Not quite as cohesive as one would expect.

The second half of the movie is a little slow, but the first half is so good that it completely makes up for it.

For all of those that ridicule this movies' second half. Watch it again ... and then again. When I first saw this in the theater I was totally put off by the cinematography of the second half of the film. After repeated watching I think it is actually masterfully constructed. Empty. The only part of the film that still fails, in my opinion, is the section dealing with the news interviews of the soldiers. Meant to revolt us ... they simply come across as dry and excessive. So far removed from the Jungles of platoon this movies depiction of the shells of destroyed Vietnamese cities is amazing. ... Oh yeah ... and if since I have not stated it earlier I will say this ... the first half of this movie is nothing short of ingenious. Utterly amazing. There are images in that part of the movie that will never leave you ... and thats coming from a guy that saw this movie TWENTY years ago.… Expand

Damn, i've never seen a better movie that depicted marines in Vietnam and bootcamp. In a way it inspired me to wanna join the Corp. It doesn't need all that new high-tech special effects!

Unbelivable.

This movie, captures the naritive, and the ideals, caught in real life amry traning today. Although, Kubrick has directed a wonderful screen play, vigrourously, between Emery, and Pyle, the movie had no narritve past the original traning. Which, is loosley held together with small battles, and the army, giving there preverbial racial slurs, and treating of women like sex objects. Although, i was highly impressed with the propoganda scene, which is exactlly what the men were told, also with the soldier, in the helicopter which depicted what these men were told to do. Kill everything, its there job. These one liners kept the movie together, although the climax was weak. Nice camera work, Kubrick has done a well placed job, although my score only goes towards the first haf of the movie.… Expand

It's very rare to find a movie which simultaneously brutalizes and humanizes its victims; Full Metal Jacket is one such film. While the vulgarity and machismo that permeate the film can be a deterrent to some viewers, very few films before or since have shown the transformative process of war as effectively as Kubrick has with this work of art.

Full Metal Jacket can not be compared to any movie of its era. Kubrick's portrayel of the two parts of war; preparation and battle are personified well. Of equal importance is the music choice chosen for the soundtrack, namely the Mickey Mouse song as the movie closes.

I just finished reading a book on Kubrick. The chapter on FMJ was interesting in pointing out certain scenes where I missed some or most of Kubrick's point. In the prostittue/theater scene, I realized that only in the widescreen version of the film could you see certain background visuals. At present FMJ is available in letterboxed format from Warner Bros. only in HD DVD, which is where the DVD technology is headed. They (Congress is included in "they.") want us to start all over again in both the player and disc. It's really unfair. The picture is much better, but, using FMJ as an example, I've bought it in VHS, then DVD, then again in 5.1 SS DVD, and would buy it again in letterboxed format, but switching to a new DVD format is asking too much. Apparently, we're missing a good bit in this modified version of the film. I've emailed WB's site, pleading for a widescreen release in the present DVD format and maybe they would if enough people showed an interest. This excellent, very intelligent and challenging film deserves release in its proper format without having to buy a $1,000.00 DVD player. Among comtemporary filmmakers, Kubrick was without peers and I would rank him above Welles, though I'm sure this comment will cause many film buffs to go ape.… Expand

Stanley Kubrick's daunting two-part monolith also communicates on a gut level, yet it is the most deceptively simple work he has ever made--and even more resistant to easy interpretation than his 2001: A Space Odyssey. A friend of mine who was a Marine sergeant in the Tet offensive assures me that so many details are botched that the film is worthless as history; insofar as coscreenwriter Michael Herr has recently pointed out that Kubrick set out to make a certain kind of war film before he settled on either Vietnam or Gustav Hasford's novel The Short-Timers, I see no reason to doubt this testimony. But conventional realism seems so far from Kubrick's purposes that I can't dismiss the film for these infidelities either. I'm more inclined to ponder lead actor Matthew Modine's provocative suggestion that Kubrick's relationship to other commercial directors is analogous to the position of the early Cubists. Combining this sense of poetic abstraction with a subject as "hot" as Vietnam (or colonialism in general) is a risky and daring move, but I can't side with those who fault Kubrick for "coldness" simply because they can't anticipate or see through him (as they can with a genuine iceberg like Brian De Palma). It's been at least a quarter of a century since I've seen Kubrick's awkward first feature Fear and Desire (1953)--long since suppressed by Kubrick himself--but it is that touching and compassionate amateur film about young men at war, set in no particular place or time, that Full Metal Jacket evoked for me, refined, perfected, and chiseled to such a fine point that it fully expresses what the earlier film only implied. The vision may be hard as nails, but it is one without villains or other easy bromides.… Expand

