Full Metal Jacket

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	War	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1987	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	111:47 minutes	Other Extras	Menu audio Collector card
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (76:30)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie	Cast & Crew
Region	4	Director	Stanley Kubrick
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Matthew Modine Adam Baldwin Vincent V'Onofrio Lee Ermey Dorian Harewood Arliss Howard Kevyn Major Howard Ed O'Ross
Case	Snapper	Starring
RRP	$29.95	Music

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	?Full Frame	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None	Dolby Digital	1.0
16x9 Enhancement	No	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 1.0) French (Dolby Digital 1.0) Italian (Dolby Digital 1.0)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	No

Plot Synopsis

Full Metal Jacket is Stanley Kubrick's take on the Vietnam War. The movie is basically split into two sections. In the first, we see a raw bunch of recruits being put through boot camp hell by a savage D.I. (Lee Ermey). In the second, we see some very disconnected images of war, as seen through the eyes of Joker (Matthew Modine), who has been assigned to the journalistic division of the Marines.

This is a very powerful and confronting film. There are a number of very brutal scenes, both in boot camp and in Vietnam. It is a movie that will leave an impression on you, one way or another.

Transfer Quality

Video

The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. The packaging is misleading in that it states that the transfer is widescreen. It is not. I believe the aspect ratio is as the director intended it to be for home video release.

The transfer is better than I expected it to be. The movie itself was made in 1987, and so the transfer has a somewhat dated look about it, but it was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Compared with more recent transfers, the image lacks definition, but it remains acceptably sharp and clear throughout. A few scenes tended towards blooming a little, and some scenes had considerable grain in them, but overall these problems were rare. Shadow detail is limited, but was acceptable given the age of the movie. There was no low level noise.

The colours were quite muted and subdued, with mainly dirty greens and browns on display, though the occasional splash of colour is well-rendered.

No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some scenes with moderate aliasing, but this never became a significant problem. Film artefacts were relatively plentiful, with a number of quite significant scratches and blemishes marring the transfer occasionally (eg at 26:16).

In addition to the subtitles listed on the back of the packaging, a German subtitle track is also present.

This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed at 76:30, between Chapters 28 & 29. This layer change is placed in the middle of a conversation, and is moderately disruptive to the flow of the movie.

Audio

There are three audio tracks on this DVD; an English Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack, a French Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack, and an Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack. I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack. The original theatrical release of this movie was in mono, and it was the director's intent that the movie be released with this soundtrack for home video.

Dialogue sounded quite compressed. At times it was distorted. Some of the dialogue was hard to make out.

There were no audio sync problems with this disc.

The music was a combination of original score and songs from the Vietnam war era. It was relatively unremarkable.

The surround channels were not used.

The .1 channel was not used.

Extras

There are only limited extras on this disc.

What's Missing / What's Extra

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

Collectible Card

Theatrical Trailer

This is presented at an aspect ratio of 4:3 and with Dolby Digital 1.0 sound.

Collectible Card

This appears to be simply a small cardboard copy of the theatrical poster.

Summary

Full Metal Jacket was most likely rushed out because of the director's untimely death. If you are a Kubrick fan, then you will want this movie. If not, you may want to wait until a widescreen version is released (if it ever is).

The video quality is good but not great.

The audio quality is passable.

The extras are limited.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output
Display	Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 4:3 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Amplification	2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
Speakers	Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer