Full Metal Jacket
List Price:
Our Price: $5.91
You Save: $14.05 (70%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.95 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: R Lee Ermey, Vincent D'OnofrioDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-12
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Full Metal Jacket
DVD Review: Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?
Summary: 5 Stars
A gushing review for one of my favorite movies.
I am a big Kubrick fan/snob, and although Full Metal Jacket isn't my favorite of his films, it's a close second (or third, it's hard to decide). The movie is split into two portions, nearly halves: the first shows a group of marines through the trials of boot camp on Paris Island, and the second transports a few of these characters in-country, including the battle for Hue city right after the Tet Offensive. That's a very brief synposis of a relatively uncomplicated story; what makes FMJ worthy of multiple viewings is the richness that is revealed not in a confusing or artsy plot, but in the believable characters, setting, and dialogue.
Full Metal Jacket isn't necessarily a 'thinking man's' war film (like The Thin Red Line or Apocalypse Now), but it isn't some trashy, gung-ho heroes' story, either (e.g. Black Hawk Down, Born on the 4th of July, innumerable others). Somehow, FMJ straddles the line between high-brow pretension and low-brow shoot 'em up scenes, with a little of both elements scattered throughout. As I said earlier, the story itself isn't the movie's biggest drawing point (marines are introduced, things go awry, marines head to war, things go awry again...roll credits), but through a wonderful combination of intense performances, realistic settings, brilliant dialogue, and breath-taking direction and cinemtaography, it works on all levels. I've seen a lot of Vietnam movies (for a 22 year old), but Full Metal Jacket is one for the ages, because it is more than JUST a period piece. Much more. It isn't bogged down with time-sensitive morality plays or annoying reminders of the 60s...it is a movie for anyone who's ever contemplated what lies in the hidden side of Vietnam, and war in general.
Highlights include the following, for me. The movie is beautifully and dramatically written, thanks in part to journalist Michael Herr, who spent a lot of time in Vietnam during the war (see his excellent book, Dispatches, for further reading). R. Lee Ermey's performance is as real and frightening as you've probably heard; Matthew Modine and Adam Baldwin also provide excellent acting, too. Private Gomer Pyle, played to full sympathetic effect by Vincent D'Onofrio, is a memorable and pitiable character. As mentioned before, the directing and cinematography make for a graphic (but not excessively violent) look at war, both at home and abroad...it's not a beautiful sight, but alternatingly grim and awe-inspring. I think the effectiveness of the movie's soundtrack is sometimes overlooked; Kubrick sets the mood with the likes of "Paint It Black", "These Boots Are Made For Walking", "Surfin' Bird" and "Chapel of Love" in interesting and unforgettable ways. And, again, the dialogue is killer. I quote this movie habitually, and always at the most inappropriate of times. There is a reason why phrases like "What is your major malfunction?" and "Do you love the Virgin Mary?" have entered the lexicon of American pop culture.
In my mind, FMJ is an 'issues' movie cleverly disguised as an action-filled war flick (it certainly has its fair share of both thought-provoking matieral and violent montages). What issues are at hand? First and foremost, what it was like for a marine during Vietnam, both during training and in combat. The question of excessive force, in many forms, is prevalent throughout the film. Other social issues ranging from pacifism, heroic actions, and mercy run aside subtler ones like conflicting political idealogies, 'the duality of man', and even feminism (notice the role of women in this film) are explored, as well. This is why I have gone back to Full Metal Jacket many times over the years for both entertainment and to get the mental gears turning...it's the kind of movie that will spring questions you might never have considered before watching it.
It's hard to think of any critiques I have of this movie, but one does come to mind. Some viewers may be frustrated by the movie's lack of a decisive beginning, middle, and end. As mentioned before, the movie is divided into two halfs, which are loosely connected, as themes, setting, and events are pretty distinct and seperate between both portions. Also, this movie is certainly for mature audiences...I saw it for the first time when I was seventeen, and even that might have been a little early. Graphic scenes, language, and acts abound. Audiences who are not fans of war movies (or, conversely, fans of John Wayne-type war flicks) will probably not find much to enjoy here.
As for the DVD itself, there are no special features to be found here. All you get is a theatrical preview and Spanish audio dubs. Die-hard fans may be interested in tracking down the elusive Collector's Set (complete with metal tin packaging), but as for this version, you're buying it strictly for the content, not any fancy packaging or frilly extras. Take it or leave it, and obviously, I say, TAKE IT!
With those prefaces behind me, I have very few movies in my collection which I consider mandatory viewing for anybody. Nevertheless, Full Metal Jacket is certainly one of them. Even if I wasn't the admitted Kubrick apologist that I am, I would still adore this movie for the fine, deranged work of art that it is. Whether you've seen the movie before, or are just interested in expanding your DVD collection to include more classics of warfare, you owe it to yourself to put this one on your shelf.
Description of Full Metal Jacket
The story of an 18-year-old marine recruit named Private Joker - from his carnage-and-machismo boot camp to his climactic involvement in the heavy fighting in Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive.Stanley Kubrick's 1987, penultimate film seemed to a lot of people to be contrived and out of touch with the '80s vogue for such intensely realistic portrayals of the Vietnam War as Platoon and The Deer Hunter. Certainly, Kubrick gave audiences plenty of reason to wonder why he made the film at all: essentially a two-part drama that begins on a Parris Island boot camp for rookie Marines and abruptly switches to Vietnam (actually shot on sound stages and locations near London), Full Metal Jacket comes across as a series of self-contained chapters in a story whose logical and thematic development is oblique at best. Then again, much the same was said about Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, a masterwork both enthralled with and satiric about the future's role in the unfinished business of human evolution. In a way, Full Metal Jacket is the wholly grim counterpart of 2001. While the latter is a truly 1960s film, both wide-eyed and wary, about the intertwining of progress and isolation (ending in our redemption, finally, by death), Full Metal Jacket is a cynical, Reagan-era view of the 1960s' hunger for experience and consciousness that fulfilled itself in violence. Lee Ermey made film history as the Marine drill instructor whose ritualized debasement of men in the name of tribal uniformity creates its darkest angel in a murderous half-wit (Vincent D'Onofrio). Matthew Modine gives a smart and savvy performance as Private Joker, the clowning, military journalist who yearns to get away from the propaganda machine and know firsthand the horrific revelation of the front line. In Full Metal Jacket, depravity and fulfillment go hand in hand, and it's no wonder Kubrick kept his steely distance from the material to make the point. --Tom Keogh
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Forrest Gump (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)Paramount; Release date: 2001-08-28; DVD
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops:
GoodFellasWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-07-08; DVD
Best price: $4.20
Price in other shops:
We Were Soldiers (Widescreen Edition)GIBSON,MEL; Release date: 2002-08-20; DVD
Best price: $2.61
Price in other shops:
Black Hawk DownBlack Hawk; Release date: 2002-06-11; DVD
Best price: $4.92
Price in other shops:
The Shining (Two-Disc Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-10-23; DVD
Best price: $9.98
Price in other shops:
Hamburger Hill (20th Anniversary Edition)Lions Gate; Release date: 2008-05-20; DVD
Best price: $6.74
Price in other shops:
Saving Private Ryan (Single-Disc Special Limited Edition)Paramount; Release date: 1999-11-02; DVD
Best price: $6.10
Price in other shops:
A Clockwork Orange (Two-Disc Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-10-23; DVD
Best price: $5.83
Price in other shops:
Platoon (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 2001-06-05; DVD
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Apocalypse Now: ReduxLions Gate; Release date: 2010-05-18; DVD
Best price: $5.26
Price in other shops: