Epicentre of an Earthquake: The Literary Sources of Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Abstract

Though Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket was highly praised by critics and audiences when it opened in 1987, it has been somewhat neglected in the years that followed: far less studied in comparison with other films by Kubrick, maybe underestimated, or possibly misunderstood. The common perception of the film is exemplified by what Pauline Kael wrote: ‘after the first part reaches climax, the movie becomes dispersed, as if it had no story. It never regains its forward drive; the second part is almost a different picture’. But apparently, this is what Kubrick deliberately attempted: ‘The thing I’d really like to do’, he said, ‘is explode the narrative structure of movies. I want to do something earthshaking’. Where is Full Metal Jacket’s deep focus, then? Making extensive use of material from the Stanley Kubrick Archive – including books in Kubrick’s personal library, the numerous drafts of the screenplay and a wide set of handwritten notes – this article explores the crucial initial stage of production when the director worked on the narrative structure of his film. The literary and historical sources that Kubrick used to concoct his Vietnam movie are revealed here for the first time, in addition to the well-known sources of Gustav Hasford’s novel The Short-Timers, and Herr’s chronicle Dispatches. Influences from several other novels and reports about the Vietnam War have been backtracked, and their effect on distinct scenes, characters, and even lines of dialogue in the finished film is finally brought to light. By strictly focusing on what Kubrick wanted to do, and actually did, this article will show how Kubrick’s ‘method was to capture the visual equivalent to language’, as co-scenarist Michael Herr wrote.