Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket:’ Standing in the Shadow of ‘2001’

PJ Media ^ | 17 July 2021 | Ed Driscoll

[a fool in paradise]

San Francisco Chronicle
The concluding image of men silhouetted against the dying flares of explosives, as they march to the raucous refrain of the Mickey Mouse Club theme, is masterly, but leaves a viewer curiously discomfited. Whereas “Platoon” shattered civilian complacency about that war, Full Metal Jacket is merely numbing. [26 June 1987]

[Clemenza]

When I think of “Eyes Wide Shut” I think of Joe Scarborough, Gary Condit, and John Kasich.

[a fool in paradise]

The New Yorker
Pauline Kael
What happened to the Kubrick who used to slip in sly, subtle jokes and little editing tricks? This may be his worst movie. He probably believes he’s numbing us by the power of his vision, but he’s actually numbing us by its emptiness. [13 July 1987, p.75]

[Clemenza]

My favorite movie that takes place in Vietnam is not a Vietnam film per se: Apocalypse Now.

Greatest war movie ever made was “The Battle of Algiers.”

[a fool in paradise]

Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The footage on the Paris Island obstacle course is powerful. But Full Metal Jacket is uncertain where to go, and the movie’s climax, which Kubrick obviously intends to be a mighty moral revelation, seems phoned in from earlier war pictures.

[Rummyfan]

By most standards of conventional film narrative, this movie is a mess.

With 2001 Kubrick moved beyond conventional narrative. The Shining and later flicks were throwbacks.

[Rummyfan]

It also had too many white shirted white geeks on TV, that’s not cool either.

A real-life revenge of the nerds. Or as someone at NASA said, a great day for the squares.

[Rummyfan]

For the record my favorite Kubrick film is Paths of Glory.

[Leaning Right]

I hate the way the script dispatched Sgt. Hartman. (As if recruits shooting their sergeants was a rather common thing.) That scene ruined the rest of the movie for me.

[circlecity]

After the boot camp segment the movie just wandered around with no plot line whatsoever.

[ThunderSleeps]

I've watched "Dr. Strangelove" at least six or eight times - and it gets funnier every time I watch it.

Favorite scenes/lines - of course "Hey, what about Major Kong?"

Slim Pickens inventorying the contents of their survival kits.

Gen. Turgidson on the phone in his shorts.

Of course the "precious bodily fluids" scene...

Gen. Turgidson explaining how if a crew is good, I mean really good...

[Leaning Right]

> For the record my favorite Kubrick film is Paths of Glory. <

That was a great movie. It pulled no punches. Suppose someone knew nothing about WW I. After watching Paths of Glory, he’d know everything he needed to know about that war.

[Leaning Right]

My favorite character from "Dr. Strangelove" is Col. Bat Guano, mainly because of his hilarious name. (“Guano” is a fancy name for bat poop.)

[Chainmail]

They certainly thought Platoon was the much better film. Two totally different movies... apples and oranges."

They were both crap! Platoon was an atrocity - full of BS tropes about our war in Vietnam and cheesy special effects.

Full Metal Jacket had an OK boot camp start but with an unrealistic finish - and then went into its caricature-filled stupidity with its "Hue City" part that had no resemblance at all to the real Hue City or real Marines or anything else combat-related.

All of the big-budget movies about the Vietnam War were unrealistic and insulting to the good guys who fought that war.

[SanchoP]

All of the big-budget movies about the Vietnam War were unrealistic and insulting to the good guys who fought that war.

Thank you. Semper Fi

[FrankRizzo890]

“numbnuts”

[FrankRizzo890]

“Door Gunner” was the originally cast as the drill instructor, but Ermy beat him out on getting the role.

[FrankRizzo890]

The night before Kubrick told him “You know tomorrow has to be big.” Yes sir, I know. “I’m talking REAL big, Bela Lugosi big”. And this was the result.

[FrankRizzo890]

Much like the war it was depicting.

[a fool in paradise]

Boot camp
In country
Confrontation

Those are the 3 acts