Gems from Ray's Video Vault 5:
FULL METAL JACKET

WE'RE ALL IN A WORLD OF SHIT

1987
Rated R (for truly disturbing violence and some crude sexual references)
Starring Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Adam Baldwin, & Arliss Howard

It's influence reaches farther than you probably ever considered.  From a flashback sequence in Peter Jackson's quirky puppet passion play "Meet the Feebles" to the haunting refrain of 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny" to the character Sniper Wolf from Konami's video extravaganza "Metal Gear Solid", Full Metal Jacket has been riffed left, front, and center.  That's why if you haven't seen this Vietnam War epic helmed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Based on the novel "The Short-Timers" by Gustav Hasford, Jacket follows Matthew Modine's Private Joker from the very first day of Marine basic training to his harrowing tour in the 'Nam.  Given the number of characters drifting in and out of the film's two major sequences (basic and in-country), it is amazing that the script by Kubrick, Hasford, and producer Michael Herr manages to find an arc for every character, even the most minor.  No one is iven short shrift, and there really aren't any wasted scenes.  No window dressing, no philosophical monologues, just a realistic portrayal of the fact that war is truly hell.

The desire for realism extended to the use of live ammunition in a number of the scenes, notably tank shells and machine gun rounds absolutely decimating buildings and foliage.  It kind of makes those old war movie scenes where guys are taking cover from a machine gun nest behind some 2x4s and a few sandbags a little suspect.

The only flaw I could find in this film is the performance of Adam Baldwin.   As Animal Mother, Baldwin doesn't really bring any depth to the character, keeping him a rude, crude, gung-ho macho machinegunner from the first time you lay eyes on him until the closing scenes.  The character is written well, and gets some choice lines, but Baldwin plays it too much like a young actor playing war than a young man caught in the thick of it.  Could be what Kubrick was going for, but it doesn't feel genuine.

This belongs among the greatest war, and anti-war, movies ever made.  Full Metal Jacket rates 9 out of 10 carat quality, and would probably get a 10 if it weren't for the flat performance of Adam Baldwin.  Track it down at your local video store and let me know what you think at ray@skewedperspective.com. E-mail me your review requests as well. Thanks for reading.

-Ray Rich