A Stanley Kubrick Retrospective: ‘Full Metal Jacket’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

There are many beautiful things about our society, our culture and our species. We celebrate so many wonderful moments in our lives. We celebrate our love, we celebrate our death and so many other moments in between and with good reason, life is worth living.  

Yet, despite all of our beauty, we are capable of dark acts that in so many ways counteract the beauty, and one such act that can bring out the absolute worst in us, is war. There is no denying it is an ugly and hideous act amongst men, yet it has served its purpose. It was war that brought forth the end of the Third Reich. Yet while that war was celebrated, we lament more recent ones and one such war, the one in Vietnam, became the focus of legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, with his film, Full Metal Jacket.  

The plot is simple, we are taken through the experience of war through the eyes of Private Joker. We share with him the hardships of boot camp, and the horrors of war and what it truly does to a man, and I'll keep the plot summary that simple because it is just that, simple. Because what makes the film so utterly amazing, is how incredibly brutal it is. The scenes set in boot camp are well...nothing short of terrifying, thanks in part to the ridiculously impressive performance of R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Hartman is brutal when it comes to his recruits and acts that likely no longer occur in the U.S. Military leave you sympathizing for these young men, yet at the same time...you understand what the Sergeant is doing. His job is to harden these men, to harness the fury within to make them efficient killers on the battlefield.  

---

If anything, I would venture to say that the scenes in boot camp are actually more terrifying than the scenes set in Vietnam. Simply because we watch these men change from innocent boys to sophisticated killers and of course, we watch one man break completely. I still cringe to this day when the Soap Party scene comes on in the film, it's utterly heartbreaking and it is the defining moment that snaps Leonard Lawrence at his core.  

Yet what makes this film so compelling, is that it offers no comfort or solutions about war, it simply offers it for what it is...a bloody and violent mess. Sure, there are elements to be found here where one can form an opinion as to whether or not war is good or bad for our species because Stanley Kubrick was smart enough to know that a good chunk of the audience would be expecting the film to nourish a pre-conceived notion in their mind. But rather than make that the sole focus of this masterpiece, he instead gave us the side of war we rarely see, the human element.  

Full Metal Jacket reminds us of one raw fact. These are people, just like you and me that are trained and asked (or in this case, ordered) to fight a war. They will kill other human beings, and they will suffer, and they will hurt for being forced to do something so extreme...and that's really all there is to it. If by chance you haven't seen this film, make it a point to do so as soon as possible, for this motion picture is brilliant, visceral and angry and it will take you for one hell of a ride.

---