Monday, July 09, 2007

Army Times picks their 10 Best Military Films

And number one is:

1. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Private Joker, are you trying to offend me?

Our pick for the best war movie of the past 20 years, if not all time, and it didn’t even crack the Top 400 ballot. Words fail to express how wrong that is.

“Full Metal Jacket,” directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Matthew Modine, Vincent D’Onofrio and R. Lee Ermey (in the role that made him a star), could be considered two great war movies for the price of one. The first half of the film shows Marine recruits at boot camp, preparing for Vietnam, while the second half deals with the violence and uncertainty of that war.

Perhaps it was the vulgarity and brutality of the film that made it such a tough sell for the voters. Or the vulgarity. Maybe the racism. Did we mention the vulgarity?

Not for the faint of heart, “Full Metal Jacket” is about as real as it comes without signing a contract. Even today, many of the themes still ring true.

And that’s all we have to say about that.


Full text of the article here