Many films have been made about the horrors of war. Saving Private Ryan is considered the greatest war movie of all time. It doesn't shy away from the carnage of warfare, especially with the harrowing D-Day sequence that Steven Spielberg opens the film with. Saving Private Ryan also features a top-notch cast that includes Tom Hanks and Matt Damon as the titular Private James Ryan alongside character actors like Paul Giamatti and Ted Danson. There is another war epic that features an equally talented cast and director, and it's finally become available to stream with its arrival on Paramount+. That film is none other than Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, which highlighted the toll that the Vietnam War took on everyone involved.
Watching Full Metal Jacket offers a unique experience; while it's a singular movie, it's split into two different stories. The first half follows a group of soldiers undergoing drill training from the iron-fisted Gunnery Sgt. Hartmann (R. Lee Ermey); the second sees what happens when one of those soldiers, nicknamed "Joker" (Matthew Modine) is thrown into the thick of war. Both halves feature disturbing moments and showcase how the horrors of war can reach you long before you even enter the battlefield. Despite its harrowing imagery, Full Metal Jacket remains a compellingly crafted war epic — and one of the best films in Kubrick's filmography.
Both Halves of 'Full Metal Jacket' Play Off Each Other
Full Metal Jacket doesn't hold back from showcasing the harrowing, outright abusive treatment that soldiers go through in basic training. Hartman doesn't just subject the recruits to verbal abuse, but to physical abuse as well; when Joker makes fun of him behind his back, he socks him in the stomach, then proceeds to continue shouting at him. The soldier who receives the worst treatment, however, is Leonard Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio), nicknamed "Gomer Pyle" by Hartman. Leonard's mental state starts to fray as a result of training, with dangerous results; it doesn't help that D'Onofrio portrays him with the blank, psychotic stare that became a trademark in Kubrick's films. Things finally come to a head with a scene that features one of the more shocking moments in Kubrick's career.
The Vietnam War scenes aren't any less shocking, as Joker barely survives while his fellow soldiers are picked off in horrible ways. Again, Kubrick doesn't shy away from the brutality, showcasing bloody chunks that used to be men. He also crafts a scene where Joker and his fellow soldiers encounter a teenage Vietnamese girl who was shooting at them, leading to a heavy moral decision. Much like the Gomer Pyle scene, StanleyKubrick uses this moment as an example of how war can chip away at one's humanity, not to mention the hard choices that soldiers have to make in the thick of war. There's no glory to be found on the battlefields of Kubrick's films; there's only guts and the palpable loss of innocence.
R. Lee Ermey's Career Was Defined by 'Full Metal Jacket'
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R. Lee Ermey looking sternly at Vincent D'Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket.
R. Lee Ermey in 'Full Metal Jacket'
Adam Baldwin and Matthew Modine as Animal Mother and Joker on a battlefield in Vietnam in Full Metal Jacket
Vincent D'Onofrio as Gomer Pyle smiling eerily at the camera in Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket continues the tradition of Stanley Kubrick's relentless perfectionist style of filmmaking to the point where the cast dealt with an environment that actually felt like a war zone. There was one upside, though, as R. Lee Ermey found himself securing steady work following his turn as Sgt. Hartman. Ermey would be cast as different authority figures, with some of those characters acting as a nod to Full Metal Jacket. It didn't hurt that Ermey had actually been a gunnery sergeant prior to his acting career, though he went through his own version of boot camp when auditioning for Hartman. While Ermey was reciting his lines, Kubrick's assistant would toss tennis balls and oranges at him; any slip-ups meant that Ermey had to start over. It's ironically the sort of grueling drill Hartman subjects his soldiers to, though the result is less a psychological breakdown and more a great performance. It might be an intense watch that doesn't shy away from the horrors of war, but Full Metal Jacket is a film that should be on every cinephile's list.
Full Metal Jacket is available to stream on Paramount+.
