4K UHD Blu-ray Review: Full Metal Jacket

Distributor: Warner Brothers

Release Date: September 22, 2020

Region –

4K UHD: Region A

BLU-RAY: Region Free

Length: 01:56:30

Video –

4K UHD: 2160P (HEVC, H.265)

BLU-RAY: 1080P (VC-1)

Main Audio –

4K UHD: 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio

BLU-RAY: 5.1 English Linear PCM Audio

Alternate Audio –

4K UHD:

English Mono Dolby Digital Audio

5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital Audio

5.1 French Dolby Digital Audio

5.1 Italian Dolby Digital Audio

5.1 German Dolby Digital Audio

2.0 Polish Dolby Digital Audio

BLU-RAY:

5.1 English Dolby Digital Audio

5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital Audio

5.1 French Dolby Digital Audio

5.1 Italian Dolby Digital Audio

5.1 German Dolby Digital Audio

Subtitles:

4K UHD: English SDH, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Czech, Portuguese, Mandarin (Traditional), Cantonese, Korean, Thai, Arabic, Polish, and Romanian

BLU-RAY: English, English SDH, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, Portuguese, Cantonese, and Korean

Ratio: 1.78:1

Notes: In addition to the new 4K UHD disc, this package also contains a Blu-ray disc and a digital copy of the film. However, the included Blu-ray is exactly the same disc that Warner Brothers released in 2007. It does not contain a new 1080P transfer of the new 4K master.

“Some people demand a five-line capsule summary. Something you’d read in a magazine. They want you to say, ‘This is the story of the duality of man and the duplicity of governments.’ I hear people try to do it — give the five-line summary — but if a film has any substance or subtlety, whatever you say is never complete, it’s usually wrong, and it’s necessarily simplistic: truth is too multifaceted to be contained in a five-line summary…” –Stanley Kubrick (Rolling Stone, 1987)

Great works resist simple description, and Stanley Kubrick’s work is certainly no exception. Any description of Full Metal Jacket would be reductive. It doesn’t fall in line with people’s idea of the typical “war film.” Critics were especially disgruntled when it was released to theaters in the wake of more traditional efforts set during the Vietnam War. Most compared it unfavorably with Oliver Stone’s Platoon, which had a successful theatrical release only a few months prior to the Kubrick film. They were missing the point.

“I liked Platoon… It’s very different. I think Platoon tries to ingratiate itself a little more with the audience. But then, I have enough faith in enough of the audience to think that they are able to appreciate something which doesn’t do that. At least you’re not bored. I don’t know if you go to the movies a lot, but that’s one of the biggest problems.” –Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick at a Distance, Washington Post, June 28, 1987)

Kubrick’s film isn’t even structured in the normal Hollywood fashion as the action is broken into two distinct sections, but it still managed to earn an Oscar nomination at the 60^th Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay. Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford collaborated on the script which was adapted from “The Short Timers.”

“[Hasford’s novel] was written in a very, very, almost poetically spare way. There was tremendous economy of statement, and Hasford left out all the ‘mandatory’ war scenes that are put in to make sure you understand the characters and make you wish he would get on with the story… I tried to retain this approach in the film. I think as a result, the film moves along at an alarming—hopefully an alarming—pace.” –Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick at a Distance, Washington Post, June 28, 1987)

Critics were also put off by the fact that the art department recreated their own version of Hue instead of traveling to Vietnam to shoot the second section of the film.

“We worked from still photographs of Hue in 1968, and we found an area that had the same 1930s functionalist architecture. Now, not every bit of it was right, but some of the buildings were absolute carbon copies of the outer industrial areas of Hue… It had been owned by British Gas, and it was scheduled to be demolished. So they allowed us to blow up the buildings. We had demolition guys in there for a week laying charges. One Sunday, all the executives from British Gas brought their families down to watch us blow the place up. It was spectacular. Then we had a wrecking ball there for two months, with the art director telling the operator which hole to knock in which building… I don’t think anybody’s ever had a set like that. It’s beyond any kind of economic possibility. To make that kind of three-dimensional rubble, you’d have to have everything done by plasterers, modeled, and you couldn’t build that if you spent $80 million and had five years to do it… So we had real rubble. We brought in palm trees from Spain and a hundred thousand plastic tropical plants from Hong Kong. We did little things, details people don’t notice right away, that add to the illusion. All in all, a tremendous set dressing and rubble job.” –Stanley Kubrick (Rolling Stone, 1987)

For some, the resulting scenes were unconvincing and seemed artificially recreated, but Kubrick was happy with the result and defended his choices.

