When I saw this movie for the first time, I remember being shocked by the first part of the piece, during the bloody period of military training.
Only this first part would be enough for those same critics who extol twisted works of dubious artistic quality, to reconsider and consider this film without further ado as the best film about Vietnam that has ever been shot, if we except perhaps specific parts of the irregular Apocalypsis Now.
Possibly the best movie of Stanley Kubrick's prolific career, as well as, in my opinion, the best war movie of all time. Although Kubrick in "Senderos de Gloria" already reflected on the barbarity of war from an ethical point of view, and the lack of moral legitimacy of someone to order others to die or kill for him, in this he not only reflects on the nonsense of wars but also about the army and its military discipline.
"The metal jacket" (which refers to the armor of certain ammunition, not something else) is clearly differentiated into two acts:
The first part, the instruction, a preparation for war destined to brainwash, to turn kids from the provinces into obedient and oiled killing machines, transmutation personified in the recruit Patoso, -the actor Vincent D'Onofrio- that makes it great capable of provoking compassion for this clumsy chubby to awaken fear by the face of pure hatred that reflects at the end.
This actor had to happen like Malcolm McDowell, the Alex "A Clockwork Orange", who by nailing his role so much became pigeonholed, -I think people were scared, seriously-, and although he has continued little papers his star did not shine with such splendor again.
In this part you will also hear indelible and hilarious phrases by the Sergeant (as once the “Iron Sergeant” Eastwood would like to do):
"In Texas there are only cows and fags and I don't see that you are a cow.."
The second act, the Vietnam War, where the war is not as they paint it. There is no such Manichean conception of the factions. There is no "clean" battle. It is crude and cruel. Innocents, women and children are killed. He kills himself treacherously. The Viet Cong are confused with the allies of the Americans, who often betray them. In war, soldiers do not fight for ideals or for an objective, they only fight to survive, and to avenge their fallen comrades. Death only generates more deaths.
"-At least he died for a good cause..
-What cause is that?
-Freedom.
-Clear up your nerd neurons. Do you think we fight for freedom? This is a slaughter. And if my balls are going to burst for one word... my word is FUCKING."
And the magnificent finale, soldiers who boast in their helmets that "they were born to kill", end up singing in the darkness illuminated by projectiles the song of the Disney Club: "M- I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E", like the children that they really are..