“Hard core, man. Fucking hard core.”

So I finally saw Full Metal Jacket. Yeah, I’m interested in film and I haven’t seen Kubrik’s iconic Vietnam War movie. I know it’s ridiculous. Moving on.

For one thing, I had no idea that the boot camp scenes comprised so much of the film. I was expecting something more like Platoon or Apocalypse Now (I have seen *some* iconic Nam movies thank you very much): largely comprised of sticky crawly-feeling jungle scenes with an inescapable feeling of paranoia pervading all. While I really can’t use the word “juxtaposition” with any amount of seriousness as it belongs in a Freshman English paper, the... juxtaposition... of the harsh masculine order of the training scenes really did make the Nam scenes that much more chaotic and fucked up. Not that the boot camp scenes lacked in the Fucked Up category; the climax with Pyle’s murder-suicide (always better than just murder or suicide) certainly accomplishes its obvious goal of seriously unnerving a viewer to the point of nervous giggles and expressions like “Duuuuuude.” It was a little strange to go from that to the seemingly-minor character of Joker, but maybe I was just too absorbed with Pyle to see the details beyond his character. Then again, previous disclaimer still standing, juxtaposition is sort of the name of Kubrik’s game in Full Metal Jacket.

The most salient example, the one thing you can’t help but take away from this movie, is Kubrik’s brilliant use of music. Again we come to that damn J word. I wasn’t particularly surprised by this display of brilliance, having already witnessed Kubrik’s use of music in Dr. Strangelove, but it made a little more sense in a satire. Here, it doesn’t only arouse that sort of bemused indignance one feels when confronted with the absurdity of war, the general feeling one takes away from Strangelove. Here, in a “serious” movie, it’s more sobering, unsettling. Portentous even (that’s right, I said portentous). Because as opposed to Strangelove, you know that this is about more than pointing out the ridiculousness of war and the way we wage it. With Full Metal Jacket you know those snatches of “Chapel of Love” and “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” are only to lead you up to scenes of absolute horror like only war can deliver. And of course Kubrik delivers just such scenes. A Vietnamese girl choking out "Shoot me" on the floor to a journalist-- that's pretty dark.

Then again Kubrik does directly call attention to this use of opposites in Joker’s explanation of his peace pin and Born To Kill helmet. “Something about the duality of man” indeed. It’s something that could have easily turned cliché but that Stanley Kubrik, being Stanley Kubrik, pulls off masterfully. Full Metal Jacket is a cultural staple, even down to “Me love you long time,” and it’s about damn time I saw it.

I would go on about the interesting comparison made between shooting cameras and shooting guns made in the movie as well, made as explicitly as all of the soldiers raising their rifles to shoot as Rafterman raises his camera to shoot. But I've said enough. Moving on.