Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket (known in Latin America as Born to Kill or Cara de guerra and in Spain as Full Metal Jacket) is an Anglo-American war film directed by Stanley Kubrick, distributed by Warner Bros., and released in 1987. Based on the novel A Vest of Steel, by the writer Gustav Hasford, who was a war journalist in the Vietnam conflict, it stars Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio and Adam Baldwin. The story follows a platoon of United States Marine Corps through their training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. From there, it focuses primarily on two soldiers, Jester (Modine) and Clumsy (D'Onofrio), who have to deal with their instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Ermey), who has an abusive nature. On the other hand, the second half of the film portrays the experiences of two of the platoon's marines in the Vietnamese cities of Đà Nẵng and Huế, during the Tet Offensive, in the context of the Vietnam War.

Kubrick originally wanted to make a Holocaust film, but after discussing it with screenwriter Michael Herr, he changed his mind in favor of a Vietnam War story. The director discovered the novel A Vest of Steel and contacted Hasford in 1985, despite the fact that he had been studying both the book and aspects of the war since 1983, having read it a year earlier.. Hasford, Herr, and Kubrick came together to craft the script; Hasford communicated his ideas over the phone and did not see Kubrick in person until after the script was written. Kubrick chose the name in reference to full metal jacket ammunition, as he thought the one from the book would not be suitable for the film.

Filming took place in England between 1985 and 1986. Kubrick procured four M41 tanks from a Belgian Army colonel and several sea-green painted Westland Wessex helicopters to pass for Sikorsky H-34 Choctaws. He also acquired some weapons such as rifles, M79 grenade launchers and M60 machine guns. A disused gasworks called the Beckton Gas Works was used on behalf of Huế after the attacks, as well as a former British Royal Air Force station and a British Army base for the Parris Island training ground. The composition of the soundtrack fell to Stanley's daughter, Vivian Kubrick, who used the alias "Abigail Mead" to create a list with songs like "Paint It, Black", composed by the English group The Rolling Stones, for the credits finals.

It had its preview on June 17, 1987, in the American city of Beverly Hills (California). Ermey received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Sergeant Hartman; he wrote much of his lines and was not slated to take the role, as it fell to Tim Colceri, relegated to playing a helicopter gunner after Kubrick's eye on Ermey. The film grossed $46.35 million in its first weeks of release, and around $120 million worldwide until 1998. Kubrick, Herr, and Hasford received an Oscar nomination in the Best Adapted Screenplay category., as well as other same results and some achievements in other contests.

Plot

During the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, a group of recruits arrive at the Parris Island training facility. Instructor Hartman employs harsh methods to turn newcomers into combat-ready Marines. Among them are the clumsy and overweight Leonard Lawrence, whom Hartman nicknames Clumsy, as well as the prankster J.T. Davis, who is given the name Joker after interrupting a speech by Hartman with an impersonation of John Wayne. When Clumsy shows ineptness in basic training, Hartman pairs him up with Joker. Under his supervision, Clumsy begins to improve, but one day Hartman discovers a donut taken from the dining room in his trunk. Blaming the platoon for Ducky's infractions, Hartman adopts a policy of collective punishment; he will punish the entire squad, except Clumsy, for every mistake he makes. One night, the recruits stun Clumsy with a hazing, which Jester reluctantly participates in. After this, Clumsy seems to reinvent himself as a model recruit, displaying particular expertise in marksmanship. This pleases Hartman, but worries Joker, who believes that Clumsy may be suffering from a mental disorder after seeing him talking to his rifle while the posse cleaned them up one night.

Cartel with the rifle Creed, a sub-fusil and the Buphon helmet placed in an exhibition in Canada.

Recruits graduate and receive their assignments; Jester is assigned a position as a military journalist, while most of the others, including Clumsy, are posted to the infantry. During the platoon's last night on Parris Island, Jester discovers Clumsy in the restrooms, loading his rifle and executing drill commands while he loudly recites the Rifleman's Creed. This wakes up the squad and Hartman, who confronts Clumsy and orders him to hand over the rifle. Clumsy shoots Hartman dead and appears to be ready to attack Joker, but instead he kills himself. In January 1968, Jester, now a sergeant, is a war correspondent in Đà Nẵng for the Stars and Stripes newspaper along with Private Roofbreaker, a photographer who wants to go into combat. At the Navy base, Joker is mocked for his lack of the "thousand-meter stare", indicating his lack of experience in warfare. They are interrupted by the start of the Tet Offensive when the North Vietnamese Army unsuccessfully tries to invade the base.

The next day, news staff are briefed on enemy attacks throughout South Vietnam. Jester is sent to Phú Bài, accompanied by Roofbreaker. They meet up with the Lusthog squad and Joker meets with Sergeant Cowboy, whom he had met at boot camp. Jester accompanies the squad during the Battle of Huế, where the platoon commander, Touchdown, is killed by the enemy. After the Marines declare the area safe, a team of American journalists and reporters enter Huế to interview various soldiers about their experiences in Vietnam and their views on the war.

