“Full Metal Jacket” - I’ve flipped, I like 2nd half better

I still think the first half is the best, but I do think the second half has been underrated for a long time.

You just can’t beat the authenticity Ermey gives to the first half. Most of the actors in the second half are doing the stereotypical, hamming it up performances you see in any number of Vietnam movies.

Take for instance the helicopter door gunner. Incidentally, that actor was the original choice for Gunnery Sgt. Hartmann.

Hot take I don't really like the second half at all and think it sort've ruins the movie for me.

eh, I like the second part, but Ermey's performance is so damn memorable that it makes the first part amazing.

A little off topic: Why is every Marine NCO (at least those with speaking parts and significant screen time) in every movie a Gunnery Sgt.?

Examples: Leroy Gibbs in NCIS, Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge, Apone in Aliens, Louis Gossett Jr. in An Officer and a Gentleman

I have a theory: Both the The Air Force and Army use the term “Technical Sergeant.” “Gunny” being a distinctly Marine Corps terms and kinda funny to say, fictional Marine NCOs would be a Gunnery Sgt. regardless if it made sense that no sergeants or staff sergeants were ever seen.

quote:

---

Take for instance the helicopter door gunner. Incidentally, that actor was the original choice for Gunnery Sgt. Hartmann

---

The story behind that is pretty interesting. There are a few articles out there outlining the details.

You mean why there’s only Gunnys and no Staff Sergeants? Those billets like Drill instructors and in this case lead DI are filled by Staff NCOs. Maybe on occasion a sergeant that’s a staff select will fill certain billets

Also think the boot camp sequence is the best and most memorable part of the film. There’s just no way to top how genuine some of those scenes were.

Here's my hot take. People who say the first half is better are the type of people who say Transformers movies are top quality action films. Well maybe that's more of an elitist a-hole take but whatever.

quote:

---

I'll go one step further and say that if you take Ermey's scenes out, FMJ just may be the worse war movie ever made.

---

Roger Ebert was a huge Kubrick fan. He said his experience seeing 2001 for the first time in the theaters was transcendant.

That said, he basically implied he thought Full Metal Jacket sucked in his review despite giving the requisite adoration to Kubrik.

He called the film shapeless, a movie of short stories and some short stories were masterful and others were dreck.

quote:

---

The opening passages of "Full Metal Jacket" promise much more than the film finally is able to deliver.

---

It's a valid criticism. It feels like two movies. Kill Bill 1 and 2 had more continuity.

quote:

---

Kubrick seems to want to tell us the story of individual characters, to show how the war affected them, but it has been so long since he allowed spontaneous human nature into his films that he no longer knows how. After the departure of his two most memorable characters, the sergeant and the tubby kid, he is left with no charactors (or actors) that we really care much about.

---

And that's the heart of the matter.

quote:

---

. It feels like two movies.

---

The duality.

One of the best on screen character ever is Animal Mother. He spouts off racist stuff but His reaction to 8ball says different.