada. The director used videotape to audition actors. He received over 3,000 videotapes. His staff screened all of the tapes and eliminated the unacceptable ones. This left 800 tapes for Kubrick to personally review.
Former U.S. Marine Drill Instructor Ermey was originally hired as a technical adviser and asked Kubrick if he could audition for the role of Hartman. However Kubrick, having seen his portrayal as Drill Instructor SSgt Loyce in The Boys in Company C, told him that he was not vicious enough to play the character. In response, Ermey made a videotape of himself improvising insulting dialogue towards a group of
Royal MarinesThe Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
while people off-camera pelted him with oranges and tennis balls. Ermey, in spite of the distractions, rattled off an unbroken string of insults for 15 minutes, and he did not flinch, duck, or repeat himself while the projectiles rained on him. Upon viewing the video, Kubrick gave Ermey the role, realizing that he "was a genius for this part". Ermey's experience as a real-life DI during the Vietnam era proved invaluable, and he fostered such realism that in one instance, Ermey barked an order off-camera to Kubrick to stand up when he was spoken to, and Kubrick instinctively obeyed, standing at attention before realizing what had happened. Kubrick estimated that Ermey came up with 150 pages of insults, many of them improvised on the spot — a rarity for a Kubrick film. According to Kubrick's estimate, the former drill instructor wrote 50% of his own dialogue, especially the insults.
The original plan envisaged
Anthony Michael HallMichael Anthony Hall , known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor, film producer and director who starred in several teen-oriented films of the 1980s. Hall began his career in commercials and on stage as a child, and made his screen debut in 1980...
starring as Private Joker, but after eight months of negotiations, a deal between Kubrick and Hall fell through. Kubrick offered
Bruce WillisWalter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
a role, but Willis had to turn down the opportunity because of the impending start of filming on the first 6 episodes of
MoonlightingMoonlighting is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes...
.
Filming
Kubrick shot the film in England: in
CambridgeshireCambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, on the Norfolk Broads, and at the former
Beckton Gas WorksBeckton Gas Works was a major London gas works built to manufacture coal gas and other products including coke from coal. It has been variously described as 'the largest such plant in the world' and 'the largest gas works in Europe'. It operated from 1870 to 1969, with an associated by-products...
,
NewhamThe London Borough of Newham is a London borough formed from the towns of West Ham and East Ham, within East London.It is situated east of the City of London, and is north of the River Thames. According to 2006 estimates, Newham has one of the highest ethnic minority populations of all the...
(east London). A former RAF and then
British ArmyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
base, Bassingbourn Barracks, doubled as the Parris Island Marine boot camp. A British Army rifle range near Barton, outside Cambridge, was used in the scene where Private Pyle is congratulated on his shooting skills by Hartman. The disused Beckton Gas Works, on the Isle of Dogs a few miles from central London, portrayed the ruined city of Huế. Kubrick worked from still photographs of Huế taken in 1968 and found an area owned by
British GasBritish Gas plc was formerly the monopoly gas supplier and is a private sector in the United Kingdom.- History :In the early 1900s the gas market in the United Kingdom was mainly run by county councils and small private firms...
that closely resembled it and was scheduled to be demolished. To achieve this look, Kubrick had buildings blown up and the film's art director used a wrecking ball to knock specific holes in certain buildings over the course of two months. Originally, Kubrick had a plastic replica jungle flown in from California but once he looked at it was reported to have said, "I don't like it. Get rid of it."
The open country is Cliffe marshes, also on the
ThamesThe River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, with 200 imported Spanish palm trees and 100,000 plastic tropical plants from
Hong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
Kubrick acquired four
M41 tanksThe M41 Walker Bulldog was a U.S. light tank developed to replace the M24 Chaffee. It was named for General Walton Walker who died in a jeep accident in Korea...
from a
Belgian armyThe Land Component is organised using the concept of capacities, whereby units are gathered together according to their function and material. Within this framework, there are five capacities: the command capacity, the combat capacity, the support capacity, the services capacity and the training...
colonel (a fan), and Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw helicopters (actually
Westland WessexThe Westland Wessex is a British turbine-powered version of the Sikorsky S-58 "Choctaw", developed under license by Westland Aircraft , initially for the Royal Navy, and later for the Royal Air Force...
painted Marine green). Although the Wessex was a licensed derivative of the Sikorsky H-34, the Wessex substituted two gas turbine engines for the H-34's radial (piston) engine. This resulted in a much longer and less rounded nose than that of the Vietnam era H-34. Kubrick also obtained a selection of rifles,
M79 grenade launcherThe M79 grenade launcher is a single-shot, shoulder-fired, break-action grenade launcher that fires a 40x46mm grenade which used what the US Army called the High-Low Propulsion System to keep recoil forces low, and first appeared during the Vietnam War...
s and
M60 machine gunThe M60 is a family of American general-purpose machine guns firing 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges from a disintegrating belt of M13 links...
s from a licensed weapons dealer.
Modine described the shoot as difficult: the filming location for Vietnam, Beckton Gas Works, was a toxic and environmental nightmare for the entire film crew. Asbestos and hundreds of chemicals poisoned the earth and air. Modine documents details of shooting at Beckton in his book,
Full Metal Jacket DiaryFull Metal Jacket Diary is a book by American author, actor and photographer Matthew Modine. The book contains photos and diary entries of his experiences over a two year period while working on the epic Stanley Kubrick film, Full Metal Jacket....
. During the 'Boot Camp' sequence of the film, Modine and the other recruits had to endure the rigors of Marine Corp training, including having Ermey yelling at them for ten hours a day during the shooting of the Parris Island scenes. For film continuity, each recruit had to have his head shaved once a week.
At one point during filming, Ermey had a car accident, broke all of his ribs on one side and was out for four-and-half months. Cowboy's death scene shows a building in the background that resembles the famous alien monolith in Kubrick's
2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
. Kubrick described the resemblance as an "extraordinary accident."
During filming, Hasford contemplated legal action over the writing credit. Originally the filmmakers intended Hasford to receive an "additional dialogue" credit, but he wanted full credit. The writer took two friends and sneaked onto the set dressed as extras only to be mistaken by a crew member for Herr.
Kubrick's daughter
VivianVivian Vanessa Kubrick is an American-born English filmmaker and composer, known for her work with her father, filmmaker Stanley Kubrick...
— who appears uncredited as a news-camera operator at the mass grave — shadowed the filming of Full Metal Jacket and shot eighteen hours of behind-the-scenes footage for a potential "making-of" documentary similar to her earlier film documentary on Kubrick's The Shining; however, in this case, her work did not come to fruition. Snippets of her work can be seen in the 2008 documentary
Stanley Kubrick's BoxesStanley Kubrick's Boxes is a 2008 documentary film directed by Jon Ronson about the film director Stanley Kubrick. Ronson's intent was not to create a biography of the filmmaker but rather to understand Kubrick by studying the director's vast personal collection of memorabilia related to his...
.
Music
In addition to her work preparing a documentary Vivian Kubrick, under the alias "Abigail Mead", wrote the score for the film. According to an interview which appeared in the January 1988 issue of
Keyboard MagazineKeyboard Magazine is a magazine that originally covered electronic keyboard instruments and keyboardists, though with the advent of computer based recording and audio technology, they have added digital music technology to their regular coverage, including those not strictly pertaining to the...
, the film was scored mostly with a
Fairlight CMIThe Fairlight CMI is a digital sampling synthesizer. It was designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, and based on a dual-6800 microprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia...
synthesizer (the then-current Series III edition) and a
SynclavierThe Synclavier System was an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation, manufactured by New England Digital Corporation, Norwich, VT. The original design and development of the Synclavier prototype occurred at Dartmouth College with the collaboration of...
. For the period music, Kubrick went through
BillboardThe Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
s list of Top 100 Hits for each year from 1962–1968 and tried many songs but "sometimes the dynamic range of the music was too great, and we couldn't work in dialogue."
- Johnnie Wright
Johnnie Robert Wright, Jr. , known professionally as Johnnie Wright, was an American country music singer-songwriter who spent much of his career working with Jack Anglin as the popular duo Johnnie & Jack, and was also the husband of Kitty Wells.-Early life and career:Born in Mount Juliet,...
– "Hello Vietnam"Hello Vietnam" is the title of a song written by Tom T. Hall and recorded by American country music singer Johnnie Wright. It spent twenty weeks on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart with three weeks at number one. The single, with backing vocals from Wright's wife, Kitty Wells, was...
"
- The Dixie Cups
The Dixie Cups are an American pop music girl group of the 1960s. They are best known for their 1964 million selling disc, "Chapel of Love".-Career:...