“It looks absolutely perfect, I think… There might be some other place in the world like it, but I’d hate to have to look for it. I think even if we had gone to Hue, we couldn’t have created that look. I know we couldn’t have.” –Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick at a Distance, Washington Post, June 28, 1987)

The only thing that many critics seemed to admire was R. Lee Ermey’s performance as the overbearing drill instructor. The role was originally given to an actor named Tim Colceri, and Lee Ermey was employed as the production’s technical advisor having been a drill instructor at Paris Island. However, when Kubrick saw Ermey at work with the actors, it became obvious that he was perfect for the role.

“It was quite clear that Lee [Ermey] was a genius for this part… I’ve always found that some people can act and some can’t, whether or not they’ve had training. And I suspect that being a drill instructor is, in a sense, being an actor. Because they’re saying the same things every eight weeks, to new guys, like they’re saying it for the first time—and that’s acting.” –Stanley Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick at a Distance, Washington Post, June 28, 1987)

Much of the character’s dialogue came from Ermey’s repertoire, and this is likely why it is so believable despite being extremely outlandish.

“I’d say fifty percent of Lee’s dialogue—specifically the insult stuff—came from Lee. You see, in the course of hiring the marine recruits, we interviewed hundreds of guys. We lined them all up and did an improvisation of the first meeting with the drill instructor. They didn’t know what he was going to say, and we could see how they reacted. Lee came up with—I don’t know—150 pages of insults. Off the wall stuff: ‘I don’t like the name Lawrence. Lawrence is for faggots and sailors.’

Aside from the insults, though, virtually every serious thing he says is basically true. When he says, ‘A rifle is only a tool, it’s a hard heart that kills,’ you know it’s true. Unless you’re living in a world that doesn’t need fighting men, you can’t fault him — except maybe for a certain lack of subtlety in his behavior, and I don’t think the United States Marine Corps is in the market for subtle drill instructors.” –Stanley Kubrick (Rolling Stone, 1987)

Ermey’s casting did cause certain problems for the production when the actor was injured in a car accident. If the film is notorious for its lengthy production schedule, it is important to take such problems into consideration.

“It was about 1:00 in the morning, and his car skidded off the road. He broke all his ribs on one side, just tremendous injuries, and he probably would have died, except he was conscious and kept flashing his lights. A motorist stopped. It was in a place called Epping Forest, where the police are always finding bodies. Not the sort of place you get out of your car at 1:30 in the morning and go see why someone’s flashing their lights. Anyway, Lee was out for four and a half months.” –Stanley Kubrick (Rolling Stone, 1987)

Today, the film has been re-evaluated and enjoys a positive reputation amongst critics. It isn’t Kubrick’s strongest effort, but it remains a fascinating film that rewards multiple viewings.

The Presentation:

3.5 of 5 Stars

Warner Brothers protects their 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs in a standard black eco-case with an insert sleeve that features reasonably attractive film related artwork. We are not huge fans of the flimsy eco-cases that have plagued home video releases for over a decade. They do not properly protect the discs or the artwork. (What would have been a 4 Star package has been reduced to 3.5 Stars for this reason.) Luckily, the first pressing includes a slip sleeve featuring the same artwork that adds further protection. We aren’t sure why the original iconic one sheet artwork wasn’t used for this release, but this is a small complaint.

Best Buy is also offering an Exclusive Steel Book edition that features alternative artwork:

Those who want their Kubrick titles to stand apart from their other titles might wish to make a trip to Best Buy, but both options are adequate.

Picture Quality:

4K UHD: 4 of 5 Stars

BLU-RAY: 3 of 5 Stars

4K UHD

Warner Brothers offers a new 4K UHD transfer of Full Metal Jacket that isn’t quite in the same league as their 4K restorations of 2001: A Space Odyssey or The Shining, but it is such an overwhelming improvement over their earlier Blu-ray releases of the film that few are likely to notice. This really is a major overhaul that will improve one’s viewing experience significantly. The increased resolution is a significant help here, and there are some substantial improvements beyond this as well. It has a richer and more filmic appearance than the Blu-ray transfer. While earlier transfers appear to have been artificially brightened, this new image is darker without sacrificing detail. Depth and clarity see a significant improvement throughout the duration as well. The improvements in color is especially nice to see (even if they are sometimes subtle enhancements). There is some unfortunate noise on display at times, and one wonders if the encode didn’t adequately handle the film’s grain. These compression issues never distract though, and one imagines that most people won’t be bothered by them (particularly when they compare the image with the earlier Blu-ray transfer).

