Full Metal Jacket

1987. The third of Kubrick’s great genre deconstructions: Spartacus undid the epic, Dr. Strangelove undid the war film, 2001 undid science fiction. Full Metal Jacket undoes itself — a film so structurally dissonant that its two halves feel like different movies, which is the point.

Two halves

Part one: Parris Island. Eight weeks of Marine basic training. R. Lee Ermey (an actual Marine drill instructor) rewrote most of his own dialogue and improvised extensively. Kubrick shot 150+ takes of some scenes. The arc is classical — the breaking and remaking of a man — until it isn’t. Gomer Pyle’s breakdown and the murder-suicide in the latrine are the most methodically horrifying sequence Kubrick ever filmed.

Part two: Vietnam. A different film begins. Joker (Matthew Modine) is a combat correspondent. The tone is fractured, loose, almost episodic. The enemy is faceless until the final act. Then a teenage girl sniper turns out to be the enemy, and the film asks you to decide whether mercy is humane.

”Born to Kill” / Peace button

Joker wears a peace symbol on his helmet and “Born to Kill” on his jacket simultaneously. When called out on it by a general, he explains: “The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir.” The general does not understand this. The film understands it completely.

The Ermey problem

Ermey’s performance is so complete — so genuinely terrifying — that it overshadows everything around it. Every drill sergeant parody since 1987 is an imitation of Ermey imitating himself. Kubrick later said he was the only actor he’d ever worked with who truly surprised him.