Bad But Good Film Of The Month: “Full Metal Jacket” (1987)
“I bet you could suck a golfball through a garden hose!”
The first time I heard that quote, I was about twelve years old and had never seen the film.
Stumbling into this movie for the first time ever, I was inspired by a recent music video shoot with my band Lombardy, where we dressed up in camo and pretended to use guitars as firearms... There was a scene in the shoot where we get yelled at by a drill sergeant and the inspiration given was, “think Full Metal Jacket.”
By an astounding long shot, the most memorable section of this movie and the section that makes it a classic is the introduction (about thirty minutes), detailing the character development of our leads as they go through boot camp. R. Lee Ermey (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Mail Call, Mississippi Burning) clocks back into his real-life roots as a Marine drill instructor and trains our reluctant yet persistent main characters to be blood-thirsty killing machines.
It is incredible to watch Ermey consistently poke at these would-be Marines to break them down. Looking back, I wonder if it was funny by accident since drill sergeants actually say ridiculous insults to get recruits to laugh, so that they can be punished for it. The ridicule being slung by Ermey is hilarious and sets the scene for what I thought would be an action comedy.
The amount of quotes in the first half-hour of this movie that I had previously heard before watching it, and realizing that they’re all from Ermey’s completely improvised one-linerswas remarkable. It could have been a dark comedy short film all on it’s own. Some notable one-liners include, but are not limited to:
“What is your major malfunction, numbnuts?”
“Five-foot nine, I didn’t know they stacked shit that high!”
“Me love you long time!”
There was a dark shift after the intro section, and I realized that I finished the comedic and best part of the movie.
Most of our main characters make it through boot camp and are sent to Vietnam. At this point, it turns into full-on war movie. The lead role shifts from being shared between Ermey, Matthew Modine & Vincent D’Onofrio, to Modine and Kevyn Major Howard who both play Marine journalists that take photos of combat and write positively spun articles (puff pieces) about American victories and accomplishments during the war, while the two of them are personally conflicted about our invasion of Vietnam.
Full Metal Jacket was released roughly twelve years after the end of the Vietnam War. With the War being so personal for many of the viewers at the time, it makes sense that this is considered a classic war film. Regardless of genre, I held a deep appreciation for the cinematography. There were several very long one-shot scenes that were done with precision and excellence. Those longer moments bring me into a movie by removing my ability to check out. That artistic boost brought the overall movie experience up for me by at least a half-star.
Overall Score: 3.5/5 Stars