While on patrol in Huế, Squad leader Earl is killed by a booby trap, leaving Cowboy in command. The group gets lost and Cowboy orders Eight Ball to scout the area; an enemy sniper wounds Eight Ball and Doc Jay, the squad's corpsman. Believing the sniper is leading the squad into an ambush, Cowboy tries to radio for tank support to no avail. The squad's machine gunner, Animal Piece, disobeys Cowboy's orders to stand down and tries to save the comrades from him. He discovers that there is only one sniper, but Doc Jay and Eight Ball are killed when the former tries to pinpoint the shooter's location. Afterwards, Cowboy moves the rest of the squad into an abandoned building for cover. While radioing for support, Cowboy is shot dead by the sniper.

Hunk of Animal assumes command of the squad and leads an attack on the sniper; Joker spots the shooter, a teenage girl, and tries to shoot her, but her rifle jams, whereupon Roofbreaker shoots her, mortally wounding her. As the squad converges, the sniper begs the squad to shoot her, prompting an argument over whether to kill her or let her suffer. Piece of Animal decides to allow a coup de grace only if Jester performs it. After some hesitation, Jester executes her, for which the Marines congratulate him as he flashes the "thousand-foot look." They then march towards their camp, singing "Mickey Mouse's March". Joker claims through the narration that despite being "in a world of shit", he is glad to be alive and is no longer afraid.

Main cast

The actors R. Lee Ermey (in 2005), Matthew Modine (2009) and Vincent D'Onofrio (2014), respectively.

Through Warner Bros., Kubrick announced a nationwide actor search in the United States and Canada. The director used videotapes to audition the performers and received more than 3,000 submissions. His staff reviewed all of the tapes, leaving 800 of them for Kubrick to personally review. R. Lee Ermey, who had been a drill instructor in the United States Army, originally hired as a technical advisor, asked Kubrick if he could audition for the role of Hartman. Kubrick had seen Ermey's performance as Sergeant Loyce in The Boys in Company C (1978) and told him that he was not cruel enough to play the character. Ermey improvised insulting dialogue against a group of Royal Marines who were being considered for the role of background marines, to demonstrate his ability to play the character, as well as to show how a drill instructor tries to break the individuality of the soldiers. new recruits. Upon viewing video of these sessions, Kubrick cast Ermey in the role, realizing that he "was a genius at this part". Kubrick also incorporated the 250-page transcript of Ermey's rants into the script. Ermey's experience as a drill instructor during the Vietnam era proved invaluable; Kubrick estimated that Ermey wrote 50% of his own dialogue, especially the insults.

Tim Colceri was originally considered for the role of Hartman, but eventually filled by Ermey, he played a helicopter gunner who murders Vietnamese civilians. To Tim, an ex-serviceman who served in the Vietnam War and spent months preparing Hartman's lines, Kubrick gave this "little part" as "consolation". He discovered casting in 1982 through a friend who showed him The Hollywood Reporter magazine; After being in the Marines from 1969 to 1971, his acting career was limited to a few commercials. Years later, in 1985, Leon Vitali—Kubrick's assistant—called him to tell him that the director "was impressed with him" and also " I wanted to see the young Marine with whom Colceri had recorded his audition." He made another film with his partner, who did not make it to the stage, although Colceri signed Warner to an eight-week contract at $2,500 each. He rehearsed in his hotel room for three days before meeting Kubrick, and he was overwhelmed by the large amount of text he had to interpret. A year later, as the second part was being shot, Vitali subjected him to constant repetitions of his script for up to twelve hours a day for six weeks; "Kubrick, through Vitali, floated the idea that he would start shooting the next day, only for that day to come and go." Near his apartment was actor Michael Biehn, who helped him deal with Vitali and the director's decision to cast Ermey.

For the character J. T. «Joker» Davis —Jester in Spain, Joker in Latin America — Matthew Modine, who had previously starred in a few films such as Mrs. Soffel, A True Story, Birdy, Vision Quest and Private School. Actor Anthony Michael Hall was initially considered for the for the role, but eight months of negotiations passed without a financial agreement. Bruce Willis was also offered the role, but declined due to the impossibility of leaving the television series Moonlighting. Modine complained about making the film, saying it was a "miserable experience", "although he never lost his pride in the finished film".

Vincent D'Onofrio played Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence, (Clumsy in Spain). Until then he had only participated as an actor in two small films years before, and he was working as a doorman in a Hard Rock Cafe. D'Onofrio already knew Modine before, and he recommended him to Kubrick to play the role, since the director could not find anyone. The actor sent a video dressed in a military uniform that he recorded with a rented camera; after being cast, he had to gain 32 kg in seven months. The intentional increase in weight made him "mentally weak" and he even had knee problems during the filming of a scene. Despite being friends with Modine at first, both distanced themselves from each other to the point of hating each other, as Modine said in an interview, for "having different styles".

