In a career that was epically prolific, director Stanley Kubrick achieved something special with his Vietnam War classic, Full Metal Jacket. The beloved film has never looked or sounded better than it does now, thanks to a Warner Bros. 4K Blu-Ray upgrade.
The film is unique in that it is that rare movie that is really two different sides to the same cinematic coin. The first half and second half may possess the same characters, but they are vastly different animals.
Full Metal Jacket commences with draftees and enlisted young men landing at the notorious Paris Island training facility to be put through the rigors by a drill sergeant that cinematic history has proven was a historic turn. There are casting moments made in heaven and then there is R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The actor spent 14 months in Vietnam during the war and once he returned home, he made a living as a working actor. Then, came the 1987 film. His face, his voice, his manner became an institution. Given what the aspiring soldiers were going to be in for once they got In Country, Kubrick knew that the role of the Gunnery Sergeant was everything to his film. Ermey anchored the first half of the film, which followed our boys through the most intense of training that also brilliantly offered character introductions and exposition that was effortlessly woven throughout that act of the movie.
Including in this group of mismatched men, who would become a fierce fighting force, is Mathew Modine as Pvt. Joker, Adam Baldwin as Animal Mother, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Pvt. Pyle, Dorian Harewood as Eightball and Arliss Howard as Pvt. Cowboy. They start the film as strangers and as the electric ensemble comes together, the power of what they are about to collectively experience further cement a bond.
There’s so much to celebrate about that first half of Full Metal Jacket. The star-making performance by D’Onofrio, the establishment of Joker as our eyes and ears—something that continues once the drama shifts to the battleground landscape—and the extraordinary training regimen that goes on at Paris Island, brilliantly profiled in Kubrick’s stellar moviemaking event. There is something else that the filmmaker does with this first half of his film and that hangs that looming war over these men that although folks like Joker may joke, this is an extremely serious undertaking and it seems the only one he sees that—at first—is the Gunnery Sergeant. By the end of their Paris Island stay, the wears and tears of war shockingly hit this training class in the most unexpected of ways.
Once the scene changes to Vietnam, it becomes many things, but most notably a deadly and dangerous street fight in the most haunting of abandoned areas. Kubrick effortlessly changes from dramatic director drowning in dazzling exposition to a wartime filmmaker whose Vietnam is unlike any that has come before in the movies. That characterization that was achieved in the first half has us emotively tethered to the soldiers traipsing through the jungle and streets of the South Asian country.
Visually, Full Metal Jacket is as real and raw as you remember and in stunning 4K resolution with high dynamic range (HDR) for the first time, it is a sight for the eyes. The ears don’t do too shabby either.
The stunning 2160p transfer makes the upgrade worth whatever you pay for this 4K! Someone at Warner Bros. keenly is aware of the importance of Kubrick because this is merely the latest 4K upgrade they’ve done after 2001 and The Shining. This is saying something for the Vietnam War drama as it was never meant to be the easiest thing on the eyes. Whether the confines of a Marines training facility or the abandoned landscape of a war-torn country, beauty was never the filmmaker’s first instinct. But what we see on the 4K upgrade is without question a rather gorgeous effort to embody the greatest aspects of the 4K medium. It also is a tribute to the eye of a moviemaker whose work will surely stand the test of time.
There’s an increased depth of perception, especially once the action shifts to the battlefields of Vietnam. Kubrick’s use of natural light comes through so much more richly than on the 2007 Blu-Ray release a few years prior. When it comes to the audio, the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is re-encoded and pops out your speakers.
Something that is obvious is that Kubrick’s former personal assistant Leon Vitali worked hand-in-hand with Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging to ensure that the master’s sentiment remained throughout the process. It did, and that is putting it mildly.
When it comes to bonus features, it’s a carbon copy of the Blu-Ray release and for those of us who sadly have a gaping hole in our home video collection with this title, jump on that Kubrick train now.
Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil is an incredible thirty minute look at the master moviemaker and his masterwork. The casting is talked about in-depth, particularly what was seen in D’Onofrio, Modine, and most importantly—Lee Ermey. Also explored is how Kubrick and his writing team adapted the novel by Gustav Hasford, Short Timers. The other Vietnam movies (particularly Apocalypse Now) had an enormous influence on Kubrick and his decision to make a film set during that war. Would you believe that the street fighting scene was actually shot in East London? Learn how they made the English capitol look like Hue City in Vietnam. This is a don’t miss featurette for any appreciators of Kubrick’s war film.
There’s also a commentary track that was recorded by stars Baldwin, D’Onofrio, and Lee Ermey, as well as insight offered by screenwriter/critic Jack Cocks. It’s an interesting asset to have with the film, but the fact that the insight was recorded separately really shows. In the end, cohesion between commentators is not what defines a solid commentary track on a home video release. It is the information and first-hand offerings that drive its need and worth. This one achieves that on many levels.
Film Grade: A
Bonus Features: B+