– "Chapel of Love"Chapel of Love" is a song written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector, and made famous by The Dixie Cups in 1964, spending three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. There have also been many other versions of this song...
"
- Sam the Sham
Sam the Sham is the stage name of the American rock and roll singer Domingo “Sam” Samudio . Sam the Sham was known for his camp robe and turban and hauling his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse with maroon velvet curtains...
& The PharaohsThe Pharaohs, an American soul/jazz/funk group, were formed in 1962 out of a student band, The Jazzmen, at Crane Junior College in Chicago, Illinois. This early incarnation comprised Louis Satterfield on trombone, Charles Handy on trumpet, and Don Myrick on alto saxophone. They were joined by Fred...
– "Wooly Bully"Wooly Bully" is a popular song originally recorded by novelty rock 'n' roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs in 1965. Based on a standard 12-bar blues progression, it was written by the band's leader, Domingo "Sam" Samudio. It was released as a single on the Memphis-based Pen label and...
"
- Chris Kenner
Chris Kenner was a New Orleans R&B singer and songwriter, best known for two hit singles in the early 1960s, that became staples in the repertoires of many other musicians.-Biography:...
– "I Like It Like That"
- Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....
– "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'Jessica Simpson recorded her own version of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" for the soundtrack to the film The Dukes of Hazzard . Simpson's cover was co-produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and was released as the soundtrack's first single in 2005)...
"
- The Trashmen
The Trashmen are a rock and roll band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1962. The group's original lineup was Tony Andreason on lead guitar and vocals, Dal Winslow on guitar and vocals, Steve Wahrer on drums and vocals, and Bob Reed on bass guitar...
– "Surfin' Bird"Surfin' Bird" is a song performed by the American surf rock band The Trashmen; it is also the name of the album that featured this hit single. It was released in 1963 and reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100...
"
- Goldman Band
The Goldman Band was formed by American musician and composer Edwin Franko Goldman in 1918 from the earlier New York Military Band. Goldman had organized the New York Military Band in 1911...
– "Marines' HymnThe "Marines' Hymn" is the official hymn of the United States Marine Corps. It is the oldest official song in the United States military. The "Marines' Hymn" is typically sung at the position of attention as a gesture of respect...
"
- The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
– "Paint It Black" (end credits)
A single, "Full Metal Jacket (I Wanna Be Your Drill Instructor)," credited to Mead and Nigel Goulding, was released to promote the film. It incorporates Ermey's drill cadences from the film. The single reached #2 on the UK pop charts.
Box office
Full Metal Jacket received a limited release on June 26, 1987 in 215 theaters. Its opening weekend saw it accrue $2,217,307, an average of $10,313 per theater, ranking it the number 10 film for the June 26-28 weekend. It took a further $2,002,890 for a total of $5,655,225 before entering wide release on July 10, 1987, at 881 theaters — an increase of 666. The July 10-12 weekend saw the film gross $6,079,963, an average of $6,901 per theater, and rank as the number 2 grossing film. Over the next four weeks the film opened in a further 194 theaters to its widest release of 1,075 theaters before closing two weeks later with a total gross of $46,357,676; making it the number 23 highest grossing film of 1987.
Critical reception
Full Metal Jacket received critical acclaim following release, attaining a 97% aggregate approval rating based on 58 reviews on
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, or an average rating of 8.2 out of 10. Among those deemed "Top Critics" by Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned 75% approval from 8 reviews. Review aggregate
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave it a score of 78 out of 100, which indicates a "generally favorable" response, based on 18 reviews. Reviewers generally reacted favorably to the cast, Ermey in particular, and the film's first act in recruit training, but several reviews were critical towards the latter part of the film set in Vietnam and what was considered a "muddled" moral message in the finale.
Richard CorlissRichard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
of
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
called the film a "technical knockout", praising "the dialogue's wild, desperate wit; the daring in choosing a desultory skirmish to make a point about war's pointlessness" and "the fine, large performances of almost every actor," believing, at the time, that Ermey and D'Onofrio would receive Oscar nominations. Corliss also appreciated "the Olympian elegance and precision of Kubrick's filmmaking." Empires Ian Nathan awarded the film 3 out of 5 stars, saying that it is "inconsistent" and describing it as "both powerful and frustratingly unengaged." Nathan felt that after leaving the opening act following the recruit training, the film becomes "bereft of purpose" but summarized his review by calling it a "hardy Kubrickian effort that warms on you with repeated viewings." Nathan also praised Ermey's "staggering performance".
