The Basic Training part was great - once they left Basic Training - Meh.
shareWhile the post basic training scenes have grown onto me I do agree the movie was much better prior to them leaving basic training.
share"Full MEDAL Jacket"???? Never heard of it.
I know of a film called Full Metal Jacket however and the second part in Vietnam was great.
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and the scene where Zisky assumed command of the platoon and they had to take down the sniper who killed Elmo, Cruiser and Psycho. I also loved it when Zisky wanted to wait for reinforcements but Ox said no, defied orders and went in to try and save them.
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Actually it's funny but I thought the exact same thing when I saw "Full Metal Jacket" in the theater.
I.e., that structurally it's a lot like "Stripes" with a great first half in basic training and a tacked-on second half in the field.
It actually occurred to me that FMJ might've been Kubrik's idea of a twisted "Stripes" parody.
But take my opinion with a grain of salt, because I see the same parallel with Pixar; I feel like upcoming "Lightyear" is the FMJ version of "Toy Story"'s Buzz Lightyear.
After many years of leaving FMJ on the shelf I went back and watched it a few times over a couple of weeks about six months ago and found that the "Vietnam" portion of the movie grew a lot on me. I really like the second half but the first half is classic in and of itself.
shareI watched FMJ recently too after a long time and much prefer the second half, but the first half is important for a first-time viewer as it lets us see the characters as they begin their journey and end up in the situations later on. It felt like the movie could go on a bit more given many of us prefer the second half, but it ends suitably also as a whole.
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