The first half is some of cinema's most greatest, most funny and most shocking pieces of work yet. Kubrick uses unsettling humour here to test our limits and although a lot of us don't want to laugh at the thought of soldiers-in-training being abused and being referred to as maggots we simply cannot help ourselves as R. Lee Ermey seems to make it look acceptable with his outstanding performance. After the shock at the end of bootcamp, the film progresses straight to the Vietnam war with those soldiers now in the thick of the action; although the result of this is rather disappointing. The cast here is faultless but the action and the imagination that we have to come to love of Kubrick is not here in full stretch and although there are still moments of greatness it doesn't come close to the first half. The ending of this film makes up for the rest of the half however and really is thought provoking stuff. This could've been Kubrick's best but unfortunately cannot add up to the greatness of the director's previous works such as A Clockwork Orange or 2001. Still worth a watch however and is still one of the best films in the war movie genre if not the best.… Expand

Please, I implore you, don't ever listen to Roger Ebert. He wouldn't know a good film if it beat him in the face with a copy of 2001 A Space Odyssey. Die Hard got two stars, Usual Suspects got 1 and a half, this mini-classic gets two and a half. He's quite clearly a maniac. We must do everything we can to help him. How about shutting him in a room with nothing but Pearl Harbor, Pluto Nash and Van Wilder to watch, until he learns to appreciate good cinema a little more. Oh, the film? Well, it's great. Duh.… Expand

Less a film about Vietnam War than Kubrick's ongoing exposition on how the nature of man is conditioned(and warped) into what we call civility and then how that is remolded backed into killer beastly instincts. Like Dr. Strangelove, the movie works best as black comedy. Kubrick broadly dealt with in what forms two basic human drives--sexuality and violence--take shape on the surface of what we call civilization, and Full Metal Jacket is perhaps his most audacious, if not fullest, expression on this theme. … Expand

One hell of a lot better than Saving Private Ryan. Bravo, Kubrick!

Smashing.

Kubrick's work again has no precedent. Like all his projects, it is so out there that it can't end well. I believed every single thing depicted actually happened in some form, except the final Mickey Mouse Club alumni reunion. All that did was certify the film as unsequelable. Better to view it as two stories, Boot Camp & Nam. The Nam story portrays war as an exercise where only an imbecile would pick a side. That's instinctive to every child and Mouseketeer. But the Boot Camp story has no cinematic equal. Now if one could splice it on as the intro to Saving Private Ryan ... … Expand

[***PLOT SPOILERS***] At the start of this film, I was laughing uncontrollably from the cliche of a tough boot camp instructor treating recruits like sh.t smudged a minion times against their mother's faces. He kept calling them degrading names such as sluts, pussies et. al. But then as the movie progresses on, I was drawn to Private Pyle, who had an obvious bad case of A.D.D. Initially, I was quite irritated of him with his clumsiness and slow pick up abilities to their unforgiving trainor. Due to Pyle's excess weight which obviously made him unable to keep up with the harsh physical rigors of training, he was kept from eating sweets and the teacher found out how Pyle caped a doughnut. He was made to eat it infront of his classmates while they were punished for him. Everytime he f...ed up, it was his classmates who paid for it. He was beaten with bricks [Ed: Soap, actually] while he was prevented from making a sound by his co-trainees when they got fed up of him. The only one who used to bear with him by necessity, Private Joker, didn't do anything about it. After it, Pyle cried like a child bullied in a kindergarden yard. And it was my first time to really sympathize with a character, I bawled like a baby too. I was just so moved how nobody stood up for him. It's been two days since I've watched FMJ, but the face of Pyle keeps haunting me. The cinematography of the film and the plot when they got to 'Nam sucks big time, but kudos to Kubrick for tugging my cynical heart. It's kinda new for me to be troubled by a film character, and for that, good job Kubrick.… Expand

This movie could have been better if they added more action and more blood and gore , i did'nt like the fact that it was like 20 soldiers vs one vietnamese... what the heck is that? foreal tho ... they could have added more action and more enemies and yea if you're looking for a good movie about vietnam just watch we were soldiers , platoon and yea you'll be better of over all the movie was'nt really bout the war its just about what it was like for a soldier to go to the tarining then go to the war.… Expand

I totally totally agree with Loi Real. I coulnd't have put it better. I just saw the movie and i think i cant sleep because the sympathy i feel for Pyle.I wanna burn those others alive.And Joker? He looks like a loser but his character is kinda tough.He's a skinni loser who doesn't care about his friends.