Vincent CanbyVincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
of the New York Times called it "harrowing, beautiful and characteristically eccentric." Canby echoed praise for Ermey, calling him "the film's stunning surprise...he's so good - so obsessed - that you might think he wrote his own lines". Canby also said that D'Onofrio's performance should be noted with "admiration," and called Modine "one of the best, most adaptable young film actors of his generation." Canby concluded that Full Metal Jacket was "a film of immense and very rare imagination."
Film4Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films.-Programming:...
awarded the film 5 out of 5 stars and added to the praise for Ermey, saying his "performance as the foul-mouthed Hartman is justly celebrated and it's difficult to imagine the film working anything like as effectively without him." The review also preferred the opening training to the later Vietnam sequence, calling it "far more striking than second and longer section." Film4 commented that the film ends abruptly but felt that "it demonstrates just how clear and precise the director's vision could be when he resisted a fatal tendency for indulgence." Film4 concluded that "Full Metal Jacket ranks with Dr. Strangelove as one of Kubrick's very best."
Jonathan RosenbaumJonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
of the Chicago Reader called it "Elliptical, full of subtle inner rhymes...and profoundly moving, this is the most tightly crafted Kubrick film since Dr. Strangelove, as well as the most horrific".
VarietyVariety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called the film as an "intense, schematic, superbly made" drama "loaded with vivid, outrageously vulgar military vernacular that contributes heavily to the film's power," but felt that it never develops "a particularly strong narrative." The cast performances were all labeled "exceptional" with Modine being singled out as "embodying both what it takes to survive in the war and a certain omniscience."
Chicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
critic
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
held a dissenting view, calling the film "strangely shapeless" and awarding it 2.5 stars out of 4. Ebert called it "one of the best-looking war movies ever made on sets and stage" but felt this was not enough to compete with the "awesome reality of
PlatoonPlatoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and stars Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. It is the first of Stone's Vietnam War trilogy, followed by 1989's Born on the Fourth of July and 1993's Heaven & Earth....
,
Apocalypse NowApocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
and
The Deer HunterThe Deer Hunter is a 1978 drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale, and George Dzundza...
." Ebert also criticized the film's second act set in Vietnam, saying the "movie disintegrates into a series of self-contained set pieces, none of them quite satisfying" and concluded that the film's message was "too little and too late", having been done by other Vietnam war films. However, Ebert also gave praise to Ermey and D'Onofrio, saying "these are the two best performances in the movie, which never recovers after they leave the scene." Time Out London also disliked the film saying "Kubrick's direction is as steely cold and manipulative as the régime it depicts," and felt that the characters were underdeveloped, adding "we never really get to know, let alone care about, the hapless recruits on view."
British television channel
Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
voted it number 5 on its list of the greatest war films ever made. In 2008, Empire placed Full Metal Jacket number 457 on its list of the The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
Accolades
Full Metal Jacket was nominated for eleven awards worldwide between 1987 and 1989 including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, two BAFTA Awards for
Best SoundThe British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Sound has been presented to its winners since 1968 and sound designers of all nationalities are eligible to receive the award.-Winners 1968-present:...
and
Best Special Effects*2010 - Inception - Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb**Alice in Wonderland - Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Sean Phillips and Carey Villegas**Black Swan - Dan Schrecker...
, and a Golden Globe for
Best Supporting ActorThe Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year....
for Ermey. Ultimately it won five awards, three from organisations outside of the United States: Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The film won Best Foreign Language Film from the Japanese Academy, Best Producer from the David di Donatello Awards, Director of the Year from the London Critics Circle Film Awards, and
Best Director- 1980s :- 1990s :- 2000s :- 2010s :- Trivia :* Most wins:** 3: Steven Spielberg...
and
Best Supporting Actor-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
from the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, for Kubrick and Ermey respectively. Of the five awards won, four were awarded to Kubrick.
