Finally watched "Full Metal Jacket" for the first time, and boy was it powerful. [Spoilers]
I feel like venting about this movie a bit, so here I am haha.
Now, I don't know what I was expecting going in. I'm well aware of Stabley Kubrick's prestige, and the legacy it's left us. I liked A Clockwork Orange (though I prefer the book, it's still a wonderfully made film), I loved The Shining, and that was all I'd seen for a while.
Today I decided to watch Full Metal Jacket. I was familiar with a few iconic scenes (The drill sargent introduction, the prostitute, etc.) but I finally decided to sit and watch the whole thing. To repeat my opening sentence, I don't know exactly what I was expecting.
Holy shit.
The first half-hour or so was all training, hazing and bombardment, standard stuff for a military film I figured. For a while I wasn't sure who the main character was, but I naturally took notice of Leonard Lawrence - Private "Pyle" - as he seemed to be getting the most attention. With how thick the abuse was being laid onto him, I fully understood how that could damage a person. But my first assumption was "Oh, he's gonna be that guy who snaps on the battlefield and kicks major Viet Cong ass in a homicidal frenzy."
But then it happened. The scene that caught me unawares, chilling me to the bone. Most of you know this, but this is the scene where Lawrence shoots the Drill Sargent dead, then himself. It might be strange to say, but of the few suicides I've seen represented in film, this one was leaps and bounds beyond in terms of raw performance, emotion and what felt like an overwhelming sense of reality.
After that scene shocked me harder than I ever expected it to, I figured it would be recalled during the rest of the film, but it wasn't really at all it felt like. There was talk of the Thousand Yard Stare, which was definitely what I saw in Pyle towards the end of his story, but "Joker" Davis (the actual main character) never reflects on what he saw that night, nor does he bring it up. As I think on it though while writing this, it makes sense that in order to soldier on and keep a brave face, one would leave something like that behind as well as possible. It just adds weight to the overall message of the film, "War is fucked up, and all those involved are fucked up by it."
And the theme of the film in relation to the title is that in order to be brave and continue fighting the "good" fight, soldiers must put on a "full metal jacket" to toughen themselves up. This of course is probably common knowledge, but I wanted to say it because I had the epiphany while I was writing this wall of text.
Did I like the movie? I really did. It's the most realistically haunting portrayal of war I've ever seen (so I imagine, of course). Would I watch it again is another question. Maybe. If I were recommending it to a friend, then I'd probably watch it with them, but I'm not sure I can handle going through all that again on my own.
But what did you guys think? I'd love to discuss the movie with people.
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