Well believe it ladies and gentlemen, the impossible has happened because I found my first ever favorite Stanley Kubrick movie. Years ago, I watched The Shining long ago and I don't remember how long it's been but what I do remember is Jack Nicholson playing Jack Nicholson in a Kubrick movie, to make a long story short I f**king hate the movie for a gillion reasons not just because of Nicholson not being scary. Granted I do remember watching 2001: A Space Odyssey though granted it's been quite a long time since I watched that movie and I'm not sure I want to dive deep into that movie until I get Kubrick's other movies done besides Eyes Wide Shut. Which leads to my official Stanley Kubrick movie, Full Metal Jacket, a movie for me has surprisingly been on my radar for quite some time. I just never got around to watching the movie but thanks to my brother, I finally sat down and watched the movie from start to finish.
Stanley Kubrick's take on Vietnam War follows smart a** Private Davis (Matthew Modine), quickly christened "Joker" by his foul-mouthed drill sergeant (R. Lee Ermey), and pudgy Private Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio), nicknamed "Gomer Pyle," as they endure the rigors of basic training. Though Pyle takes a frightening detour, Joker graduates to the Marine Corps and is sent to Vietnam as a journalist, covering -- and eventually participating in -- the bloody Battle of Hue.
I don't think we can talk about the greatness of this film other than yes, this film is directed by Stanley Kubrick himself furthermore this was a huge improvement than The Shinning, but like I said a second ago I don't believe that we can talk about this film without talking about the genius acting that is R. Lee Ermey (who was in fact served in the United States Marine Corp, as well as fought in the Vietnam War) as the scene stealer and reason why I love the film, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. To give a short background, R. Lee Ermey did in fact a Vietnam Vet, and served with the Marine Corps, served eleven years in the Corps including going to Vietnam during the Vietnam War, in 2002 just thirty years after his retirement, Ermey received an honorary promotion to Gunnery Sergeant (E-7) by Commandment of the Marine Corps General James L. Jones. During the casting of the film R. Lee Ermey was hired to be a technical advisor, though Ermey asked Kubrick himself if he could auditioned for the role of Drill Instructor Hartman and at first Kubrick wasn't too sure furthermore didn't feel he would be ready so, Ermey during the audition for the main character roles as for the privates in the first act of the film would improvise the lines with the actors who are auditioning for the privates as well as him being in the camera during the audition tapes. Reviewing the tapes Kubrick in his own twisted mind decided that Ermey would be perfect for the role of Sergeant Hartman and so with that set in mind, a lot of the script had to be rewritten in a sense with Lee in mind for the role, thus Kubrick punched a tape recorder and Lee would improvise a lot of the lines that you would see on screen until he ran out of things to say, then would take it to the production secretary and would transcribe it for them as thereupon both Kubrick and Ermey would pick the best lines that would fit for the entire movie. Now, I can imagine that a ton of Liberals and Democrats even ABC or NBC hell even the View, would look at a film like Full Metal Jacket and say that this is unacceptable to train are fellow troops. Though you must understand that this was the late sixties at the height of the Vietnam War and America had to grab enough troops to train and send over to Vietnam, and so a lot of the Drill Sergeants had a lot on their plate to train a ton of these recruits moreover the Marine Corps didn't ton for any of these tactics. Though coming to the point, what drill instructors a supposed to train these kids to survive and kill almost like a Football or any sports coach chewing out their own players because their trying to get the best out of them and want to win. Moreover, that's basically what drill instructors are supposed to be is this mean monster phytologically convincing them to quite the army while making them be the meanest soldier to and kill their fellow enemy. Therefore, Ermey's performance in the movie when you watch it, it's single handed the most realistic part of the movie from the hilarious insults to the abuse he brings upon his recruits including Kingpin aka Vincent D'Onofrio. Speaking of Vincent D'Onofrio, he does a great job playing the weakest link in the chain who slowly begins to have a mental breakdown for which he does a great job even when his first interactions with Ermey he continues to crack up and can't stop, which really is the realistic for me because even if I'm in the army I'm not sure if I can keep a straight face with my drill instructor. Kubrick himself does a tremendous job, directing the film as well as not sugar coating what like in the Marine Corps is like and even fighting in Vietnam War. Granted I've not seen all of Stanley Kubrick's movies mainly because of The Shinning but now watching Full Metal Jacket I'm going to find some of his films I haven't seen and watch them through. I've said it earlier Full Metal Jacket stands tall as my all-time favorite Kubrick movie and the Shinning is my least favorite movie, that is until I watch all his other films. So, if you haven't seen any of Stanley Kubrick's movies I would highly recommend watching Full Metal Jacket and just avoid watching the Shining maybe a onetime thing, in order to see if it scares you or not 2001 on the other hand I may have to go back and watch the movie but all I remember is the ending doesn't make any sense.