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Full Metal Jacket Diary

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Having seen Full Metal Jacket numerous times and being a big Kubrick fan I couldn't resist owning this book. The photos are stunning. Modine has a photographer's eye and it shows. What I found more interesting was the diary. Even twenty years later it must have been difficult to publish such candid thoughts. In it Modine reveals his jealousies and problems with other actors. To one he says something like: 'You're everything I'm afraid I'll become.' Oddly, the actor was not bothered by this statement. This isn't to say Modine is a whiner. His feelings were probably natural for any actor on any movie set particularly one made by Kubrick. For example, Kubrick demands Modine return to the set literally hours after his wife gives birth to their first child. Modine complies not wanting to hold up production. The demands Kubrick places on cast and crew are legendary and Modine delves into them. And then there's Modine's trepidations about a sex scene with Papillion Soo Soo... On the other hand, Modine talks about the way the film changed as they shot it. The ending was altered radically and it may be because of Modine's random thoughts or maybe because Kubrick was waiting for Modine to realize what he had realized. Whatever the case Modine played was a major influence in the direction Kubrick took while filming. Modine's diary is a blunt testimony to the heaven and hell it was for a young actor to star in Kubrick's last great movie.

matthew modine has done us a service.

how can any of us -- unless we are jack nicholson or nicole kidman or tom cruise, etc. -- even imagine the experience of a starring performer's interactions with stanley kubrick?

modine has now accounted for his time -- challenging, demanding, demeaning, freezing, exhausted and worse -- in the laserlight. i hope modine's path will be followed by some of the others.

kubrick was a giant. one of very few film makers of the form's first century whose work is of sufficient quality to engender a serious critical literature of its own, his work is -- in fact -- artistic. while some may disagree, i think kubrick holds his own with other great artists of the 20th century.

he matters.

somehow -- and there's a major hint of genius here -- kubrick pulled this off by getting others (warner bros. / us) to pay the hefty bills his creativity required. that means he actually related to that thing called "hollywood."

and, as we all know from film 101, he collaborated with other creative people -- as well as with the businesspeople -- to do what he did.

this sets kubrick very, very far apart from most artists, who tend to work alone. it makes first-hand knowledge of his working habits and choices important for their historic value. on this plane, two decades after their collaboration, matthew modine has published his kubrick memoir.

"full metal jacket diary" walks us through modine's experiences -- highs, lows, traumas, successes, etc. -- without ponderous narrative, just as it happened to him. its subjectivity is documentarian. 'here's what i saw, and heard and felt. now you know.'

he lets us make of it what we will.

modine kept a journal. he kept notes. he took pictures. it was a phenomenal moment in his life. his wife was carrying thier first baby, and she delivered (by surgery) in the midst of production. he had a falling out with his friend, vincent d'onofrio. mainly, he was starring for kubrick.

he also was trapped. production was delayed, and then slow. very slow. it sounds to have been soul-crushingly slow.

was that on purpose? was it a grand plan of the artistic genius? modine's honest enough, and strong enough, to allow us along as such thoughts pass through his mind while he is waiting, waiting...

it is somehow good to know, and this is confirmed again by modine, that if watching a kubrick film can be a challenge, we viewers have it easy compared to the professionals who actually made it.

i hesitate to mention the roundly criticized frederic raphael here, but his memoir, "eyes wide open," complements modine's.

raphael co-wrote "eyes wide shut" with kubrick. he may or may not have capitalized on kubrick's death at the release of the film (the source of some attacks on him), but his text about eyes fits with modine's about jacket. whatever else may be said of raphael, it appears he and modine are in considerable agreement about kubrick. brilliant and very difficult, with intervals of normality that are sometimes laced with a lovable distracted quirkiness.

michael herr's memoir -- which i have not yet read -- is unquestionably a companion to modine's as well.

modine goes much further than the important and well done "life in pictures" documentary. in that, we hear briefly from many actors -- including modine -- and a picture emerges, to be sure. but the documentary is a series of highlights from recollections, not a chronological account of how working with kubrick happened to the actors, which is what modine delivers.

my minor disappointment in modine's text is its lack of a third act. he provides the run-up to getting the part and the excruciating 13 months of filming. at twenty years on from the event, i had expected an afterword locating the experience in his career, kubrick in his life, possibly his view of kubrick in film.

this expectation was somewhat set up by the opening: "he was an artist..." modine's obviously thoughtful enough as a person to have considered what it has meant to him -- personally, professionally, artistically -- even now, as he has begun a directing career of his own.

alas, no. near the end he teases that such would be giving away his hand. after 225 pages of stanley, that remark sounds a bit kubrickian. but, it's true to the title. when post-production was over, and kubrick called him about publicity for the opening, modine did not know what he knows now.

modine comes through with the book's presentation and its other half -- his stills from the filming. "full metal jacket diary" is steel-bound and numbered. i bought # five thousand and something of 20,000. it will be a collector's item. (i heard its second press run, in dec. 2005, is paper bound.)

the photos are extraordinary. from the text and the photos it appears modine was -- at 24 -- just as awestruck with his great good fortune as all of us would want him to have been.

his photos -- with their own story behind them -- have an endearingly candid 'kid-at-disneyland' composition that nicely completes the text (and evoke the film's final image).

"full metal jacket" is a significant intellectual statement. i do not think it is primarily about war. i think it is about language. it is kubrick's reply to 20th century linguistic philosophy, which was largely based at oxford, near his home. its virtuoso plays on realism, nominalism, meaning, the meaning of meaning, and the 'great dichotomy' ('born to kill'/ peace symbol) i believe state kubrick's thesis that when meaning (understanding) fails, conflict (violence) ensues.

ultimately, kubrick was a realist. violence -- be it personal or state-sponsored -- is his prop to show how horrible things can get when we don't understand each other. (pyle killing after sgt hartman screams / joker killing after vietnamese girl sniper mumbles.)

whether this interpretation works or not, kubrick's film will be read for decades. modine has advanced knowledge by retelling his experience in the great collaborative enterprise that created it.

i doubt that kubrick was a shakespeare, but the book is a bit as if a shakespearian actor's description of will's blocking and rehearsal method was just found in a church attic in southwark.

so, i appeal to ryan o'neal, jack nicholson, malcolm mcdowell and the rest of you lucky stars to do your part. nicole kidman's special contribution would be to put to rest all of the blather about kubrick having a problem with women -- or perhaps she wouldn't. at least we would know her experience.

as we now know joker's. thank you, mr modine.

...although fans of the film will most appreciate the great photographs and inside scoop on Stanley Kubrick, the cast and crew, and the movie-making details. (Thanks, Mr. Modine!)
The packaging of the book -- in a "full metal jacket" with a serial number -- is clever marketing that only enhances the subject, not takes away from it.
All in all, an intellectual and tactile pleasure.

in words, pictures and design,"Full Metal Jacket Diary" is most of all a unique and honest book about the realities of film making at it's extreme. Such are few and far between.

In it Matthew Modine takes you through two years of heaven and hell working for the enigmatic genius film director, Stanley Kubrick, as an actor starring as Private Joker in "Full Metal Jacket".

What started as a three month shoot turned into years with no end in sight.. This tale of Kubrick's conscious or unconscious manipulation of both cast and crew to achieve his vision is a fascinating account of genius and perhaps insanity.

Within this alternate reality, the damp chill of England slowly broke Kubrick's men down. much like the heat of jungle did in Vietnam.. Modine has captured the madness of the war of making movies unlike any other book I have read.

Matthew Modine's stunning black and white images and his passionate words of a young actor's very difficult personal journey are unique and compelling. He became a father during the filming just as Chernobal blew its stack and was told everyone would be fine except for nursing infants. Such is the glamour of film making.

Yet despite the hardships and stress, he portrays a compelling and unique reverence for Stanley Kubrick and his vision. . It's straight from the heart.

In any event had Modine not become a brilliant actor, he could have been a kick ass, no holds back war correspondent and photographer. If you like Kubrick, Modine or are at all interested in what making a film really can be like, this is the best twenty bucks you will ever spend.

-The metal book jacket is gimmicky. But I doubt anyone would really buy this book for the jacket alone.

-The overall physical quality of the book is quite good. A top production; quality paper and printing.

-Photos are candid and vary in subjects. Cast, crew, family, and even vacation photos are present. There are only a handful of photos of Kubrick, and IMO none that stay in the mind, unfortunately.

-The diary is a quick read. Not unlike Michael Herr's book "Kubrick."

-The diary covers the onset production of Full Metal Jacket, in addition to some of Mr. Modine's private life offset during production. Some of the finest entries are short conversations between Mr. Modine and Kubrick and others.

-I would say that Mr. Modine's personal insights into his fellow cast and crew are the jewels of this book. This alone is worth the price. As a fan of Kubrick I feel a few more blanks in his puzzle have been filled. Not only of him, but also of his working habits and those with whom he worked. There are a couple shared moments between actor and director that I felt were quite touching.