Adam Baldwin was cast as Animal Mother —Piece of Animal. Arnold Schwarzenegger was initially considered, but declined because he was working on the films Commando and Predator. Also, Arliss Howard stars as Recruit "Cowboy" Evans, Kevyn Major Howard as Rafterman (Rooftop) and Dorian Harewood as Eightball (Eight Ball). —. In this way, the leading cast was made up as follows:

• Matthew Modine as J. T. "Joker" Davis (Buffon/Burlon): Narrator of the film and then recruits into a war journalist of the American newspaper Barras and stars. His helmet bears the inscription "Born to Kill" while having a badge that represents the symbol of peace.
• Vincent D'Onofrio as Leonard «Gomer Pyle» Lawrence (Patoso): It is a heavy and clumsy object of Hartman's mockery.
• R. Lee Ermey as Hartman: Artillery Sergeant and Military Instructor.
• Adam Baldwin as Animal Mother (Pedazo de Animal): Ametrator with a desire to fight and proud to kill enemy soldiers.
• Arliss Howard as "Cowboy" Evans: Member of the Lusthog squadron and friend of Buphon.
• Kevyn Major Howard as Rafterman (Rompetechos): War photographer.
• Dorian Harewood as Eightball (Bola 8): Lusthog member and close friend of Animal Pedazo.
• Tim Colceri as Doorgunner: A ruthless helicopter door gunner that suggests that Bufon and Rompetechos write a story about it.

In addition to the main cast, Full Metal Jacket featured other actors, including Ed O'Rossv for the role of Walter J. "Touchdown" Schinowski, a former American football player and Commander of the Lusthog squad. John Terry appears as Lieutenant Lockhart, who in turn is editor of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. On the other hand, the actress of Asian descent Papillon Soo Soo acts as a prostitute in the Vietnamese city of Đà Nẵng, while Ngoc Le is the sniper.

Production

Development

Stanley Kubrick in 1964.

In 1980, director Stanley Kubrick contacted screenwriter Michael Herr, author of the Vietnam War memoir Dispatches (1977), to discuss working on a film about the Holocaust. Instead, the subject was dropped in favor of a Vietnam War film. The two met in England, and the director told Herr that he wanted to make a war film, but had not yet found a story that would work. to adapt. Kubrick discovered journalist Gustav Hasford's semi-autobiographical novel A Vest of Steel (1979) while reading the Virginia Kirkus Review. Herr received it in bound galley proofs and thought it it was a masterpiece. In 1982, Kubrick read the novel twice, concluding that "it was a unique and absolutely wonderful book", and decided, along with Herr, to adapt it for their next film. Kubrick said being drawn to the book's dialogue, finding it "almost poetic in its carved and raw quality". the Bible Library of the United States Congress and studying hundreds of period photographs. Initially, Herr was not interested in reviewing his experiences in the Vietnam War, so Kubrick spent three years persuading him to participate in what the author described as " a single phone call that lasted three years, with interruptions".

In 1985, Kubrick contacted Hasford to work on the script with him and Herr. He often spoke to Hasford on the phone three to four times a week, for hours. Kubrick had already written a detailed treatment, and Kubrick and Herr met at the former's house every day, dividing the treatment into scenes; from there, Herr wrote the first draft. The filmmaker was concerned that the public would misinterpret the book's title as referring to people who only put in half a day's work, so they changed it to Full Metal Jacket after discovering the eponymous ammunition while reviewing a weapons catalogue. After completing the first draft, Kubrick telephoned his orders to Hasford and Herr, who mailed their submissions to him. Kubrick read and edited them, and later the team repeated the process; neither Hasford nor Herr knew how much he had contributed to the script, which led to a dispute over the end credits. Hasford mentioned this in an interview: "We were like guys on an assembly line at the car factory. I was putting up a contraption and Michael was putting up another, and Stanley was the only one who knew that this would end up being a car". Herr said that the director was not interested in making an anti-war film, but "wanted to show what war is like." war." At some point, Kubrick wanted to meet Hasford in person, but Herr advised against it; he described the author of A Vest of Steel as a "scary man" and believed that he and Kubrick would not "get along", but Kubrick insisted and they all met at his home in England to have dinner; It didn't go well and they didn't get back together.

Historical shooting and portraiture

Image of the former Beckton Gas Works gas factory, used for the scenes of Hurning.

Kubrick shot the film in England from 1985 to 1986. Scenes were shot in Cambridgeshire, at The Broads National Park, at Newham, at the Isle of Dogs, and at the Millennium Mills and Beckton Gas Works infrastructure. used a former British Royal Air Force station and then a British Army base, Bassingbourn Barracks, as the Parris Island training ground. An English Army firing range near Barton, outside London, was also used. Cambridge, for the scene where Hartman compliments Private Clumsy on his shooting skills. Kubrick worked from photographs of the Vietnamese town of Huế, taken in 1968, and found an area owned by British Gas that closely resembled it and was scheduled for demolition. The disused Beckton Gas Works gasworks, a few miles from central London, was filmed on behalf of Huế after the attacks. Kubrick blew up the buildings and the film's art director used a wrecking ball to blow up the buildings. holes in specific locations on the infrastructures. Originally, Kubrick had a plastic replica of the jungle, but once he looked at it, he was reported to have said, "I don't like it. Get rid of her." The open country was filmed on the Cliffe Marshes, Kent, along the River Thames, complete with 200 Spanish palm trees imported from the Canary Islands and 100,000 plastic tropical plants from Hong Kong. Additionally, scenes were shot at Pinewood Studios, located in Iver, Buckinghamshire.