Awesome movie, with a terrific opening sections at boot camp. That keeps the viewers in no matter what happens the rest of the movie. The war might have seemed a little slow at times, but it portrayed the brutality very well. Great war film, definitely recommended to watch if you have not seen it.

The first half of the movie is Kubrick's masterwork, not even the sheer brilliance of Shining and A Clockwork Orange can come close to it. The second half, unfortunately, can't even remotely compete, as i find it too slow and some of the scenes are too much detached from the main plot. So, i give a full 10 for the first part and an 8 for the second (i'd like to remember the GREAT ending).… Expand

I've seen it about 50 times... a masterpiece. The best film since "Dr. Strangelove."

I think this movie is well played, with spectacular actors, very good screenplay and all together an exellent move! I rate it a 10 beacause of the exellent storyline ect.

Best Vietnam film. Disturbingly real.

Soldiers in training for fighting in Vietnam, tough boot camp & drill Sergeant, some go to war, some don't. Stanley Kubrick's powerful Vietnam fest that I'd not seen since it came out in the late 80s. It is very much a film split into two parts starting with the new recruits in the boot camp being ferociously barked at by the brilliant R. Lee Ermey as Sergeant Hartman. A great turn too by a young Vincent D'Onofrio as the blundering Private Pyle. The second half of the film sees Matthew Modine's character go into the action in Vietnam & I think it loses a bit of steam here. It is well written, the action scenes with the sniper are intense but it doesn't really go anywhere. Mention also for the great soundtrack featuring the Bird is the Word & Woolley Bully!… Expand

This is an absolute classic that captures the "old style" marine corp with Kubrick's unique manner of weaving in interesting characters and interactions. Every minute is a brick of intriguing elements that builds a solid house of entertainment. Excellent guy movie.

Sorry, translation Italian - English mechanics. Song Huong the perfume river / The work of Stanley Kubrick cast the viewer, inevitably and fortunately I add, some really old-time, real, proactive, without obfuscation and if I add dynamite from all points of view, I do not think being away from his "mind". In Full Metal Jacket, the narrative is strong, subversive, terrorist, violent, intimidating, "forces", "involving" and "start" sensory experiences in a mental process immediate and concrete. And 'with these realities that man, master and prey of their senses must necessarily be measured. E ', the same man who loses his gender-biased to rise and transmigrate to the Subject / History - The protagonist / narrator. So I understand. Kubrick does not like to present itself often, is the 1980 Shining, Full Metal Jacket in 1987. Seven years, seven long years, but why? Because, probably, the "Monolith" needs time to add a new / true piece movie universe. I like to think that all of Kubrick's work, has pledged to defend a eusociality pestered with micro / macro economic Powers / politicians. The film. The instructor Gerheim protagonist of the novel "The Short-Timers" by Gustav Hasford referenced Kubrick, is transformed into the fearsome Sergeant Hartman Ronald Lee Ermey /. Who Hartman? Remember the '"I Want You for U.S. Army?" With the index pointing Uncle Sam? Well, Hartman is the son of that idea degenerated. (Hartman who are out there?) It 'a military instructor was born to destroy the human personality with appurtenances. It 'so good as to become a victim of its own "royalties". Following Pyle will make a wonderful essay by the lessons learned from Hartman. And 'assisted in this performance by the famous 7.62 caliber Full Metal Jacket! In the second part of the film is to tell the soldier Joker mistakes / horrors of an army in disarray. Many scenes are strong and many truths still shrouded in mystery / So, Kubrick offers his reflections to the public and it does work pouring in severity, technicality, fussiness. How much did the fight against communism? I do not know. One thing I know. Many soldiers could not tell the Song Huong the perfume river / as many children of the same bank of the river have not yet achieved. Luckiness!… Expand