Stanley Kubrick is a director who doesn’t hold back. Perfecting art (in this case, his movies) no matter how many months it took to shoot a film, Kubrick was a perfectionist and expected a lot from his actors.
Talking about his 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, actor Matthew Modine revealed how lengthy the process of shooting the film turned out to be. Giving the audience a glimpse inside Stanley Kubrick’s mind, Modine was in awe of the director!
Stanley Kubrick Did Not Care How Many Takes It Would Take!
Matthew Modine portrayed the role of Pvt. Joker in the 1987 film. Starring alongside an ensemble cast of actors, the film portrayed the dehumanizing effect that the war had on these soldiers and how any sense of humanity was taken away from them!
With the movie receiving rave reviews, Modine recalled that the filming process was longer than expected. Stating that Stanley Kubrick wanted perfection above all else, the actor revealed that they didn’t do any work on the call sheet for the first three months! In a clip shared on X (formerly Twitter), Modine talked about how different Stanley Kubrick was from other directors!
“For the first three months, we never completed anything that was on the call sheet that said what we were going to film the next day. He [Stanley Kubrick] said ‘Who cares how many takes I do? Would you ever go up to Picasso and say ‘Hey Pablo, how many strokes in that painting?’“
He further continued,
“I remember having conversations with Stanley about Warner Brothers that they had his back. It sometimes gets hard to raise money and greenlight a picture that’s going to make people uncomfortable. People like Hollywood endings but you live in a world where that’s not necessarily the truth”
As the clip continued, Matthew Modine talked about an expression in combat called the “Thousand-yard stare”. Modine revealed that he too was so dedicated to the art of Full Metal Jacket that he wanted to make the audience feel the loss of humanity in a soldier.
The Thousand Yard Stare!
In the film, Modine’s character (Pvt. Joker) has to shoot a young girl. Showcasing the effects of war on soldiers, the clip acted as the death of the humanity that Modine’s character had in him. As the clip continued, the actor revealed that he wanted the audience to not just see the movie but feel its effects!
“There’s an expression they use in combat where somebody gets a thousand yard stare, when you see beyond this life because you’ve taken somebody else’s life. When I pull the trigger on that young girl, I wanted the audience to feel Private ‘Joker’ died. He was no longer ever going to be the boy that he was before he pulled the trigger”
With a strong ensemble cast alongside veteran director Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket received a high rating of 8.3/10 on IMDB and 90% on Rotten Tomatoes! The Oscar-nominated film is available to stream on Apple TV+.
