Full Metal Jacket - Interpretation

Interpretation

Compared to Kubrick's other works, the themes of Full Metal Jacket have received little attention from critics and reviewers. Michael Pursell's essay "Full Metal Jacket: The Unravelling of Patriarchy" (1988) was an early, in-depth consideration of its two-part structure and its criticism of masculinity, arguing that the film shows "war and pornography as facets of the same system." Most reviews have focused on military brainwashing themes in the boot camp training section of the film, while seeing the latter half of the film as more confusing and disjointed in content. Rita Kempley of the Washington Post wrote, "it's as if they borrowed bits of every war movie to make this eclectic finale." Roger Ebert explained, "The movie disintegrates into a series of self-contained set pieces, none of them quite satisfying." However, Julian Rice in his book Kubrick's Hope sees the second part of the film as continuing the psychic journey of Joker in trying to come to grips with human evil.