“You talk the talk. Do you walk the walk?”

Funny story before I actually start my review. I woke up today stupidly early thanks to a medicine change that’s giving me insomnia, so what did I decide to do? Well, I finally decided to sit down and watch Full Metal Jacket for the first time. Over the last month, I’ve dove into Stanley Kubrick’s filmography for the very first time in my life, and I have to say, I’ve been incredibly impressed. 2001: A Space Odyssey was the second movie I ever gave a perfect score to on my very first viewing, and Paths of Glory thoroughly impressed me and is now also one of my favorites. While I wasn’t crazy about Dr. Strangelove (mind, I still liked the film), Full Metal Jacket is another movie I’m adding to my favorites.

Honestly, out of all the Kubrick films I’ve watched thus far, Full Metal Jacket is probably the deepest and most emotionally thoughtful of the bunch, with the only rival really being Paths of Glory. The first act is absolutely incredible to say the least, and is almost its own kind of short film. The whole story focuses on the dehumanization of soldiers, but this was the part where it was definitely the most prominent, and Vincent D’Onofrio gave an absolutely brilliant performance. His character is pathetic, but you care for him because of the way he is psychologically abused, and where it goes from there is both shocking and some of the best character storytelling I think I’ve probably ever seen.

I have to be honest, I was a little worried that I wasn’t going to fully connect with this movie because I had heard that it kind of fell off once it got into the actual war stuff, and away from the training camp. I honestly couldn’t disagree more. While the thematics are slightly, and I mean slightly, less of a focus than they were earlier in the story, they are still absolutely there. The writing gets you to care so much about the characters, despite their frequently inappropriate and sometimes disturbing behavior, because of the realism that is all of the soldiers’ performances. I have to say, this has to be one of the most well-cast movies I think I’ve ever seen, and proves that you don’t have to have a bunch of A-list stars to achieve that kind of label.

The fact that I cared so much about these soldiers is what made the war parts of the film so engaging for me. I obviously didn’t want them to die, so I was constantly on edge, hoping for their survival but also knowing that at any moment, any of them could be killed. Full Metal Jacket has to easily be the best war movie I’ve seen when it comes to how thrilling it is. It might not top the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, but as a whole, I think it’s overall quite a bit better.

I obviously can’t talk about a Stanley Kubrick movie without talking about his directing, and this movie, as I was very much expecting, didn’t disappoint in that regard at all. It’s not as flashy as, say, 2001, but the realism of the cinematography is beautiful in and of itself, as are all of the environments and effects. The war scenes are entirely immersive, putting you right in all of the action, thanks to the amazing camera movement and how close Kubrick places you to the main characters. The effects are equally impressive, especially when you think about how perfectly the explosions would have had to have been timed during the action sequences.

Full Metal Jacket’s ending is equally as incredible as its first act. I was honestly shocked by what unfolded during the final scene, and didn’t expect it to go where it did at all. It’s an ending that will stick with me forever, and one that I hope anyone who watches this movie for the first time can experience without knowing anything that happens.

I was just as surprised by Full Metal Jacket as I was 2001, and I think I can honestly already consider Kubrick to be one of my favorite directors of all time. He just has this level of perfection and intent with every film that I’ve seen of his. I know this obviously couldn’t be true, but it really does feel as if every single aspect of every frame has some sort of level of intent to it. Truly one of the best to ever do it.