How Matthew Modine changed the ending of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket’
Following the release of his iconic horror movie, The Shining, it took Stanley Kubrick another seven years to make his next film. The result was 1987’s Full Metal Jacket, a war drama based on Gustav Hasford’s novel The Short-Timers.
Kubrick’s movie depicts the horrors of war, beginning at a U.S. Marines boot camp led by the terrifying Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, played by Lee Ermey, who had experience as a real-life drill sergeant during the Vietnam War. Matthew Modine stars as J. T. ‘Joker’ Davis, and Vincent D’Onofrio plays the awkward Private Leonard ‘Gomer Pyle’ Lawrence, with the pair facing the wrath of Hartman’s intense training methods.
D’Onofrio set a world record during filming, gaining 70lbs to earn the part of the overweight solider. Evidently, the actor was dedicated to his performance, which became his breakthrough role. The film also introduced Modine to the mainstream, yet he was partly responsible for shaping Full Metal Jacket’s ending.
Modine revealed that his character was meant to die at the end of the film, yet he persuaded Kubrick to keep Joker alive. The actor believed that the film would present a more harrowing view of war if Joker were to survive, forced to live with his memories and trauma.
He explained (via Entertainment Weekly), “Joker should live because that is the real horror of war – spending the rest of your life with that experience of his drill inspector getting shot and killed in a toilet, that the guy he was helping get through boot camp would put an M14 in his mouth and blow his brains out, that the guy that he went through boot camp with would die in his arms, and that he would come to Vietnam and stand over this young Vietnamese girl begging him to end her life – I knew that it was the right ending.”
“You never escape that. That’s something you carry with you the rest of your life. I meet Marines and Army soldiers that were in Vietnam, and they told me how much they love Full Metal Jacket and that we got it right. It wasn’t the jungle fighting. What Stanley was able to get from his actors was that emotional reality of having to stand over a young girl and take her life. That’s what we got right. That there’s nothing fun or romantic about it. That is horrible,” Modine added.
Full Metal Jacket was critically acclaimed upon its release, although it is widely regarded as Kubrick’s worst film. Still, the movie was nominated for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ at the Oscars and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for Ermey at the Golden Globes.
Revisit the trailer below.