Tank M41 Walker Bulldog.

Kubrick purchased four M41 tanks from a Belgian Army colonel who was an admirer of the director's work, as well as sea-green painted Westland Wessex helicopters from the British Army to represent the British Army's Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw helicopters. US Navy. Although the Wessex was a licensed derivative of the Sikorsky H-34, two gas turbine engines were substituted in the Wessex for the H-34's radial (piston) engine. This resulted in a much longer and less rounded nose than the Vietnam-era H-34. Kubrick obtained a selection of rifles, M79 grenade launchers, and M60 machine guns from a licensed arms dealer. Modine described filming as difficult.: "Beckton Gas Works was a toxic and environmental nightmare for the entire film crew." Asbestos and hundreds of other chemicals poisoned the soil and the air. Modine documented the details of the shooting at Beckton in his book Full Metal Jacket Diary (2005). During the boot camp sequence, Modine and the other recruits had to endure the rigors of Infantry training. Marina, as well as Ermey yelling at them for ten hours a day during the filming of the Parris Island scenes. In order to ensure that the actors' reactions to Ermey were as authentic and fresh as possible, Ermey and the recruits did not rehearse together. Also, for the continuity of the film, each recruit had to shave their heads once a week. week.

At one point during filming, Ermey was in a car accident in which he broke all of his ribs on one side and was unconscious for four and a half months. Hasford on the other hand contemplated legal action over the writing credits; Originally, the filmmakers intended for Hasford to receive an "additional dialogue" credit, but he fought and eventually received full credit. The writer took two friends with him and visited the set dressed as an extra, only to be confused by a member of Herr's team, although he later identified himself as the writer on whose work the film was based. Three different cameras were used during the filming of the film: Arriflex 35 BL (with high-speed lenses made by Zeiss), Arriflex 35 IIC and Fries Mitchell 35R3 (with Nikon lenses). In turn, the length of the recorded footage in total is approximately 3200 meters. The images passed through the Rank Film laboratories, in Denham (United Kingdom).

The director chose to shoot in England due to the high costs of traveling to Vietnam and because, according to him, it was "cheaper and more accurate" to build "reality" than to shoot in the Asian country. However, around 5,000 members of London's Vietnamese immigrant community were recruited as backgrounds for the Đà Nẵng scenes. A scene in which several servicemen played football with a human head as a ball and a in which Piece of Animal decapitated the sniper. As additional information, Morris had time to get married, have a child with his wife, and that he turned one year old during the filming time of the film. Anton Furst held the position of production designer; He declared about his involvement in the film: «My job, basically, is to find out, from the script, what we need the camera to look at, apart from the actors. It's, to a degree, illustration, but obviously you're entering a totally different kind of reality with film work."

Soundtrack

The Rolling Stones in 1967. A year later they composed "Paint It, Black", a song that sounds during the final credits.

Stanley's daughter, Vivian Kubrick, composed the score under the alias "Abigail Mead". To present "dark and atmospheric" music, Vivian used a Fairlight CMI sampler. Billboard's Top 100 Hits list for each year from 1962 to 1968 and sampled many songs, although he remarked, "Sometimes the dynamic range of the music was too great and we couldn't work on dialogue." ». The soundtrack abounds in rock, such as the songs "Hello Vietnam" -by Johnny Wright-, "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" —Nancy Sinatra—, “Wooly Bully” —Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs—and “Surfin'; Bird" -The Trashmen-. To close the film, "Paint It, Black" sounds during the final credits, composed by the English group The Rolling Stones at the time of the Vietnam War; due to copyright problems, it could not be added to the discs for sale of the soundtrack. Also included were the Hymn of the Marines, the official hymn of the United States Marine Corps performed for the occasion by the Goldman Band, and "The Mickey Mouse March", created by Jimmie Dodd for the variety show Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1996).

Vivian composed various scores to complete the film and scenes such as Hartman being killed by Clumsy and the latter committing suicide. Vivian's seven tracks were recorded at CTS Studios in Wembley, London, where Tim Pennington contributed as sound engineer. On the other hand, to promote the film, Vivian and Nigel Goulding released the song "Full Metal Jacket (I Wanna Be Your Drill Instructor)"; it incorporates Ermey's exercise cadences and reached number two on the UK singles chart. The soundtrack was eventually released the same year as the film, in 1987, on Warner Records in the United States and WEA International for the rest of the world, in CD and vinyl LP formats.

