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 enlarge | Actors: Adam Baldwin, Bruce Boa, Tim Colceri, Vincent D'onofrio, Peter Edmund
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $3.72
You Save: $11.26 (75%)
New (9) Used (27) from $3.72
Avg. Customer Rating:  462 reviews
Sales Rank: 22193
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 116
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 079074273X
UPC: 085391737124
EAN: 9780790742731
ASIN: B00000J2KT
Theatrical Release Date: June 26, 1987
Release Date: June 29, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: used. I do not ship to APO or military address's
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| Customer Reviews:
Well Worth Buying (again) October 25, 2007
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
If you're a fan of this film like me and had bought the Blu-Ray or HD-DVD before and thought "This is hi-def?", then you're in for a treat. This newly remastered version has a sharper picture and better color image and new commentaries to boot. While not as stunning a transfer as "The Shining" or "2001", this is still a much improved re-release. Trade in your old copy and purchase with confidence.
The best film from Kubrick's later period... October 9, 2007
9 out of 22 found this review helpful
This is arguably the best film from Kubrick's late period (in which he only completed 3 films in a 24 year time span). It is a deeply perplexing film, filled with unanswered questions, ambiguities, and the like, but then, it wouldn't be a Kubrick film if it wasn't. Like many Kubrick films, it grows over time, and you see things you never saw before every time you see it. Many friends of mine who served in the military have said that the first half of the film is the most accurate portrayal of basic training they've ever seen. It is 40 minutes of the most intense filmmaking Kubrick has ever done. It doesn't get old or tired.
Many people dislike the 2nd half of the film because that intensity in the first half isn't there. I have some problems with it, too. Mainly, there are some awkward dissolves that occur in the beginning of the 2nd half. I read that Full Metal Jacket was originally supposed to be longer (around 2 1/2 hours), but Kubrick decided against it. It's rather sloppy filmmaking, and coming from Kubrick, it's especially disappointing, and borderline inexcusable. However, after a bumpy beginning, the film settles into a groove, and becomes mythic, strange, and surreal, and by the time the final battle is fought, the film has taken on a new life of its own. Kubrick had said that he wanted to make a film about war itself, not necessarily an anti-war film, or a pro-war film. Why do we fight wars, knowing how awful they are upon the human pysche? Yet, we still do them.
I like the fact that Kubrick makes no attempt to connect the 2 segments. It is reminiscent of 2001 and AI, where the acts are not connected in any conventional way. It leaves the viewer disoriented, but I feel this helps the film immensely. The film is filled with excellent moments. The dialogue is superb, filled with memorable lines. There is some very pointed cynicism during the segment where the soldiers are interviewed by the BBC cameramen. And the ending is very ironic indeed. The film leaves more answers than questions, and I like that aspect of it very much. This is certainly one of the best war films ever made, and one that doesn't cue you how to feel, like some of them do (Platoon, for example). I never really dug Stone's film; I always preferred Kubrick's film.
This review is for the movie itself, not the current edition of the DVD released by Warner Brothers.
Loved the first half up until...... October 5, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
The suicide. Then it gets boring. Having been to Parris Island the movie somewhat depicts that environment but not exclusively. In the beginning there are tons of laughs and maybe a tear jerk or two but after the suicide his comrades graduate and of to war, where you see one reading and writing in a journal all the time and blase blase blah. Ok, just check it out for yourself. You'll understand what I'm saying.
 Full Metal Jacket September 24, 2007
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This 1987 Film, "Full Metal Jacket" is about my favorite War Film of all time. My other top favorites's are "Saving Private Ryan" & "Objective Burma". I'm so very surprized & disappointed that this great film was never released in the Widescreen Format in English. Does anyone know why this film has never been released in Widescreen --(English Version)? Anyway the Bootcamp training is exactly the way it is in the real world of the US Military. This is one reason why I rate this film at the very top of all war film's ever made. Extremely Authenic.
Excellent movie, not banned in Hague Convention September 15, 2007
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
It was the Hague Convention of 1899 that banned bullets that flatten or easily expand in the body...so now militaries around the world use "Full Metal Jacket (FMJ)" rounds, which is why the movie isn't called something like "Jacketed-Hollow-Point (JHP)." Now while a JHP round has a lead core with a hollow tip, it also has a copper (generally) jacket of metal around the bottom 2/3rds or so of the body. Then when it hits target the speed of the bullet caused the tissue filling up the hole of the bullet to push the bullet walls out and make if larger in diameter causing more damage as it passes through the body. A full metal jacket bullet instead is a lead bullet completely surrounded by a copper jacket so it barely deforms at all when it hits almost anything except heavy bone, rock, metal, etc... The bullets are cheaper to make, less likely to jam and more likely to injure rather than kill.
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