Full Metal Jacket

Year of Release:  1987

Director:  Stanley Kubrick

Screenplay:  Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford, based on the novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford

Starring:  Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Dorian Harewood, Arliss Howard, Kevyn Major Howard

Running Time:  116 minutes

Genre:  War drama

During the Vietnam War, US Marine Private Davis (Modine), nicknamed "Joker" due to his wisecracking, endures the brutal basic training under tough drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Ermey), with a platoon of recruits including dim-witted, unfit Leonard Lawrence (D'Onofrio), nicknamed "Gomer Pyle".  Following basic training, Davis is assigned as a military journalist, and finds himself plunged into the horrors of combat in Vietnam.

Based on the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford, and co-scripted by Michael Herr, author of acclaimed Vietnam memoir Dispatches (1977), this is among the most acclaimed films about the Vietnam War.  One of Stanley Kubrick's recurring themes is dehumanisation and control: in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) the human characters are reduced to automatons and the most engaging and "human" character is the singing, killing computer; in A Clockwork Orange (1971) the lead character is "cured" of his violent ways by brainwashing at the cost of losing his humanity; in Barry Lyndon (1975) the characters are straightjacketed by the strict mores and manners of 17th Century society; in The Shining (1980) the main character is the tool of supernatural forces; and this interest in control is seen in Kubrick's films about the military, including Paths of Glory (1957) and Full Metal Jacket, where we see the recruits being turned into soldiers.   The film's first 45 minutes is devoted to the Marine's basic training where they are subjected to non-stop verbal and physical abuse by the monstrous Hartman.  Actor R. Lee Ermey was a Marine drill instructor during the Vietnam war and was originally brought on as an advisor, but impressed Kubrick so much that he fired the original actor and cast Ermey instead.  Ermey made such an impression in the film that he became something of a star, subsequently appearing in about 60 films, usually as tough authority figures.  Vincent D'Onofrio plays the pathetic Private Pyle, Hartman's favourite victim, and to be honest, it's hard to understand how a recruit like Pyle even got through the doors of the training camp, when he is obviously not up to it right from the start.  The bullying he endures begins with Hartman and then expands, with Hartman's encouragement, to the rest of the platoon.  D'Onofrio gives Pyle a real sense of humanity and tragedy, right from the moment he appears on screen you know that it will not end well for him.  The training passage of the film plays like a very dark comedy, mostly thanks to Ermey's endlessly inventive, foulmouthed insults and invective all delivered at maximum volume ("You're so ugly you could be a modern art masterpiece!" is one of his more repeatable lines).  Matthew Modine plays the nominal lead and point of view character, Private Joker, although throughout most of the film he is more of an observer, however he is the only one who seems to have any real compassion for Pyle, although he does join in with the others bullying of Pyle, during a brutal "blanket party" scene, where Pyle is held down in his bunk, while the rest of the recruits take it in turns to beat him with bars of soap wrapped in towels. 
The scene then switches to Vietnam and the horrors of war, with Joker and rookie combat photographer Rafterman (Kevyn Major Howard) plunged into the thick of battle.  The focus of the film is more on the effects of war on the soldiers, few if any of whom seem to understand why they are there, or even to particularly care.  Military slang and terminology is used frequently which, similar to the "nadsat" slang in A Clockwork Orange, creates something of a distancing effect.  The Vietnam segment of the film, while good, doesn't have the power of the training aspect, but it still leaves an indelible impression, and the question remains of what is to become of Joker and friends when they "rotate back to the world" (return to civilian life)?    

"What is your major malfunction?" Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) is berated by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) in Full Metal Jacket

Firefly

Year: 2002
Directors: Joss Whedon, Tim Minear, Vern Gillum, Michael Grossman, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Marita Grabiak, David Solomon, Allan Kroeker, Jim Contner and Thomas J. Wright.
Screenplay: Joss Whedon, Tim Minear, Jane Espenson, Drew Z. Greenberg, Ben Edlund, Jose Molina, Cheryl Cain and Brett Matthews. Series created by Joss Whedon.
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau and Ron Glass.
Running Time: 14 episodes over 1 season. One 90 minute episode, otherwise 42 minutes per episode.
Genre: Science-fiction, western, drama


Summary: In the year 2517 the human race has moved to other star systems most of which are ruled by a brutal regime known as "the Alliance". Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Fillion), who seven years earlier fought on the losing side of a war against the Alliance, is commander of the Firefly-class transport ship Serenity, which travels among the remote frontier planets searching for ny type of work (whether of the legal or illegal variety) that will keep food on the table and the old ship flying. Also on the crew are Reynolds' wartime friend Zoe (Torres), Zoe's husband and the ship's pilot Wash (Tudyk), violent ex-mercenary Jayne (Baldwin), perpetually cheerful engineer Kaylee (Staite), professional "Companion" (a kind of highly respected courtesan) Inara (Baccarin) who gives the ship a level of respectability and social standing, preacher (or "Shepherd") Book (Glass) and doctor Simon Tam (Maher) who is on the run from the Alliance with his genius but delusional and occasionally violent sister River (Glau), who Simon rescued from an Alliance facility where she was being subjected to horrific experiments.

Opinion: The concept of Firefly was suggested to Joss Whedon after he read the novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, which chronicles the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Whedon wanted to make a show about people who had fought on the losing side of a war and their experiences afterwards as pioneers on the outskirts of civilization. The show mixes science-fiction with elements from Western movies, with many of the planets visited by the characters being like remote Old West outposts or towns, which I don't think is an unreasonable idea of what those type of worlds could be like. In science-fiction terms, the show is notable for the fact that there are no alien creatures or talking robots or anything like that. Also, refreshingly, they accept the fact that there is no sound in space.
In my opinion Firefly is very possibly one of the best, if not the best, science-fiction shows ever made. The show was well-written, with witty and intelligent scripts. The endlessly quotable dialogue mixed existing slang, invented words, Old West-style dialect and snatches of Chinese (in fact there is a strong Chinese influence in many of the show's set designs and costumes). The look of the show often used highly mobile cameras which in some scenes created a semi-documentary look. The acting was always excellent and helped create many memorable characters with Fillion's Captain Reynolds being the coolest space hero since Han Solo in Star Wars (1977).
So what went wrong? The show was produced by and originally shown on the Fox network who cancelled the show after only eleven of the fourteen episodes that were made had been screened. The network never seemed to care much about the show right from the start. Episodes were screened out of order (although Firefly doesn't really have one on-going story it does have running themes and storylines which run throughout the series) the extended pilot episode, which introduces the shows characters, themes and plotlines wasn't shown until the end of the run because the network wanted a more "action-packed" episode to open the series. Episodes were moved around the schedules and the series was marketed as kind of an "action-comedy" instead of the serious science-fiction drama that Whedon intended (although there is still a lot of action and humour in it). However, after reruns and DVD releases, the show has become kind of a cult series with a hardcore fanbase, known as "Browncoats" (a slang term in the show for the army in which Reynolds and Zoe fought). The show was popular enough on DVD for a movie sequel, Serenity, which was released in 2005 to critical acclaim but sadly not much success at the box office.
This was a brilliant television series which was sadly cancelled far too soon. However what there is of it is totally shiney.