Full Metal Jacker

Year: 1987

Language: English

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Kubrick speaks in his usual polite confessing manner to give war movies a new definition. The yin-yang as he mentions talking about the duality of the human self portrayed almost al throughout the movie. The initial half stand separated from the rest, but lays a strong foundation to the character building aspect of the movie. The process of making killers out of fine young men gruelling those against nature captured in the very elements of Kubrick’s classicism.

Mostly consisting of monologues and marine code commanding conversations put the viewer through the very same perils and palpation as the subjects in the movie, an art Kubrick has perfected (evident from his works like The Shining and A Clockwork Orange). The training episode sets the foundation on the “Joker” character. The city of Hue initially shown in its far eastern façade then takes us into the completely demolished Hue, as “Born to Kill” confronts with his peace symbol and so do others wonder and ponder over the very necessity of their presence in the war.

The director writes poem through Joker as he drifts into the land filled with confusion and quizzes. The first action on shit for joker, the mad shooter on the helicopter shooting at civilians, the war propaganda of the Stars and Stripes provide enough grounding to make a masterpiece. The camera work adding to the splendidness adding more surrealism into the film. Another unique aspect of this Kubrick movie is the elaborate use of Music in the second half while the first half haunts the psychic silence.

There are hardly any women in the movie but those who come convey something heavy. The contrast of scantily clad prostitutes and the resolve of the female sniper throws a contradicting view on how war changes the lives of people. The movie ends in a perfectionist precision.