Private Joker Ain’t Laughing As Amazon Alters Stanley Kubrick's ‘Full Metal Jacket’ Movie Poster

There’s a scene in Stanley Kubrik's iconic Vietnam Warm film Full Metal Jacket where an unnamed colonel calls out Matthew Modine's Private Joker for the decorations on his uniform while Joker is interviewing one of his men at a mass grave. 

Colonel: "You write ‘Born To Kill’ on your helmet and wear a peace button. What is that supposed to be some kind of sick joke"?

Joker: "No sir". 

Colonel: "What is it supposed to mean"? 

Joker: "I don’t know, sir". 

Colonel: "You don’t know very much, do you"? 

Joker: "No sir" … "I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir".

Like the Colonel, Joker's message also goes over Amazon Prime Video's head. On Monday, Modine took to Twitter to air his grievances about the removal of "Born To Kill" from the movie art on Amazon Prime Video's homepage for Full Metal Jacket. 

Nevertheless, if there’s a small chance seeing the word "Kill" triggers you, then don't watch Full Metal Jacket. It’s one of the most intense viewing experiences in cinema history. Wikipedia calls it a "war black comedy-drama film," which is a stretch. "War," absolutely. "Drama," definitely. "Black comedy," ehhhhhhh, kind of, I guess. 

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When I watched Full Metal Jacket in high school, I thought Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) was hilarious. The drill instructor was dropping bars: "If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day, you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Earth." 

Actors Vincent d'Onofrio, Matthew Modine and R.Lee Ermey on the set of "Full Metal Jacket", a Stanely Kubrick film.(Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

Afterward, Ermey's, along with many other character arcs, drifts away from "black comedy" into "war" and "drama." Without spoiling anything, Full Metal Jacket goes from "funny for people with sick senses of humor" to horrifying. (Side note: I score this film 4.5 out of 5. It's a banger and a top-three Kubrick film, which says a lot).  

Ultimately, where does the censorship and/or sanitization of old movies stop? 

Sorry, Quentin Tarantino, your movie is titled Bill now, no Kill allowed. To Kill A Mockingbird is a little too problematic. Let's cut that down to the safer A Mockingbird. Nah, Matthew McConaughey, it's 2024 and A Time To Kill doesn't work. How about A Time To Do Stuff instead? Martin Scorsese, Killers Of The Flower Moon, are you crazy? Just The Flower Moon. 

(DECIDER, one of the media outlets that also wrote about this story, didn't get a reply from Amazon Prime Video). 

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