A great behind the scenes look at working with one of the all time best directors. Life imitating art and art the way Stanley wants it. this book puts you right in the middle as though you were one of the grunts, or crew who seem to have been treated with the same irreverence by the dictator, I mean director. How do you make your actors show the true emotion of war, put them in hell for a year seems to be what Stanley was thinking. Mathew takes you through the battle and seems to have come out a better person when all is said and done. Stanley surely met his match with Modine, who stood his ground and forged a friendship with the obsessive director through fortitude and moxie. Trying to stay a step ahead of Kubrick at every turn became Modine's MO only to find out the ever elusive director was always two steps ahead of him. The 2 jokes Modine crafted to tell Kubrick during production epitomized the worlds view and Stanley s view of himself. A great read that really takes you into the mind of the man we were so excluded from, and into the mind of a young actor who so early in his career changed him forever. Savas

This book is an interesting look at the making of the movie "Full Metal Jacket" from Matthew Modine's perspective. It's a physically substantial volume in a metal binding with the title stamped into it. Most pages have photographs, taken by Modine with a Rolleiflex camera. Surprisingly few photos are of Kubrick in action, however (pp. 51, 91, 237, 272) or have much of a behind-the-scenes feel to them. Most are photos of actors on the set.

The diary itself is more interesting, documenting the pain of the production, from Kubrick's perfectionism, from the cold, and from the fumes from the gas pipes used to warm the sets so the actors' breath wouldn't show (p. 148). The book is divided into six sections, "Private Life" (introductory material about Modine's life between films and before shooting began on the movie), "Vietnam" (the Vietnam scenes and the end of the film were shot first), "Boot Camp," "On Leave" (about a break from shooting Modine had), "Boot Camp Redux," and "Afterword."

It begins with a story of how he was with his "best friend, David Alan Grier," when he encounters Val Kilmer, who is angry that Modine keeps getting roles he tries out for. What's particularly upsetting to Kilmer is that Modine is going to be starring in Stanley Kubrick's new film--that Modine knows nothing about. As it turns out, Modine does get a copy of the script with a note from Kubrick, and does get a role in the film. He wonders if Alan Parker had sent Kubrick some footage from "Birdy" (p. 12). Later, after getting the role of "Joker," he speaks with Parker, who wonders why Kubrick never thanked him for sending such footage. When Modine asks Kubrick about it, he says "If I'd based my decision of hiring you on the scene Alan had sent, you wouldn't have gotten the job." (p. 25). (Modine doesn't mention that Anthony Michael Hall was originally supposed to play Joker.)

Modine recommends his friend Vincent D'Onofrio for the role of Pyle, which he gets, though his method acting leads to conflicts with Modine on the set (pp. 182ff).

In the course of the diary we learn a bit about Modine and his wife, Cari, who is pregnant when the shooting begins. Modine has to fight with Kubrick to be permitted to go to the hospital for his wife's C-section and witness the birth of his son, threatening to cut himself with a knife and go to the hospital if Kubrick won't give his OK (p. 138).

Modine also describes how Lee Ermey got the role of the drill instructor which had originally been Tim Colceri's--Tim was yelling at extras who were being videotaped for auditions, and blew out his voice after half an hour. Lee Ermey, who was a technical advisor for the film, stepped in. As soon as Kubrick saw the extra audition tapes, he made the change (pp. 55-56). (Tim Colceri did play a role in the film, contrary to Modine's statement that Colceri was put on a plane back home, and [...] says that Kubrick's first choice for the role was Bill McKinney.)

One odd section is a description of Modine hallucinating about a little man on his shoulder (pp. 223-224), which is not further elaborated on in any way. The way this piece appears in the diary is actually characteristic of the whole book--it has a very piecemeal feel to it, without any obvious narrative flow, character development, or overall point.

It doesn't work well as autobiography--it really is just Modine's diary, so buyers shouldn't expect more than that. Recommended for die-hard fans of the film.

Behind the scenes features on DVDs are great but it isn't often you get a first person account as in-depth as Matthew Modine's diary of his experiences on Full Metal Jacket.

The photos and his entries are outstanding and sent me back to the movie with a new perspective. Very entertaining.

This book is an on point "diary" of the filmmaking process during "Full Metal Jacket", but is also just a great behind the scenes look at any movie from a talented actor's perspective. By interjecting personal life situations, Modine really draws the reader in as if he's keeping no secrets. An easy read, yet hard to put down. Not only would it make an awesome gift, but it's good to get one for yourself too.

I got this for a dear friend who is a great fan of the movie - he was totally over the moon.

This makes a great gift for christmas, birthdays or for no reason at all!