Full Metal Jacket (1987) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Stanley Kubrick

Starring:  Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Adam Baldwin, Arliss Howard

Full Metal Jacket is a tale of two halves.   The first half is engrossing and powerful, the second half is a meandering trek through Vietnam that drags on and on.    I almost wish Kubrick ended the film once basic training was over.   Sure, it would've been about an eighty-minute film, but less is definitely more in this case.

The film opens at Marines basic training in Parris Island, SC during the Vietnam War.    The privates are led by Sgt. Hartman (Ermey), who molds the men into killing machines through intimidation, verbal and physical abuse, and colorful language.    The bane of Hartman's (and the platoon's) existence is Pvt. Leonard Lawrence (D'Onofrio) (nicknamed Pyle), an out-of-shape, incompetent grunt who can't seem to do anything right.   Pyle, however, is revealed to be an expert marksman, which is the only thing keeping him around.  

Pyle endures plenty of abuse from his drill sergeant and from his platoon mates, who are tired of having to do 100 push-ups every time he screws up.     Their method of dealing with Pyle would make Col. Nathan Jessup from A Few Good Men proud.     We then see the eerie transformation of Pvt. Pyle from bumbling fool to psychopath.     This transformation leads to a violent payoff which I will not reveal here.

The performances during the basic training scenes are very good.    Sgt. Hartman is a no-nonsense career Marine who proudly conveys that Lee Harvey Oswald learned to how to kill Kennedy in the Marine Corps.     Ermey, a real-life former drill sergeant, is authentic to the core and fascinating to watch.    We also see the genesis of Matthew Modine's Pvt. Joker, who tries to help Leonard with kid gloves, but eventually has to take them off in a critical scene.     Kubrick has complete mastery of the basic training segment of the film.

Then comes the second half, in which Pvt. Joker is a military journalist in Vietnam enlisted to track a Viet Cong sniper.    The Vietnam scenes were filmed on sets in England, so Vietnam looks unconvincing.    The only indoor scenes take place in the military newspaper's conference room.    Most of the action takes place around ruined buildings, but we're constantly aware we are seeing sets which distracts from the effect.     The people we meet in Vietnam are nowhere near as interesting as Sgt. Hartman and Pvt. Pyle, so we spend plenty of time around people we don't care about.   

Pvt. Joker goes through his own transformation from innocent to heartless killer, but to a more muted effect.    Everything about the second half of the film is muted.    Things move along at a plodding pace and there is little payoff, unlike the earlier scenes which built to a strong climax.    It's really a shame that Full Metal Jacket is a movie that feels like two different movies that have nothing in common with each other.