MovieRob’s Birthday Bash of Favorites 2022 (#45 of 49) – Full Metal Jacket (1987) – Encore Review 2

January is my birthday month, so I decided that I would try and do something quite unique and special for this milestone in my life. I will be turning 48, so I decided to watch 49 (48+1 for good luck) of my all time favorite movies in a random order over the course of this month. I have reviewed every one of these films already, but I will now give new perspectives on them all. Every one of these films received a 10/10 scoring from me. Some of these reviews will contain spoilers so if you have never seen them before, I recommend that you read some of my previous reviews of the film that are spoiler free before reading on…

Hope you enjoy!

This is film #45 of the 49.

Let’s continue with…

“I wanted to see exotic Vietnam… the crown jewel of Southeast Asia. I wanted to meet interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture… and kill them. I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed kill!” – Private Joker

Initial Viewing Memories – Saw this on cable numerous times and was amazed by the way they tell two stories at once here and both says so much about soldiering and about brotherhood in war.

Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (cable in ’88, video, DVD and 13 Jun 2014, 13 Apr 2020 and 28 Jan 2022)

Link to original review – Here and Here

Brief Synopsis – New Marine recruits at Parris Island get ready to be trained and sent to fight in Vietnam.

My Take on it – This is such an a amazing movie that works on so many levels.

The movie is basically two completely separate films; one about the training of marines and the other about how they deal with life fighting in Vietnam.

Both stories show how fragile life can be and how important it is to live life to the fullest wherever you are.

The battle scenes are a bit brutal and definitely show how War is Hell.

The characters are great to watch as they constantly change as the story moves along.

Matthew Modine is great as the lead character who is always making jokes about everything, yet has a very interesting outlook on the war itself.

R. Lee Ermey steals every scene he is in as the Gunnery Sergeant and rattles off his lines flawlessly throughout.

The film’s message about the futility of war resonates throughout and they also are able to give is a profound look at the way that death and war affect men no matter how much they have trained for these kind of situations.

Highly Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Director Stanley Kubrick had nothing but praise for R. Lee Ermey’s skills as a performer. Kubrick originally was going to write dialogue for Ermey’s character himself, but he became so impressed with what Ermey improvised, he decided it was not necessary. He simply let him ad-lib, an act practically unheard of for a Stanley Kubrick film. Ermey’s performances were so faultless that Kubrick only needed two to three takes to get his scenes filmed, which was also extremely rare for a Kubrick film. The only instance Ermey had to film more than two to three takes was in the “Jelly Doughnut Scene,” which he claimed was filmed in 37 takes, to the point his voice kept disappearing from time to time. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)