Customer Reviews

Full Metal Jacket

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

_Full Metal Jacket_ is, unquestionably, one of the finest, most powerful movies ever made. Consequently, the release of this partial and somewhat garbaged-up soundtrack was and remains a serious disappointment.

Who thought of the electric/hip hop version of Lee Ermey calling cadence in the first track? The word, "atrocity" comes to mind. And "I Like It Like That," disingenuously asterisked as "music from the period," was NOT included in the movie. The overly long "Time Suspended" merely takes up space on the CD. But perhaps the most grevious oversight (perhaps they could not get licensing) is the ommission of, "Paint it Black," which as any devotee of this film knows is the capstone of the whole movie.

The positives: the rest of the CD, which includes the haunting Abigail Mead score ("Time Suspended" notwithstanding) and the rock music featured in the film.

Blip over the bad stuff and make your own tape, throwing in "Paint it Black," and you're there.

This soundtrack combines original electronic music by Abigail Mead and representative hits of the era (in and around 1968). Additionally, a disc only title cut adds a sense of playfullness. "Full Metal Jacket" is a bouncy "Art of Noise" style sampled ditty featuring the barking commands of Lee Ermey. The tongue is confidently in the cheek.As with the "A Clockwork Orange" soundtrack, the best stuff here is the original music of Abigail Willaims. It is 'cinematic'. The music is vivid, emotionally intense and dramatic. It is also hauntingly otherwordly, and this uncanny quality is what gives the music its bite and its impact. This musi echoes in the ears long after listening.It also effectively evokes images from this little understood modern masterpiece. Goodbye StanleyYou will be sorely missed.Tony Tsendeas

Abigail Mead, the composer of eight songs of this soundtrack, is actually Vivian Kubrick, daughter of Stanley Kubrick.
The disc has 15 tracks:

The first song is a hip-hop/techno mix of the cadences sung by Sgt Hartman in the first part of the movie, it is not a beautiful or good and I don't think it was necessary to include it.

The songs 2 to 7 are songs from the sixties and hear them during the movie creates a "mood" for the movie, for example, the song These Boots Are Made For Walking, by Nancy Sinatra and the scene in Vietnam which a prostitute is walking fits just perfectly and watch the movie without this song would have much less effect. Although they are not complex songs and most of the lyrics are foolish it's worth to have them in the score because they made a good part in the movie.

Song number 8 is the Marine's Hymn, a nice inclusion even thought it's not likely that someone would play this song very often at home.

The rest of the score are the instrumental themes composed by Abigail Mead, some of them are quiet and peaceful like Leonard, and others are more aggressive like Parris Island, with some nice stereo effects.

This is not the best score for a Stanley Kubrick movie and I suggest you to listen to it before you buy or you can have some bad surprises like not listening to Paint it Black, because it was not included or odd songs like Time Suspended. Actually I would suggest this soundtrack for Collectors, Kubrick fans or people with eclectic musical taste.

Who in the name of [CENSORED] thought of that [CENSORED] awful remix song that's top on the list? Not only does it not appear in the film, but I found it to be rather distateful. The songs that follow- "Hello, Vietnam", "Chapel of Love", "Wooly Bully", and so on up to that magnificent rendition of "The Marines' Hymn" by the Goldman Band are all, in my book, plenty good enough. "I Like It Like That", to my recollection, did not appear in the film, however. And where the [CENSORED] is "Paint It, Black" on the song listing? They include two songs never used in the film but leave out one that is, and was very much a representative of its time? Makes no sense. What comes next is a set of instrumental songs from the film, most of which are pretty good. "Transition" and "Time Suspended" don't do a whole lot more than take up space, though.

And what is with those horrible images on the inside of the CD cover and the back? Did Stanley Kubrick just go back and say, "Let's take the most gruesome, unpleasant images we can find in the movie and put those on two out of the three places we place imagery on the CD! That will go great!"? I know the film, and wars themselves, have such moments, but I don't want to see them every time I pick up the CD.

Me, I consider this CD worth buying. The good songs it has are enough to outweigh the bad in my mind. "The Marines' Hymn" is so good its almost worth it for that one alone. Altogether, this soundtrack is good, but not great. It could have been done worse, but Lord knows, it could've been better.

This is a very worthwhile soundtrack that I was pleased to have purchased in lp format in 1987. It compartmentally collects the majority of the Vietnam-era, pop tunes heard in the film; the incidental music composed by Ms Kubrick; the Marines' hymn; and the opening track which is an original piece not from the film soundtrack, that captures a quality of the film's indoctrination and war zone sequences by framing excerpts of Ermey's cadence prompts with a driving beat, frenetic rhythm effects and blistering guitar soloing, resulting in an early example of artistic techno-rap. Am very curious to know who the guitarist was. The result is a song that has a motivational flavour (indeed, I have at times put it on in tandem with vigorous exercising) yet also musically suggests the menace and the chaos of war. Again, a good soundtrack to include in one's OST library.

I was watching Full Metal Jacket and heard a number of great songs and decided to buy the soundtrack without reading the reviews. If you're reading this, you're one step ahead of me.

I gave this soundtrack one star for each song worth putting in my library. Other people may appreciate two or three other songs that I didn't, but this soundtrack is largely in part garbage. Save yourself some money and just download the songs you like on Amazon after sampling them.

El Soundtrack de la la película Full Metal Jacket para los que la llegamos a ver en el Cine
Recuerdas los sucesos que ocurrieron en el Vietnam y los daños Sicológicos sometidos a los enlistados reclutas de los EEUU.

i enjoyed this soundtrack very much and its coming from a wonderful film. I felt the sound quality was a bit lacking and that is the only reason why i didnt give this a 5 star rating. Other then that, its a nice collection of tracks from one of the best Vietnam movies ever made

My husband wanted music that was popular while he was in Vietnam and asked me to order this. I have not listened to it, but he seems pleased.

No problems, noted, my cd worked as advertised, I would purchase again in the future, from this individual.