Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 movie about Vietnam War directed by Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange). Starring Matthew Modine, Vincent D’Onofrio and R. Lee Ermey.
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 British-American war film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay, written by Kubrick, Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford, is based on Hasford’s novel The Short-Timers. Set during the Vietnam War, it follows the story of a group of recruits in Marine Corps boot camp training at Parris Island, South Carolina and U.S. Marine combat troops in Hue during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
The film stars Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey and Dorian Harewood as Marines preparing for deployment to Vietnam and Arliss Howard, Kevyn Major Howard and Ed O’Ross as combat troops in Hue. The film focuses on the dehumanizing effects of the U.S. military’s training process and its subsequent effect on those who experienced it first hand.
The tagline for Full Metal Jacket is “In war there are no winners… only survivors.” This reflects how even after surviving the fighting of the war itself, many veterans struggle with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to their experiences in battle zones long after returning home from service. In some cases this can manifest into compulsive behaviors like drug abuse or even suicide amongst those affected by PTSD as a result of their harrowing wartime memories that remain with them long after they have left the battlefields behind them.
Full Metal Jacket is widely regarded as one of Kubrick’s greatest films, winning the 1987 BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Modine). It has become a classic of modern war cinema, serving as an example of how to effectively portray the psychological trauma experienced by soldiers in combat. As such, Full Metal Jacket stands as a lasting reminder of the power and effects that warfare can have on those involved, even long after they have left the theater of war.
The film has had a lasting cultural impact on society that extends far beyond its initial reception. Its iconic phrase “This is my rifle, this is my gun” has been widely
Movie Reviews
“[A] strangely shapeless film from (…) After what has already been said about “Vietnam” in the movies, ‘Full Metal Jacket’ is too little and too late (…) Rating: ??½ (out of four)” Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