Dubbing in Spanish

To get the film in Spanish, two dubbings were made: one for distribution in Spain and another for Latin America. In the first case, the process was carried out in the Tecnison studio, in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona, while Mario Camus was in charge of directing. Regarding the dubbing actors, Pep Anton Muñoz (as Jester), Jesús Nieto Obejero (Hartman), Pedro Mari Sánchez (Patoso), Chema Muñoz (Cowboy), Rafael Alonso Naranjo Jr. (Rompetechos) and Tito participated in Spanish. Valverde (Eight Ball). At first Jaime de Armiñán was in charge of directing, but due to disagreements with Kubrick about the choice of actors, he was changed to Camus. For his part, in the Spanish-American version, recorded in Venezuela, Rubén Antonio Pérez occupied the position of director. The main cast of voices was made up of Paul Gillman (for dubbing Bufón), Gonzalo Camacho (Hartman), Alessandro Guzmán (Patoso), Gabriel Verón Sánchez (Cowboy), Marcos Moreno (Rompetechos) and Juan Carlos Vázquez (Bola ocho)..

Themes

Helmet used by Buphon in the film where "Born to kill", "Born to kill" is read in Spanish.

Compared to other works by Kubrick, the themes of Full Metal Jacket have received little attention from critics. Michael Pursell wrote in his essay, Full Metal Jacket: The Unraveling of Patriarchy (1988), an early and in-depth consideration of the film's two-part structure, as well as his critique of masculinity, arguing that shows "war and pornography as facets of the same system". Most criticism has focused on issues such as the brainwashing of recruits in boot camp while watching the second half of the film. as more confused and disjointed in content. Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote: "It's as if they've borrowed bits from every war movie to make this eclectic ending." Julian Rice, in his book Kubrick's Hope (2008), saw the second part of the film as a continuation of Jester's psychic journey as he tries to confront human evil. of man's dehumanization in pursuit of his conversion into a killing machine is crudely shown by its author in the chronic confrontation between Ermey and D'Onofrio, as well as in the final and progressive consequence of alienation derived from the brutal methods used".

Tony Lucia, in his review for the Reading Eagle newspaper, analyzed the themes of Kubrick's career, concluding that "the unifying element may be the common man dwarfed by situations too vast and awesome to drive. Lucia specifically referred to the "military mentality" displayed in the film. She also recounted that the theme covered "a man testing himself against his own limitations", concluding: "Full Metal Jacket is the latest chapter in an ongoing film that is not simply a commentary on our time or a past one, but on something beyond." British critic Gilbert Adair wrote: "Kubrick's approach to language has always been reductionist and uncompromisingly deterministic in nature. He seems to see it as the exclusive product of environmental conditioning, only very marginally influenced by concepts of subjectivity and interiority, by all the whims and nuances and modulations of personal expression." Michael Herr stated of his work on the screenplay: "The substance was decided, the old and always serious problem of how to put in a film or a book the living and behavioral presence of what Carl Gustav Jung called shadow, the most accessible of all archetypes [...] War is the supreme field of activity of the shadows, where all their other activities take you. As they put it in Vietnam, “Yes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil, because I am evil.” Will Saez of eCartelera said: "Kubrick spread a clear anti-war message in a hard-hitting piece that, unlike other films in the genre, is followed with complete entertainment."

Launch

Premiere and promotion

Film industry experts were optimistic about the June–September 1987 period. The season focused on films in genres such as science fiction, horror, and fantasy, all of which proved to generate revenue. More films were on the way. aimed at adult audiences (over 25 years old), such as Roxanne, The Untouchables and Full Metal Jacket, with the aim of attracting audiences ignored in previous years by films focused on teens The action comedy Beverly Hills Cop II was predicted to dominate theaters, but many others were also expected to do well, including the action-adventure Ishtar, the comedies Harry and the Hendersons, Who's That Girl? and Spaceballs, the action film Predator and sequels including Superman IV and The Living Daylights. Full Metal Jacket has been rated R—for ages 17 and up unless accompanied by an adult— by the Motion Picture Association (MPA).

Before its release, it was promoted through newspapers, with some phrases such as "A masterpiece, Kubrick at his best" or "The greatest war film ever made" by Detroit News and The Globe and Mail, placed in Los Angeles Times. The film had its preview in the American city of Beverly Hills (California) on June 17, 1987. Some actors unrelated to the work attended, such as Clint Eastwood, Roy Scheider and Nicolas Cage, among others. Days later, on June 26, there was a limited premiere in the United States, to make way for a general premiere on July 10 throughout the country. It arrived in Argentine cinemas on October 8, 1987, at the same time that in other Spanish-speaking countries such as Uruguay, Spain and Colombia it was released on December 25, 1987, 22 and 28 January 1988, respectively. In Peru it debuted on February 25, 1988, and in Mexico on April 28 of the same year. On the other hand, its worldwide release dates were as follows:

Country Premiere date United States 17 June 1987 (priest in Beverly Hills) 26 June 1987 (limited size) 10 July 1987 Canada 26 June 1987 United Kingdom Ireland 11 September 1987 Sweden 2 October 1987 Argentina Western Germany 8 October 1987 Finland Italy Portugal 9 October 1987 Australia 15 October 1987 Brazil Denmark 16 October 1987

