Full Metal Jacket is one of the best war films of all-time and is one of the best films of all-time. The drill sergeant scenes are by far my favorite but the war scenes are teriffic also. Stanley Kubrick is one of my favorite directors and he directed this film because he hated the Vietnam most likely and we shouldn't of fought in Vietnam. Check this film out, it's quite amazing
The drill instructor has to be one of the funniest guys ever. "Private how tall are you" - "SIR 5'9 SIR" - "Wow I din't know they stacked sh*t that high, where are you from scumbag?" - SIR TEXAS SIR" - "Only steers and queers come from Texas"
(May not be an accurate quote, Any similarities to real-life incidents are purely coincidental).
I never got to see all of this movie but I thought the drill Sergent scene at the start was pretty cool. I like how he made the one guy who couldn't stop smiling choke himself.and when he said to one of the other guys ''your so ugly you could be a modern piece of art'' I thought that was hilarious.
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Yeh but full metal jacket isnt really a good 'war' film but its a good film. Theres not much action and not much death takes place and half of it is a comedy.
GRANTED, BUT PLATOON SEEMS TO ME LIKE BOYS PLAYING WITH TOYS, WHEREAS FMJ IS A TRUE DEPICTION OF WARFARE. THE FIRST HALF, WITH THE TRAINING, SETS UP THIS THEME OF WAR TURNING US INHUMAN, WHICH IS THEN PLAYED OUT IN THE SECOND PART.
Well, it's 2 1/2 months later and I finally watched my purchased copy of "Full Metal Jacket", and it seems as if the same sentiment is shared throughout.
I absolutely loved the first half of the movie. It depicted the absolute dehumanizing of a man. If such a thing can be considered "beautiful", or "poetic" that's the way I saw it, for a lack of better words.
The second half of the movie, I liked very much, naturally, not as much as the first. But in the Vietnam scenes, we get that same feel of young men turned into literal killing machines, oozing machismo.
Favorite character would have to be Animal Mother. Just no nonsense, kill 'em all attitude, which is probably the character I was supposed to hate. Oh well, lol. It was more or less standard wartime movie fare, the 2nd half, but it was still entertaining towatch, and actually provided some suspense, which isn't all that common in war dramas. Watching 8 Ball out there, with the platoon helpless, and Cowboy being put in the position of his first kill really were really effective, IMO.
Great character study with Pyle, the likes of which would have made for a great movie in itself, perhaps fleshed out his desconstruction for a full picture, but it's still brilliant filmmaking.
The boot camp I felt was brilliant and quite intense. The Vietnam war part I felt wasn't up to par. It was the same as any other Vietnam war movie with people dying, indisciplined US marines and some guns shooting.
It looks nice and all but I could care less about the characters after the Sarge and Pyle die, the scenes looked faked to me and the intensity just faded away once they were in the actually war. (which is funny in a weird way)
The movie is decent because of the first act greatness but I personally don't see come close to Platoon, Apocalypse Now and Deer Hunter.
In terms of depicting warfare, Platoon I felt was more intense and realistic than FMJ.
I thought "Apocalypse Now" was pretentious and boring as hell. "Redux" bored me to tears. Characters were vanilla, situation didn't seem to carry any urgency other than it being a war, and Marlon Brando was unconvincing if I was supposed to feel anything for him. I haven't seen "Platoon" in ages.
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Dec 3rd, 2004 06:05 PM
