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Full Metal Jacket (1987)

12 | | Drama, War | 21 October 1987 (France)
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.

Director:

Writers:

(novel), (screenplay) | 2 more credits »
Reviews
Popularity
319 ( 55)

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Top Rated Movies #86 | Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 7 wins & 9 nominations. See more awards »
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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Matthew Modine ...
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Gny. Sgt. Hartman (as Lee Ermey)
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Kieron Jecchinis ...
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Tim Colceri ...
Jon Stafford ...
Doc Jay (as John Stafford)
Bruce Boa ...
Ian Tyler ...
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Storyline

A two-segment look at the effect of the military mindset and war itself on Vietnam era Marines. The first half follows a group of recruits in boot camp under the command of the punishing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second half shows one of those recruits, Joker, covering the war as a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, focusing on the Tet offensive. Written by Scott Renshaw <as.idc@forsythe.stanford.edu>

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

Born to Kill See more »

Genres:

Drama | War

Certificate:

12 | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
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Details

Country:

|

Language:

|

Release Date:

21 October 1987 (France)  »

Also Known As:

Full Metal Jacket  »

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$46,357,676 (USA)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

Some scenes of the ruined city of Hue were shot at a dockyard on the Isle of Dogs, London, that was scheduled for demolition. The ruins of Hue in the sniper and final nighttime scenes were shot at the Beckton Gasworks in London's East End, which was also slated for demolition. In some shots there is a rock in the background that looks very much like the monolith from Stanley Kubrick's 2001, l'odyssée de l'espace (1968). Kubrick said it wasn't intentional, but only noticed while watching the rushes. Beckton Gas Works was used a year before for the movie Biggles (1986). See more »

Goofs

Animal's aimless shots blow away parts of the "My Toan" sign, but it is later seen intact. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your senior drill instructor. From now on you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be "Sir". Do you maggots understand that?
Recruits: [In unison in a normal speaking tone] Sir, yes Sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Bullshit I can't hear you. Sound off like you got a pair!
Recruits: [In unison, much louder] SIR, YES SIR!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying ...
See more »

Connections

Referenced in Metal Gear Solid (1998) See more »

Soundtracks

Chapel Of Love
Written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector
Performed by The Dixie Cups
By Arrangement with Shelby Singleton Enterprises c/o Original Sound Entertainment
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
"This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine."
19 December 2001 | by (Järvenpää, Finland) – See all my reviews

Legendary Stanley Kubrick - probably the most ingenious film-maker of our time - directed only two movies in the 80's. Someone could thoughtlessly claim that it was a very bad and a slow decade for him but on the contrary: the films happened to be "The Shining" (1980) - the darkest, the greatest and most frightening, superb and impressive horror movie ever made - and "Full Metal Jacket" (1987) the finest war movie in the history of motion picture. The fact that he directed the most beloved classics of two completely different genre is simply unbelievable.

First half of "Full Metal Jacket" is spectacular. Lee Ermey's Drill Instructor Hartman ("I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless") is probably the most hateful, forbidding and repulsive character in the history of Kubrick's movies. Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" was like a kitten compared to him. The fact that he is so overdone and the dialogue written to him is so sarcastic, biting and clever makes him also the funniest part of "Full Metal Jacket". Even though this is one of the most pressuring Kubrick movies first half can also be seen as an extremely dark comedy.

Rest of the cast is just as excellent. Matthew Modine in the leading role as Private Joker is simply fabulous but I guess most of the sympathies goes to Vincent D'Onofrio's unforgettable Private Pyle. Audience really feels sorry for him because he's the most regrettable victim of the training period that turns perfectly ordinary nice blokes into merciless killers. Actually I'm not sure if this is the greatest war movie ever made. I've always had my difficulties of choosing between "Full Metal Jacket" and Francis Ford Coppola's outstanding "Apocalypse. Now." Both of these films really shows what war is really about. War is never justified, war is never good. Therefore I think war movie should never glorify war but rather show it as what it really is: nightmarish hell. Second half of "Full Metal Jacket" does it. That makes it probably the most pacifistic war movie I've ever seen.

Interesting fact: at the end of "Full Metal Jacket" soldiers walk on the battlefield and sing an absurd and silly Mickey Mouse marching song. Childish and senseless marching songs of the first half were very comical. This one should be rather funny too but at this time the audience has already seen way too much. This kind of humor no longer amuses and makes you laugh. Song is the final crown of "Full Metal Jacket". It gives the last touch to all this irrationality and I'm positive that was also Kubrick's intention. I'm pretty sure that this is Stanley Kubrick's greatest movie right after excellent "A Clockwork Orange". Magnificent Masterpiece with a capital M. 10 out of 10.


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Great first half, 2nd half was dull ....really dull augustine-zairemtluanga3
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Sgt. Hartman's UNUSUAL comment ganggreen1960
FMJ junkie should get 100% on this quiz! cottinghamster
Top 10 war movies riyad-reticent
OMG I'm never watching a Kubric movie again! naja_1209
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