Country Premiere date France Greece 21 October 1987 Netherlands 29 October 1987 Uruguay 25 December 1987 Spain 22 January 1988 (Barcelona) Colombia 28 January 1988 Peru 25 February 1988 Japan 19 March 1988 Taiwan 26 March 1988 Hong Kong 31 March 1988 Mexico 28 April 1988 Turkey 6 October 1995 South Korea 17 February 1996

Home Format

In 1988, Warner Home Video released the film on VHS, labeled "Acclaimed by critics around the world as the greatest war film ever made." It was released in the United States on optical disc in 1991 LaserDisc (LD) priced at US$24.98, while in Japan it was released in September 1989. In the following years, several DVDs of the film were released: June 1999, September 2001, August 2002, September 2004 and October 2007. The 2002 edition is a limited edition for collectors; It features additional items such as the original soundtrack, 35mm artwork with a still from the film, and a sixteen-page notebook with production stories and images from the film. The 2004 film is a remaster of the original film., which boasts "a softer picture, a little darker, and the colors are more vibrant." For its part, the 2007 edition, called Deluxe Edition, includes comments by actors Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio and Lee Ermey, as well as film critic Jay Cocks; a documentary called Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil was also added and has a duration of around thirty-one minutes.

It was released on Blu-ray on October 23, 2007. For the twenty-fifth anniversary, Warner released a special edition Blu-ray on August 7, 2012, with two discs packaged in a forty-fold bound book. and four pages that counts facts about the production, biographies of the cast, a reflection of Modine and an essay titled The Identity Crisis of Full Metal Jacket. Also includes commentary by Baldwin, Ermey, D'Onofrio, and Cocks from the Deluxe Edition, plus Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil. As a novelty, a DVD was added with the documentary Stanley Kubrick's Boxes, directed by Jon Ronson and which tells facts about what Kubrick was like as a director. In September 2020, Warner launched the Ultra HD (4K Ultra HD) Blu-ray film, remastered in native 2160p new transfer in high dynamic range images from original negative. Leon Vitali assisted in making it; its content is the same as the DVD Deluxe Edition. Additionally, a special version Ultimate Collector's Edition was released in 4K Ultra HD, with a different cover, a poster, a letter from Kubrick and some brochures.

Reception

Commercial

Produced on a budget of $30 million, Full Metal Jacket had a limited release on June 26, 1987 in 215 theaters in the United States and grossed $2,217,307. dollars in its first weekend, with an average of 10,313 USD per room. This data placed it in the number ten position of films that grossed the most in the weekend of June 26 to 28. Another USD 2,002,890 was needed for a total of USD 5,655,225 before entering the general release on the 10th. July 1987, in 881 theaters, an increase of 666 theaters. On the weekend of July 10-12, the film grossed $6,079,963, with an average of $6,901 per theater, making it the second highest grosser in those two days, behind only Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise ($7.9 million). Over the next four weeks, it opened in an additional 194 theaters until its widest release in 1,075 theaters before closing two weeks later with a gross of around $46.35 million. This figure made it the 19th highest-grossing feature of the year, behind Snow White ($46.6 million), The Living Daylights ($51.1 million) Dirty Dancing ($51.6 million), Outrageous Fortune ($52.8 million), RoboCop ($53.4 million), Crocodile Dundee ($53.6 million), La Bamba ($54.2 million), Dragnet ($57.4 million), Predador (59.7 million USD), The Witches of Eastwick (63.8 million USD), Lethal Weapon (6 $5.2 million), Illegal Procedure ($65.7 million), The Secret of My Success ($67 million), Three Men and a Baby ($70.8 million), The Untouchables ($76.3 million), Fatal Attraction ($126 million), Platoon i> ($137 million) and Beverly Hills Cop II ($153.7 million). By 1998, the film had grossed $120 million worldwide.

Due in part to high ticket prices, 1987 set a record of $1.6 billion in box office gross, barely surpassing the previous record of $1.58 billion set in 1984. Unlike the The previous summer, which featured multiple blockbusters such as Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1987 delivered just one; Beverly Hills Cop II. Even so, more films, including Full Metal Jacket, had done modestly well, with earnings of $274 million between them, an increase of 50% over 1986. The median age of the Viewership continued to rise, as teen-oriented films saw a 22% drop in performance from those of 1986. Adult films, on the other hand, saw a 39% increase in receipts.

Criticism

Anglo-Saxon

R. Lee Ermey photographed in 2012. He received the praises of criticism.

Review portal Rotten Tomatoes put the approval rating of Full Metal Jacket at 92%, based on 83 reviews and a consensus review that states: "Intense, compactly constructed and darkly comedic at times, it may not boast the most original themes, but it's supremely effective at communicating them." On the other hand, the website Metacritic gave it a score of 76 out of 100 based on 19 reviews, signifying critical reception." generally favorable." Marketing research firm CinemaScore gave the film a "B+" grade. Critics reacted favorably to the cast, especially Ermey's performance in particular, as well as the first film. act of the film in recruit training, although it received several negative reviews towards the last part set in Vietnam, which some considered a "confusing" moral message.

Richard Corliss of Time magazine called the film a “technical knockout” while praising “the wild, desperate wit of the dialogue; the audacity to choose a disjointed skirmish to emphasize the futility of war", as well as "the magnificent and great performances of almost all the actors". He believed that Ermey and D'Onofrio would receive Academy Award nominations, noting "the Olympian elegance and precision of Kubrick's filmmaking". Ian Nathan of Empire gave the film three out of five stars, noting that she was "inconsistent", as well as describing her as "powerfully and frustratingly disinterested". Nathan felt that after the opening act, which focuses on the training of the recruits, the film becomes "devoid of purpose"; however, he summarized his review as follows: "Resilient Kubrickian effort that excites you with repeat viewings." Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the work " heartbreaking, beautiful and characteristically eccentric." Canby echoed the praise for Ermey, of whom he wrote: "The film's astonishing surprise... is so good, so haunting, you'd think he wrote his own lines." The critic also recounted that D'Onofrio's performance is to be admired; likewise, he described Modine as "one of the best and most adaptable young film actors of his generation." Canby concluded that Full Metal Jacket is "a film of immense and very rare imagination".

Jim Hall of Film4 gave the film a perfect score of five stars and added praise for Ermey, commenting that his "performance as the foul-mouthed Hartman is fairly celebrated and it's hard to imagine the film works just as effectively without it. The review preferred the opening training to the subsequent Vietnam sequence, calling it "much more surprising than the second and longer one". Film4 commented that the film ends abruptly, but felt that it "demonstrates how clear and precise the opening could be." the director's vision when he resisted a fatal tendency to indulgence" and concluded: "Full Metal Jacket ranks alongside Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb as one of Kubrick's best films". short film: "Elliptical, full of subtle internal rhymes [...] and deeply moving, this is Kubrick's most elaborate since Dr. Strangelove, as well as the most horrifying". The weekly Variety called the film an "intense, sketchy and magnificently realized drama loaded with vivid and scandalously vulgar military vernacular that contributes in greatly to the power of the film", but considered that it never develops "a particularly strong narrative". All of the cast's performances were labeled "exceptional" with Modine noting: "Embodiing both what it takes to survive in war and a certain omniscience".

Conversely, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert held a dissenting opinion; he called the film "strangely shapeless" and awarded it 2.5 stars out of four. Ebert called it "one of the most attractive war films ever made in terms of settings", but felt this was not enough to compete with the "stunning reality of Platoon, Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter». In addition, Ebert criticized the second act, as it seemed to him that "the film disintegrates into a series of independent pieces, none of them entirely satisfactory." He concluded that the message was "too little too late", while also praising Ermey and D'Onofrio, saying that "these are the two best performances in the film, which never quite picks up after they leave the scene." ». This review angered Gene Siskel on his television show At The Movies; criticized Ebert for liking Benji the Hunted—which came out the same week—more than Full Metal Jacket. Ebert defended his position: "Benji the Hunter was good for what it was, a sentimental children's film about a plucky dog, while Full Metal Jacket may have been a superior film, but as the long-awaited work of a master filmmaker, it fell short. the standard of greatness." The Time Out London staff disliked the film: "Kubrick's directing is as cold and manipulative as the regime he represents." He felt the characters were underdeveloped, adding that "we never really got to know, let alone care, the hapless recruits on sight."

Hispanic American and Spanish

In their review, Fotogramas gave it three out of five stars and stated: «Adaptation of a novel by Gustav Hasford, in which Kubrick remained faithful to his style, consisting of inflating the obvious to make it appear classy. The brutality of the Vietnam War is the pretext for a story that revels in violence despite claiming to denounce it. These important limitations do not prevent the result from having a strange brilliance". For its part, the writing of the AlohaCriticón website mentioned that after its "remarkable start", the film "lacks a unifying consistency as a whole, since it is not valid to endow some characters of extreme motor force and make them disappear before half of the footage, just before moving to the warrior field, where Matthew Modine witnesses a bitter bellicose realism that is not very well exploited and without excessive originality despite his brilliant staging. on stage". In a 1996 review from El País, Fernando Morales called the film "another of the wonderful works of the exceptional Stanley Kubrick". Likewise, he found it "perfectly directed and with very well-worked actors", in addition to ending by saying that Kubrick "managed again to shoot a controversial and exceptional work that attracted his unconditional supporters and those who do not quite understand his cinema."

Awards and recognitions

Full Metal Jacket earned several awards and nominations. Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford were nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. At the BAFTAs, Nigel Galt, Edward Tise and Andy Nelson received a nomination for Best Sound, while John Evans received the same nomination. result in the Best Visual Effects category. At the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, Kubrick won Best Director, while R. Lee Ermey was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Kubrick received several nominations. for Best Producer or Director at the David de Donatello, WGA, Kinema Junpō Magazine, and Japan Film Academy Awards; won Director of the Year for Best Producer or Director of the New York Film Critics Circle.

