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 Vendor hospitality Feb 27, 2010
I ordered it for a friend of mine. But, this copy that I ordered was defective. The vendor was great on the return and refund of the money for it. I would do business with them again.
 Great service Feb 21, 2010
Item was as described or better, arrived very quickly, professionally packed. Recommended. the Great Stnley K's take on Viet Nam. A classic.
One of the greatest war movies of all time! Dec 23, 2009
Although this film has a bit of independent movie flavor, it still ranks as one of the best. Showing both the humorous and distasteful side of the Vietnam conflict I highly recommend it for those who enjoy dramatic and suspenseful themes. It is an altogether dark film, with flashes of hope here and there, and ends with the message that the soldier can be many things yet at the end of the day just wants to be alive. This is not a movie for young people, as it contains scenes of very graphic violence, but this is the realism of war that makes it great. It well captures the individual personalities that represent the men who fought in this conflict.
"You're fresh out of friends!" Vietnam don't mean a thing Sep 08, 2009
I first saw the movie Full Metal Jacket back when I was a teenager. Just recently I finished reading The Short Timers (which the movie was based on and long since out of print) by the late Gustav Hasford, whose just due as writer I feel is wrongly held from him. My favorite genre of war films are the ones about the Vietnam era. This includes this film, Apocalypse Now, Hamburger Hill, and so on. Stanley Kubrick (God rest his soul) in my opinion delivered in telling his view on war from a humanistic standpoint. The point Kubrick was trying to make was war is a natural order of things, but whatever cause one claims to fight for, violence will not serve any purpose. What is the purpose of going to combat if not to win but only to lose friends, and debating on whether one is a journalist or a stone-cold killer? The central theme here is man's duality when it comes to the theater of combat. This is best shown through Matthew Modine's character James Davis, a.k.a. Joker, who initially goes through boot camp on Parris Island. He gives us insight on how the individuality of a recruit is demolished, and rebuilt into a hard-nosed Marine or Soldier. The casualty of this ritual of boot camp is the hapless Leonard Lawrence, a.k.a. Pvt Pyle (Leonard Pratt in the book), played well by Vincent D'Onofrio, who is the hapless recruit continually taunted and scorned by the reasonably tough but brutal and sadistic drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann (Gerheim in the book), played brilliantly by R. Lee Ermey (who in reality was a former Marine D.I.), as well as his fellow recruits because of his mistakes. Eventually, Pvt Pyle "hacks it" physically, but all is not right upstairs because of the physical and psychological abuse internalized, and one will find out the tragic conclusion at the end of the boot camp half of the film.
The second half of the film gets into the battle. We are in a world of [...], as some characters in the film would say. Some of the reviews I read cite this as being the least favorite part of the film because it drags on and did not have as much life as in the first half. Well war is not supposed to have life, and everything is abysmal and destroyed. Whatever preconceived notion that war is like a movie and one dies like a hero instantly goes out the window that was the feeling Kubrick wanted us to experience. By this time, Joker has become a hippie in uniform, and if we look deep into it enough, we can envision a profound sense of disillusionment within his character. The paradox there is even more defined by the peace button on his helmet and "BORN TO KILL" written on it, which is the question he will have to ponder later on.
In my opinion, those of us who only see Full Metal Jacket as a film just about a group of Marines in Vietnam or the Marine Corps culture in general (alluding to the boot camp part) is missing the point. It is a war film that was inherently antiwar(though Stanley Kubrick states that it was not his purpose)and no matter which branch of the service you are in as in grunt, be it the Army or Marines, everybody who was in the military at that time went through the same deal. Also one has to understand and appreciate the author, who was a former Marine who protested the war while in uniform, and decided to convey his experiences as a journalist through his novel. Mr. Hasford was addressing what he saw as the problems in the military culture back in his era; despite the apparent fact that armed forces were changing, it still was not very progressive socially. R. Lee Ermey's character of D.I. Hartmann or Gerheim, whichever you choose, though his character says he doesn't look down on anybody, was the enbodiment of the the old guard in the military. You know, the types that are reactionary and bigoted (which can attest to the misogyny, homophobia and to some degree racism towards minorities in the service, as well as the perceived enemy, the Vietnamese). It also shows that in order to survive combat, one must learn to devalue one's own humanity and turn yourself into a thing, and learn not to see the humanity in what one believes to be the enemy.
Of course this is one best films I have seen about Vietnam. If one wishes to get further insight of the character of James "Joker" Davis, I recommend you read The Short-Timers and the follow up to that, The Phantom Blooper.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
It is an incredible movie. Aug 14, 2009
full metal jacket is an incredible movie, it will take you to a really good time watching it.
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