Film review and analysis

Full Metal Jacket

Certainly in terms of historical events in recent American history that had an impact on American society and on U.S. foreign policy, the Vietnam War ranks stands out. In nearly every community in American there are Vietnam veterans and they all have war stories to share but the most poignant and the saddest stories are based on the way the returning troops were treated when they got home. I chose this movie to critique because it is fairly realistic regarding what the U.S. troops endured in Vietnam, and also because it has a lot of humor and levity, to lighten the theme a bit.

Is it a classic movie? It probably won't stand the test of time like some other films from the Vietnam era -- like "The Deer Hunter," "Apocalypse Now" or "Platoon" -- but it has its own value, and of course Stanley Kubrick is the director and his work is revered in the annals of American film history.

The movie is historically accurate in one sense, the setting and the theme are certainly accurate, but it is a fictional portrayal of characters and scenes. And in another sense the movie is historically accurate because when a person joins the U.S. Marine Corps there is a Hell to go through just to get out of basic training. That part of the movie is very entertaining, and the actor Lee Ermey makes the basic training part of this film very funny.

Since playing the brutally hard-nosed drill instructor (or gunnery sergeant) in Full Metal Jacket, Ermey has been given a number of roles in movies, almost always playing the loudmouth hard-as-a-rock dictator of some kind. He also has made a name for himself doing commercials, falling back on the belligerent personality he perfected in the Kubrick film. When a researcher learns that Ermey actually was a drill sergeant in Vietnam, it all makes sense, and it also gives the film some historical linkage, although Ermey's character, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, becomes a loud and obnoxious parody of himself in time.

It is easy to identify with Private Leonard Lawrence, who is named "Gomer Pyle" by Sergeant Hartman. Every kid in school has seen a chubby kid who gets harassed by the other kids. In this film, Lawrence takes a lot of abuse at the hand of the sergeant. Meantime my favorite character is James T. "Joker" Davis, who is the main protagonist, and also the narrator. He eventually becomes a reporter for the Army newspaper, Stars and Stripes, and true to Kubrick's style of developing fascinating characters, he's a paradox: he wears a peace sign on his uniform but on his helmet it says "Born to Kill." A colonel sees Davis' peace symbol and the following funny dialogue takes place. The Colonel asks, "Marine, what is that button on your body armor?" "A peace symbol, sir." "Where'd you get it?" "I don't remember sir." "What is that you've got written on your helmet?" "Born to Kill, sir." "You write 'Born to Kill' on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?" "No sir." "You'd better get your head and your ass wired together, or I will take a giant shit on you."