Full Metal Jacket for the first time

Never done a review but I came here to get some help on some movies so might as well post a review. Anyway I know almost everyone has seen Full Metal Jacket, but I watched the full thing for the first time today.

Starting off I was thinking it was going to be a mild comedy with a decent plot. The boot camp part really set a sort of gloomy tone for me besides the drill sergeants some what funny remarks. One thing I like was how the private Pile killed the sergeant then killed himself even though I felt that "feel sorry and like this character" for the private but most movies don't have this plot twister early. I did like the comedy that went through out so I didn't think, "Just another war movie". For me at least and I am a pretty softy towards movies, there was a lot of sad parts but that's what makes a well rounded movie. That's about all I have to say and I'm sure that's a crappy review but its all I got. All in all I thought this was a pretty good movie a 8/10 for me most for the twist because I guessed almost all upcoming scenes wrong from watching and it had the fall and triumph which makes the movie a good attention keeper.

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the angel stayed until something died, one more murder suicide

I've mentioned before that Full Metal Jacket left me in a super-bummed-out mood the first time I watched it. It was exhilarating actually watching the film in the theatre with Brenda, but afterwards, we went to Taco Bell (Yo, Slug!), and I almost thought I was getting a brain tumor. The inside of Taco Bell reminded me of the office in Joe Vs. the Volcano, the lighting was dim and there was some humming and I felt physically ill, and no, it wasn't because of Taco Bell.

In reality, I think the opening of the film is so powerful (both in humor and drama) that most people cannot understand what the actual point of the rest of the flick is. Also, most people seem to claim that the film is divided into halves while it's obvious to me that's it divided into three acts. Act I: Boot Camp. Act II: Intro to Vietnam and its Contradictions. Act III: Why the U.S. Lost Vietnam. The film depicts Boot Camp as a Killing Machine Factory, but if later you can't kill the enemy the way you could in earlier wars, I'm sorry, but you won't even be able to defeat a teenage girl defending her homeland. At the end, when the U.S. soldiers sing about how they're all members of the Mickey Mouse Club by singing the show's theme song, it goes perfectly well with Joker's narration that he's not afraid because what good would it do to be afraid? You'll die or you won't. There really is no concrete plan about your life or the war at all. Sound familiar?

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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Drone Wolf mentioned "the sad parts" of the film; you speak, among other valid points, of being bummed-out. and the three divisions of the film. A lot of the things in the first part of the film about Marine boot camp were funny. I was not a Marine, but I did go through Army basic training and recognized the kernel of truth in the film's waaaay over the top depiction of the basic training. There's a point in basic training where the recruit finally catches on, quits trying to make sense of anything, and just goes with the flow of the bull manure. Embrace it, let it wash over you, and become part of the flow. Once you do that, basic becomes much easier (of course, by then you're in better physical shape and able to take it, too.)

Joker's problem is that he never reached that point. It was all a joke to him--a play thing for his better-educated brain, since he was smarter than the other recruits, smarter than the NCOs, smarter than the officers. The primary lesson they try to pound into you in basic training (and I'm sure in boot camp too) is don't think about it, just do it. Joker never learned that, and he almost gets himself killed because he didn't learn what Andy Griffin's character learned in basic in No Time for Sergeants, in the scene where other guys in his unit are talking about a female officer who comes into the mess hall, and Andy says all he sees is an officer (having already been chewed out by a female officer who told him essentially that while in uniform she's an officer, not a woman. So Andy learns what the Air Force, in his case, wanted him to learn--he sees an officer, not a woman. Unfortunately, when it came down to doing what they tried to teach him to do in basic, Joker sees a young woman, not an enemy and, worse of all, not a target. So he hesitates and would have been killed had not another soldier shot down the target. At a moment like that, it doesn't make a damn whether he should be in Nam or she's defending her country, or she's a pretty young woman. All that matters is that you're face-to-face with an armed enemy and if you don't hit your target, the enemy may hit his. (Wonder if he could have pulled the trigger if it had been an old woman or a young boy, or would he stop and think about it?)

Anyway, the troops walking down the hill singing the Mickey Mouse Club song with muzzle flashes, tracers and explosions lighting up the night was to me the funniest scene in the film because it brought the film full circle and tied it back to boot camp which taught the basic lessons 1) don't sweat the small stuff, and 2) it's all small stuff.

that movie was very good

had emotional moments like when the guy kill's himself

and it was a great flim

by the way guys i dont write much

I dint like it, it was to much like a cartoon for me.

I was in the Army too, and in no means do I disagree with you. I can only speak from my own experience. I can relate to so much that was depicted in this film that I almost thought there must have been some sort of military boot camp SOP manual out there, Marines or otherwise. As far as "catching on", I guess I never did, other than the fact that I knew I had to grow up. I never once accepted BS nor the flow of it. Just me I guess.

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

Just watched Full Metal Jacket for the first time, and I have to say I was disappointed. It was an alright movie overall, but I was hoping for it to be like The Deer Hunter or Apocalypse Now but it's not even close to that level. The first half was so promising, but the second half was just disjointed and pointless. There was no real plot or narrative to speak of, and it was more like a cold, emotionless documentary in the second half of the film. I refer to Stephen King's words on Stanley Kubrick here: "He thinks too much and feels too little."

Probably the most accessible Kubrick film.

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