Poster © Warner Bros.. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreDrama & War
RatedNot rated yet
Runtime1 hr 56 mins
ReleasedJune 26, 1987
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorStanley Kubrick
StarringMatthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio
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Full Metal Jacket (1987)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Full Metal Jacket's Details | |
| Genre | Drama & War |
| Rated | Not rated yet |
| Released | 06/17/1987 (Samuel Goldwyn Theater); 06/26/1987 (United States); 09/11/1987 (United Kingdom) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 56 mins |
| Budget | $16.5–30M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford |
| Country | United Kingdom, United States |
| Language | English |
| Full Metal Jacket's Interests | |
| General | Buzz cuts, footlockers, bunk inspections, dog tags, marching chants, a peace button pinned to a helmet. |
| Music | Abigail Mead (Vivian Kubrick's pen name), plus a stack of 1960s pop hits. |
| Movies | Platoon (1986). Released a year apart, both unflinching. |
| Television | China Beach. The same war, seen from a field hospital. |
| Heroes | R. Lee Ermey. A real former Marine drill instructor who improvised much of his dialogue. |
| Full Metal Jacket's Crew | |
| Director | Stanley Kubrick |
| Writers | Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, Gustav Hasford |
| Producers | Stanley Kubrick |
| Cinematography | Douglas Milsome |
| Music | Abigail Mead |
| Edited By | Martin Hunter |
| Production | Natant, Harrier Films |
| Distributed By | Warner Bros. |
Kubrick made two movies and glued them together, and the first one is so overwhelming that the second never really catches up. The boot camp half is as intense as anything he ever filmed. R. Lee Ermey’s drill instructor is a wall of noise that never blinks, and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Private Pyle slowly vanishing behind his own eyes is a performance you don’t shake off. Then the story ships out to Vietnam and turns colder and looser, following Matthew Modine’s Joker while the war wears his squad down. Those scenes are strong, especially a long, tense standoff in a ruined city, but they play like a sequel to the movie you just watched. It runs 116 minutes, made $46.4 million domestic, and feels more like a warning than an adventure. An 8.8 because the first half is untouchable and the second half is merely very good. $3,333 says nobody in the room says a word for a full minute after it ends.
What works: R. Lee Ermey and Vincent D’Onofrio in the boot camp half, plus Kubrick’s cold, precise eye for how a person gets broken down.
What doesn’t: The Vietnam half drifts and feels episodic next to the first act, and Joker is a thin center for a movie this heavy.
Who it’s for: Serious war movie viewers who want a film that refuses to make combat look like an adventure.
Spoilers
Boot camp ends in tragedy: Pyle, pushed past his limit, shoots Hartman and then takes his own life. In Vietnam the squad is pinned down by a sniper who turns out to be a teenage girl, Joker fires the final shot, and the Marines march off through the burning city singing a kids’ TV theme song.
The Vietnam War is raging, and a fresh platoon of Marine recruits arrives at Parris Island, South Carolina, to get their heads shaved and meet Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey), a drill instructor whose insults could peel paint. Private J.T. "Joker" Davis (Matthew Modine) hangs on to his sense of humor. Private "Cowboy" Evans (Arliss Howard) keeps his head down. Private Leonard Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio), a slow, gentle recruit Hartman nicknames Gomer Pyle, can't do anything right, and soon the whole platoon is paying for it. And boot camp is only the beginning. Stanley Kubrick directs. One hundred sixteen minutes, and nobody is at ease.
Anyone who can make a bunk with perfect corners before sunrise.
| Matthew Modine | Private |
| Adam Baldwin | Sergeant "Animal Mother" |
| Vincent D'Onofrio | Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence |
| R. Lee Ermey (credited | "Lee Ermey") as Gunnery Sergeant L. Hartman |
| Dorian Harewood | Corporal "Eightball" |
| Arliss Howard | Private |
| Kevyn Major Howard | Private First Class "Rafter Man" |
| Ed O'Ross | First Lieutenant Walter J. "Mr. Touchdown" Schinoski |
| John Terry | First Lieutenant Lockhart |
| Kieron Jecchinis | Sergeant "Crazy Earl" |
| Bruce Boa | the Colonel |
| Kirk Taylor | Private "Payback" |
| John Stafford | "Doc Jay |
| Tim Colceri | a ruthless and sadistic helicopter door gunner |
| Ian Tyler | Lieutenant Cleves |
| Gary Landon Mills | Donlon |
| Sal Lopez | "T.H.E. Rock" |
| Papillon Soo Soo | a Da Nang prostitute |
| Leanne Hong | Da Nang motorbike prostitute |
| Ngọc Lê | the Viet Cong sniper |
| Peter Edmund | Private "Snowball" Brown |
| Antu N'Jai | a recruit |
| Steve Boucher | a recruit |
| Stanley Kubrick | Sergeant Murphy |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +120 Numbers refreshed: Rotten Tomatoes 89%; Rotten Tomatoes critics 89% (88 reviews); movie.guru score 8.1 → 8.2.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.