Empire magazine included it at number 457 on its list of the 500 greatest films of all time. For its part, the British television channel Channel 4 chose Full Metal Jacket as the film number five on its list of the greatest war films ever made. Likewise, the American Film Institute (AFI) placed it number 95 on its list AFI's 100 Years...100 Films of suspense, published in 2001. Rotten Tomatoes positioned it at number twenty-eight in their hundred best war films of all time. On the other hand, from the Vulture website, Keith Phipp mentioned that " Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket are two of the most famous feature films about the horrors of war”, although it nevertheless ranked it number nineteen in a list of the fifty best set in the war.

Legacy and Impact

Elements on the film at the exhibitions of the Netherlands and Poland, respectively.

Modine wrote a book about his experiences on the set of the film called Full Metal Jacket Diary. Published in 2005 by Rugged Land and running over 220 pages, it won an award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) honoring its design, whose jury said, "It's the only book I can imagine covered in a full metal jacket." Full Metal Jacket has gone on to inspire many artists to create music, video games or take one of their characters to appear in movies or series. The line of dialogue "Me so horny. I love you long time" —"I am very hot, very hot, I make love to you", in the Spanish version— pronounced by the street prostitute from Đà Nẵng to Bufón became a catchphrase in popular culture in the United States later being sampled by rap artists 2 Live Crew on "Me So Horny" (1990) and Sir Mix-A-Lot on "Baby Got Back" (1992). It also inspired the video game cover art Marranos en guerra (2000), the sergeant present in the tutorial for Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999) and some moments from NAM-1975 (1990). Ermey made an appearance in the film The Frighteners (1996) as Hiles, the ghost of a master sergeant; his performance is reminiscent of that performed as Hartman and shares many mannerisms with the character.

After beginning his professional career with Full Metal Jacket, D'Onofrio has participated in films and series such as Men in Black (1997), The Cell (2000), Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Jurassic World (2015). For his part, Ermey shared his voice in animated franchises such as Toy Story, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Simpsons and Family Guy, in addition to his participation as an actor in the films Seven (1995), Dead Man Walking (1995), Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), among others; in all cases as a sergeant or related to it. On the other hand, over the years there have been exhibitions on the film in accompaniment with other Kubrick productions in museums such as the Deutsches Filmmuseum (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin, Germany), Australian Center for the Moving Image (Melbourne, Australia), Caermersklooster (Ghent, Belgium), Sihlcity (Zurich, Switzerland), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome, Italy), French Cinematheque (Paris, France), EYE Film Institute Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (California, United States), Museu da Imagem e do Som (São Paulo, Brazil), National Museum of Krakow (Poland), TIFF Bell Lightbox (Toronto, Canada), Museum of Contemporary Art (Monterrey, Mexico), Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea), Contemporary Jewish Museum (San Francisco, United States), Cineteca Nacional (Mexico City), Mexico), Kunstforeningen (Copenhagen, Denmark), Center for Contemporary Culture (Barcelona, Spain) and Design Museum (London, England).

Differences from the novel

Gustav Hasford, author of the novel that inspired the film, during his stay in the Vietnam War.

Film scholar Greg Jenkins gave a detailed analysis of the adaptation of Gustav Hasford's novel as a screenplay. Coming into three parts, the film vastly expands on the relatively short section of the first, about the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island boot camp, and essentially scraps the third. This gives the film a double structure, telling two largely independent stories connected by the same characters that act in each. Jenkins mentioned that this structure is a development of concepts that Kubrick had from the 1960s; at the time, the director spoke of wanting to blow up the usual conventions of narrative structure. Sergeant Hartman, who is called Gerheim in the book, has an expanded role in the film. In the film, Private Clumsy's incompetence is portrayed as a negative weight on the rest of the platoon and unlike in the novel, he is the only underperforming recruit. The film omits Sergeant Hartman's revelation to other troops that he believes that Clumsy could be mentally unstable; by contrast, Hartman praises Clumsy, saying that he "has been born again strong." Jenkins stated that Hartman's character could not have been portrayed as having a warmer social relationship with the troops, as that would have upset the balance of the film, which hinges on the spectacle of ordinary soldiers facing off against Hartman as a force. of nature that embodies a murderous culture.

Several episodes in the book were cut from the script or combined with others. For example, the introduction to Cowboy, by the Lusthog squadron, was abbreviated and supplemented with material from other sections of the book. Although the final third section of the novel was largely removed, elements of this section were inserted into other episodes of the film. For example, the climactic fragment with the sniper is a combination of two episodes from the book, from parts two and three. Jenkins recounted that the film presents this passage in more dramatic fashion, but in less gruesome detail, than in the novel. The film is often more tragic in tone than the book, which relies on callous humor. Joker in the film remains a model of human thought, as evidenced by his moral struggle in the sniper episode and elsewhere. He works to overcome his own meekness, rather than compete with other Marines. The film omits that the book shows his eventual dominance over the sniper Piece of Animal.The film skips over the death of the character Roofbreaker; Jenkins said this allows viewers to reflect on Roofbreaker's personal growth in the film and speculate on his future growth after the war.