Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Believe it or not, this was considered a flop and a disappointment for Stanley Kubrick back in 1987. Many of his fans were expecting a war epic along the lines of Apocalypse Now. But the thing is, Kubrick already made his war epic, in Paths of Glory. Secondly, it's clear by watching the film that Kubrick's intention was not to talk about the politics of the war, or even stage big budgeted action sequences. His goal was to encapsulate the overall feeling many had about the Vietnam War on and off the battlefield. A pointless exercise of human slaughter. Vietnam, for many, was the definition of man's inhumanity to man. That is what Full Metal Jacket is truly about. The unforgettable first 45 minutes of the picture has us see the ways in which these soldiers are desensitized. The loud-mouthed, profane Sgt. Hartman humiliates the new recruits to their core and as a result, mentally destroys the most vulnerable of the recruits in Leonard "Private Pyle" Lawrence. Once we enter Vietnam, Kubrick shows us the casualties of war, and man's inability to show humility towards each other. In the end, Vietnam is a killing field and some of those fighting it ultimately enjoyed the killing. Full Metal Jacket doesn't resolve like a novel, nor do any of the characters receive any kind of redemption. You can say that it's in the tradition of all of Kubrick's films.