Full Metal Jacket: Book vs. Movie
Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987) is based on Gustav Hasford's 1979 novel The Short-Timers. Matthew Modine plays Joker, a Marine whose experience takes him from boot camp to work as a combat correspondent in Vietnam.
About the book and the movie
- Author
- Gustav Hasford
- Year
- 1979
- Pages
- 192Buy book
Marine recruit Joker learns to obey orders at Parris Island, where humiliation and punishment are part of becoming a soldier. Sent to Vietnam as a combat correspondent, he moves between reporting the war and fighting in it. The jokes and military slogans he carries with him offer little protection when the choices facing his fellow Marines become immediate and personal.
- Director
- Stanley Kubrick
- Writer
- Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, Gustav Hasford
- Year
- 1987
- Runtime
- 1 hr 56 minWatch on Amazon
- Cast
- Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey
- Genre
- drama, War
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
Joker and his fellow Marine recruits face a drill instructor determined to strip away their civilian identities, with the struggling Private Pyle receiving particular attention. Later, Joker works as a military journalist in Vietnam, where the distance between observing combat and taking part in it disappears. His assignment leads into urban fighting during the Tet Offensive.
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