Full Metal Jacket
By Kevin Baker, Blockbuster.co.uk

“The deadliest weapon in the world is a marine and his rifle.”

Closely adapted from Gustav Hasford's 1979 novel The Short-Timers, Full Metal Jacket is one of Stanley Kubrick’s stand out movies. Saying that is of course difficult as the meticulous and methodical methods that he uses to tell stories has always kept his work separated from the rest. This time he has turned his attention to the Vietnam War.

We begin following a group of new enlistees through training camp under Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey). The process of turning these men into fighting machines is a gruelling and impersonal journey. One of the recruits, dubbed Private Pyle for Gomer Pyle - played by Vincent D'Onofrio - is pushed and humiliated beyond his own personal limits. Watching him is a bit like the proverbial train wreck. He's trying, but no matter how hard, he seems somehow doomed anyway.

With the boot camp over, the movie enters a new phase in Vietnam. Although we've had bits of narration before now, there was little notion of a protagonist in the nameless group of soldiers. After the men are doled out to various units, one such protagonist forms, at least briefly, in Private Joker - another dubbed name - who is sent in as part of the military's official press service.

He spends his initial time in Vietnam getting familiar with the spin of military propaganda, but eventually is sent to document an actual mission, where he runs into some of his boot camp troop. The film culminates in a sequence where this unit is stuck trying to find a way to help a fallen comrade out in the open, but thwarted by a single well-hidden sniper. The people of the unit clash over whether they can save him or if it's all just a trap to lure them into the open.

Full Metal Jacket is an exploration of how human principles can crumble by the wayside, even in well meaning people. In the military, where the stakes are so high and people are often not free to make their own decisions, those little day to day sacrifices people make loom large while those involved pass it off as casual necessity.

This is a very distinct and unique piece of work. Some of the greatest scenes are set up with so much subtext and put across in such a subtle way that they may even pass the average watcher by… beckoning more rewards for the more focused avid viewer. Timeless, yes that’s a good word, it’s a timeless film, in that there will never be a time where this film will not matter. Its A Must watch!