In 1987, Stanley Kubrick delivered his take on the Vietnam War in Full Metal Jacket, creating one of the best war movies of all time. The movie landed a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, and an even better 94% from audiences, but how does the movie stand up to the scrutiny of an actual former Marine Corps officer and military expert? Almost to perfection as it turns out.
As part of Insider’s series of videos having experts in their field reviewing some of the most iconic movies for their accuracy, former special ops team leader Elliot Ackerman shared his view on how Kubrick’s movie managed to bring the horrors of Vietnam to life, and ended up scoring the film’s realism a perfect 10 out of 10. While fans have frequently debated the brutal movie’s depiction of war and whether it goes too far for the sake of Hollywood, that could not be further from the truth, as Ackerman says that Full Metal Jacket is a movie that “went to great pains to get everything exactly right.”
Sharing his thoughts on one of the movie’s most iconic scenes featuring fearsome drill sergeant L. Hartman, Ackerman said:
“[Actor] R. Lee Ermey was a drill instructor, so he was basically just sort of dusting off his drill instructor movers for this film. Today it isn’t quite as brutal and profanity-laced, but I can certainly imagine in 1967 that there was.
“The Rifleman’s Creed was written during World War II, by, I believe, it was a Marine Major [who] wrote it, and that’s when it made its way into Marine recruit training. And it’s stayed there ever since.”
Breaking down the drill inspection scenes, Ackerman continued to heap praise on what is one of Kubrick’s best movies.
“Obviously, it’s about health and it’s about fitness, but it’s also attention to detail. For the same reason, if you’re sitting in a defensive position as a Marine one night, and you’ve got your fields of fire set up, it has to be precise. So, it’s teaching that constant attention to detail, the inspection of everything, and the adherence to standards. And if you deviate from that, you will incur the wrath of the drill instructor.
“The Marine Corps is an elite fighting force, but inevitably there are some Marines who can struggle with height and weight standards. I remember, when I entered the Marine Corps, one of my first collateral duties as a Marine officer in my infantry unit was the body composition officer. Once a month, I would have to put them on the scale and take a tape measure around them, and make sure that, you know, they weren’t like Private Pyle, and eating too many jelly donuts.
“This movie really went to great pains to get everything exactly right.”
What makes the achievements of Kubrick even more impressive is that he perfectly recreated war-torn Vietnam in England, where much of the movie was shot. Naturally, Kubrick was one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation, and he achieved that by doing his homework. The recreation of Parris Island was meticulously overseen by a director notorious for wanting every shot to be the exact shot he envisioned, and his quest for perfection often drove actors to distraction – ask Jack Nicholson about his time making The Shining.
Full Metal Jacket grossed $120 million on a budget of between $16.5–30 million and earned plenty of accolades for Kubrick, the production team, and cast, which included Matthew Modine, Ermey, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Adam Baldwin among others. A masterpiece in the eyes of many, it seems that, as well as delivering an intense, violent two hours for audiences, Full Metal Jacket is a movie that pleases experts just as much as those who only wish to be entertained.
