Full Metal Jacket story
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film directed, co-written, and produced by Stanley Kubrick and starring Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio and Adam Baldwin. The screenplay by Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford was based on Hasford's novel The Short-Timers (1979). The storyline follows a platoon of U.S. Marines through their boot camp training in Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, primarily focusing on two privates, Joker and Pyle, who struggle under their abusive drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, and the experiences of two of the platoon's Marines in Vietnamese cities of Da Nang and Huế during the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War. The film's title refers to the full metal jacket bullet used by military servicemen. The film was released in the United States on June 26, 1987. It was the last of Kubrick's films to be released during his lifetime.
10 total · 3 choice · 4 major · 3 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| military related work | choice | The entire film showed what things might have been like for people in the U.S. marines during the Vietnam War. |
| the horrors of war | choice | especially the second half showcased war atrocities and indignities |
| the Vietnam War | choice | the second half of the film took place in and during the Vietnam war |
| alternate points of view | major | second half showcased to contrasting and opposing world views of various characters, including to an extent the enemy's through speculation |
| cracking under pressure | major | the first half of the film culminates in Pyle's suicide due to stress |
| masculinity | major | The film is said to be a criticism of masculinity in many ways. |
| what it is like in a combat zone | major | We saw soldiers trying to survive in war zones in Vietnam. |
| choosing whether to kill someone to spare them suffering | minor | the squad, and Joker in particular, deliberated whether to put the wounded sniper out of her misery |
| peer pressure | minor | Hartman prescribes peer pressure to correct Pyle's errant behavior |
| suicide | minor | the first half of the film culminates in Pyle's suicide |