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
| 1987 |
BAFTA Awards |
Best Sound The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Sound has been presented to its winners since 1968 and sound designers of all nationalities are eligible to receive the award.-Winners 1968-present:...
|
Nigel Galt, Edward Tise and Andy Nelson Andy Nelson is an Australian sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and has been nominated for fourteen more in the same category...
|
|
|
| Best Special Effects *2010 - Inception - Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb**Alice in Wonderland - Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Sean Phillips and Carey Villegas**Black Swan - Dan Schrecker...
|
John Evans |
|
|
| 1988 |
60th Academy Awards The 60th Academy Awards were presented April 11, 1988 at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was the first to be held there since the 20th Academy Awards...
|
Best Adapted Screenplay |
Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford |
|
|
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards |
Best Director - 1980s :- 1990s :- 2000s :- 2010s :- Trivia :* Most wins:** 3: Steven Spielberg...
|
Stanley Kubrick |
|
|
| Best Supporting Actor -1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
|
R. Lee Ermey |
|
| David di Donatello Awards |
Best Producer -1956:*Angelo Rizzoli - Le grandi manovre *Goffredo Lombardo - Pane amore e... *Nicolò Theodoli - Racconti romani *Angelo Rizzoli - Le grandi manovre...
- Foreign film |
Stanley Kubrick |
|
|
| Golden Globes |
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year....
|
R. Lee Ermey |
|
|
| London Critics Circle Film Awards |
Director of the Year |
Stanley Kubrick |
|
|
| Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
|
Best Adapted Screenplay The Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is one of the three screenwriting Writers Guild of America Awards, one that is specifically for film...
|
Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, Gustav Hasford |
|
|
| 1989 |
Kinema Junpo Awards , commonly called , is a Japanese film magazine which began publication in July 1919. The magazine was founded by a group of four students, including Saburō Tanaka, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology . In that first month, it was published three times on days with a "1" in them. These first three...
|
Best Foreign Language Film Director |
Stanley Kubrick |
|
|
| Awards of the Japanese Academy |
Best Foreign Language Film |
Stanley Kubrick |
|
|
Adaptation of novel to film
Film scholar Greg Jenkins has done a detailed analysis of the transition of the story from book to film. The novel is in three parts, while the film largely discards Part III, and massively expands the book's relatively brief first part about the boot camp on Parris Island. This gives the film a duplex structure of telling two largely separate stories connected by the same characters, one which Jenkins believes is consistent with statements Kubrick made back in the 60s of wanting to explode the usual conventions of narrative structure.
Sergeant Hartman (renamed from the book's Gerheim) is given an expanded presence in the film. The film is more focused on Private Pyle's incompetence as a presence that weighs negatively on the rest of the troop. In the film, unlike the novel, he is the "sole problem recruit". The film omits "Hartman's" disclosure to other troops that he thinks Pyle might be mentally unstable, a "Section Eight." By contrast, Hartman congratulates Pyle that he is "born again hard". Jenkins believes that to have Hartman be in any way social with the troops would have upset the balance of the film, which depends on the spectacle of ordinary soldiers coming to grips with Hartman as a force of nature embodying a killer culture.
Various episodes from the book have been both cut and conflated with others in the film. Sequences such as Cowboy's introduction of the "Lusthog Squad" have both been drastically shortened and supplemented by material from other sections of the book. Although the book's final third section was largely dropped, pieces of material in it have been inserted into other episodes of the film. The climactic episode with the sniper is a conflation of two episodes in the book, one from part two, and another from part three. Jenkins sees the film's handling of this episode as both more dramatic but less gruesome than its counterpart in the novel.
The film often has a more tragic tone than the book, which often falls back on callous humor. Joker in the film remains a model of humane thinking, as evidenced by his moral struggle in the sniper episode and elsewhere. His struggle in the film is to overcome his own meekness, rather than to compete with other marines. Hence, the film omits his eventual domination over Animal Mother.
The film omits the death of the character Rafterman. Jenkins believes this allows us to reflect on his personal growth in the film, and speculate on his further growth afterwards. Jenkins also believes it would not fit into the film's plot structure.
Interpretation
Compared to Kubrick's other works, the themes of Full Metal Jacket have received little attention from critics and reviewers. Most reviews have focused on military brainwashing themes in the boot camp training section of the film, while seeing the latter half of the film as more confusing and disjointed in content. Rita Kempley of the Washington Post wrote, "it's as if they borrowed bits of every war movie to make this eclectic finale."
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
explained, "The movie disintegrates into a series of self-contained set pieces, none of them quite satisfying." However, Julian Rice in his book Kubrick's Hope sees the second part of the film as continuing the psychic journey of Joker in trying to come to grips with human evil.