Full Metal Jacket at 30: Matthew Modine on working with Stanley Kubrick – and the ‘toxic’ London set Almost exactly 30 years since its UK release, Full Metal Jacket remains a more damning commentary on war than any […]

Almost exactly 30 years since its UK release, Full Metal Jacket remains a more damning commentary on war than any film that came before, or has come since.

Among the barking drill sergeants, suicidal marines and teenage snipers was war correspondent Private Joker, played by Matthew Modine.

As Joker observed and reported the madness unfolding around him, Modine himself kept a diary observing the making of Full Metal Jacket.

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With the assistance of extracts from his diary, Modine talked to i about director Stanley Kubrick, the film’s toxic set, and being on the end of a Gunnery Sergeant Hartman rant.

‘Stanley Kubrick lived and breathed his art’

When Full Metal Jacket began rolling and Modine penned his first diary entry, his career was still in its infancy, though the 25-year-old’s star was rising after turns in Streamers and Birdy.

Now 58, Modine, who recently appeared in Stranger Things, notes that the rationale behind a Full Metal Jacket diary came from a method approach.

“Since I was playing a combat correspondent, it made sense that I would report, or keep a diary of what was occurring around me. Which happened to be a film set with one of the greatest directors ever.”

Unlike Modine, Kubrick was entering the twilight of his career – Full Metal Jacket was to be his penultimate film, coming 12 years before Eyes Wide Shut.

In one diary entry Modine reflected on the secretive Kubrick.

“What was Stanley like? If you knew Stanley, you’d understand why it’s hard to talk about him.

“Was he a genius? How would I know? But what I can say is that Kubrick, in every sense and in every definition of the word, was an artist. No question about that.

“When we got home and took our baths, the tubs would turn a cobalt blue from the dirt that was in our hair and on our bodies.”

“He lived and breathed his art. What you don’t know is that art included his family, his pets, his home, and his friends. Kind of in that order.”

Throughout his career and indeed since his death, Kubrick’s directing methods are often discussed in hushed tones, with some suggesting he was difficult to work with. Modine had no such problems, however.

When asked what he most enjoyed about making Kubrick’s criticism of the Vietnam War, Modine’s answer is to-the-point.

“Making Full Metal Jacket. Full stop.”

An extract from the afterword of Modine’s diary “We talk about how he’s making plans for me to do publicity in several countries. He [Kubrick] says in a joking manner that I’ll be representing him. “I get a mental picture of that and see me standing in his shoes. He made fun of anyone wearing expensive tennis shoes. He had those inexpensive reproductions they sell at discount stores. He couldn’t understand why anyone would pay so much for a sneaker. “It’s this constant practicality and frugal logic that reinforces the size of his shoes. How could he imagine me filling his shoes? Stanley’s got very big shoes.”

‘The Full Metal Jacket set was the most toxic place I’ve ever had the displeasure of being’

Modine admits that in his diary he often “bitched”, but he dismisses difficulties he encountered on set as “champagne problems” – a phrase his daughter often teases him with.

But when he describes the London set where he spent the majority of his time on Full Metal Jacket, it’s easy to see why Modine indulged in the odd fit of “bitching”.

“Beckton Gas Works on the Isle of Dogs was, besides Ground Zero during 9/11, the most toxic place I’ve ever had the displeasure of being.”

The gas works had been redressed to look like war-torn Vietnam by Kubrick, and Modine recalls with evident horror the environment he and his fellow cast members were working in.

“We all knew we were crawling around in asbestos and we understood the dangers of that. But we had no understanding of the heinous chemicals that were in the soil.

“During tea breaks dust was always settling on the cakes and biscuits, floating on top of our tea. God knows how much we ingested and what effect it’s had on our bodies.

“When we got home and took our baths, the tubs would turn a cobalt blue from the dirt that was in our hair and on our bodies.”

Being barked at by R Lee Ermey

Perhaps the only thing more toxic than the set were the vitirol-drenched tirades from the mouth of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, played by R Lee Ermey (who was himself a Vietnam veteran).

In the film’s first “barracks” scene Hartman unleashes a torrential diatribe at Private Joker.

“Well, no shit, what have we got here a f***ing comedian? Private Joker. I admire your honesty, hell I like you, you can come over to my house and f*** my sister. “You little scumbag, I’ve got your name, I’ve got your ass, you will not laugh, you will not cry, you will learn by the number I will teach you.”

Despite being subject to a rant that would reduce most men to quivering wrecks, Modine has nothing but admiration for Ermey the man.

“He’s a US Marine. Dyed in the wool. Lee is what he presents to the world. Lee was and is a very reasonable man. He is quite amazing in his role. Hardcore, one hundred per cent committed.

Modine also reveals Ermey’s unlikely hobby:

“The one thing you don’t know about him is that he writes poetry. Let’s call it ‘colourful’ poetry and leave it at that.”

‘There is sadly a terrible love of war’

Sergeant Hartman’s role in Full Metal Jacket is to turn innocent young men, like Private Joker, into killing machines.

Focusing on the dehumanising of young soldiers is part of the reason the film has remained timeless, according to Modine.

“As much as we speak of peace and the desire for cooperation, there is a much greater love for domination and power.”

“We spend our youth being taught forgiveness, charity, love, and then a war comes along and we have to beat all of that love and forgiveness out of young people.

“All in order to make them successful killers, so they don’t hesitate at the moment when they are confronted with death by their perceived enemies.

“In the case of Full Metal Jacket, we have trained the youth to fight in a war that isn’t conventional but guerrilla warfare.

“It is very much like the situation that western military forces face fighting an enemy today, that doesn’t have a territory and wears no uniform.”

With the United States seemingly on the precipice of conflict with North Korea, Full Metal Jacket remains a reminder of the dire consequences of war.

Modine, however, believes that this warning will go unheeded.

“I believe the film has endured because it is not about a particular war. Full Metal Jacket is, simply, about war. Any war. Every war.

“There is, sadly, a terrible love of war with humans.

“As much as we speak of peace and the desire for cooperation, there is a much greater love for domination and power.

“John Lennon said it best; ‘War is Over. If you want it.’ The important part of his statement is the second sentence – if you want it.”

The Full Metal Jacket Diary app is available to download at itunes.apple.com