Some might take issue with the 1.78:1 aspect ratio since the original theatrical ratio was 1.85:1. The proper home video ratio for Kubrick titles has been a topic of debate for decades. Evidence indicates that Kubrick composed the image for the 1.85:1 ratio but protected for the 1.66:1 and 1.33:1 ratios (for foreign release and television broadcast). It’s too bad that this release doesn’t present this film in the proper ratio, but this slight issue is easy to forgive since this 1.78:1 image falls between the 1.66:1 (European) ratio and the 1.85:1 (US) ratio. It is impossible to know if Kubrick would or wouldn’t approve. He apparently requested that his films be shown “full screen” back in the days of standard definition television sets, and this is certainly preferable to those 1.33:1 presentations.

BLU-RAY

Here we go again. Instead of offering fans a 1080P rendering of the new 4K scan of this film, Warner Brothers has repurposed their 2007 Blu-ray. File this under “missed opportunity.” The fact is that this is merely an “okay” Blu-ray image. It seems to be from a fairly clean source, there is a reasonable amount of detail on display, contrast is adequately handled, and color isn’t too far off the mark (even if it isn’t handled as well here as it is in the new 4K transfer). However, the simple fact of the matter is that a transfer of the new 4K scan would have been a significant improvement, and this will matter to a great many collectors and Kubrick enthusiasts. This is especially true given the fact that most fans will already own this disc.

Sound Quality:

4K UHD: 4 of 5 Stars

BLU-RAY: 4 of 5 Stars

4K UHD

This new 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio transfer is a sort of repurposing as well. They have taken the Blu-ray’s 5.1 English Linear PCM Audio source and re-encoded it into this current format. That’s not such a horrendous thing since the LPCM audio was always a very decent revamping of the film’s original Mono track (which is happily included here but not in a lossless format). There are many who would have loved a lossless transfer of the film’s original Mono mix, but this is such a rare occurrence that it almost seems like nitpicking to even mention it. Still, this seems like yet another missed opportunity.

In any case, the 5.1 mix offers some nice separations and some depth to a fairly discreet mix. There may be some slight hiss evident in the track, but those who aren’t listening for it may never even hear it. This is never problematic in any way. Dialogue is well prioritized and focused in the center of the mix. It is clear and easy to distinguish throughout the duration of the movie.

BLU-RAY

Everything mentioned above can be repeated here with one notable exception; there is no English Mono Dolby Digital audio option on this particular disc.

Special Features:

3 of 5 Stars

4K UHD

Feature Length Audio Commentary by R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D’Onofrio, Adam Baldwin, and Jay Cocks

One wonders what a director’s commentary with Stanley Kubrick might be like. Of course, that’s an impossibility at this point. At best, it would be some sort of Frankenstein monster built from interview excerpts. This commentary with Ermey, D’Onofrio, Baldwin, and Cocks is rather informative and often quite interesting (even if some of the information overlaps with the documentary). It’s nice to have here and elevates the disc to something fairly special for Kubrick fans. It is also very nice to see that they included this track on the 4K UHD disc. This doesn’t always happen.

BLU-RAY

Feature Length Audio Commentary by R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D’Onofrio, Adam Baldwin, and Jay Cocks

Obviously, this is the same track included on the 4K UHD disc, and it is very nice to have it included here as well.

Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil – (30:49) – (SD)

Gary Leva’s “making of” documentary falls somewhat short of the fabulous documentaries created during the heyday of DVD, but it is substantially better than the anemic EPK promo fluff that is included on more recent Blu-ray releases. It manages to relay a significant amount of production information in what seems like an incredibly short half-hour. It includes interviews with cast, crew, and Kubrick experts. It also includes some brief but interesting “behind the scenes” production footage. It makes one wonder if we might get to see the rest of that footage one of these days.

Theatrical Trailer – (01:28) – (SD)

It is lovely to have the film’s original theatrical trailer here, but it seems like they could have given the trailer a new scan (in 1080p if not in 4K). This old standard definition transfer looks a bit tired.

Final Words:

Warner Brothers doesn’t give Full Metal Jacket quite the special release that 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining received, but the film isn’t held in quite the same esteem as those films. The new 4K UHD transfer is an obvious bump up from the old 2007 Blu-ray, but this only makes the repurposing of that old disc for this release more disappointing. One imagines that a new transfer of their new 4K master would have led to a better Blu-ray image as well.

However, any 4K UHD debut of a Stanley Kubrick film is an occasion for celebration, and fans of the director will certainly want to add this film to their 4K collections. Recommended.

Note: While we were provided with a screener for review purposes, this had no bearing on our review process. We do not feel under any obligation to hand out positive reviews. 

All screenshots and poster images are the property of Warner Brothers. The screenshots are scaled down to 1920 x 1080 from the UHD disc. None of them are representative of the disc’s image quality.