Blog 6 AZ

The first part of "Full Metal Jacket" occurs at the marine training camp on Parris Island. At this camp we see the very first steps that the boys go through in order to become soldiers. The physical changes of shaving their hair, getting into shape, and performing daily activites symbolize the stripping of their innocence,state of mind, and personal identities. Sergeant Heartman puts the boys through rigorous training and tests in order to transform them from compassionate human beings into killing machines. Unfortunately not all of the boys can handle this kind of pressure. For example, when Pyle can not complete all of the tasks the other boys beat him with soap at night. After this event, Pyle goes through a significant transformation and something inside of him snaps. Although Joker was able to help him and attempt to keep him up to speed, Pyle was unable to handle the pressure and ends up killing Hartman and commiting suicide. Pyle's sudden rage and death symbolize the intensity and unpredictableness of the war. It also sets the stage for the intense brutality and gruesomness that all the soldiers will soon experience in Vietnam.

In the second part of the movie Joker is in Vietnam working as a writer for the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper. While working for the paper we see how the writers were severly limited and restriceted to what they reported. They were only allowed to report the "good" things that happened and even when they did write a story they were told to use certain words instead of others to give the reader a more positive spin on the story. This shows how much control the government had on what Americans heard about the war. This part of the movie also emphasizes the use of language. Earlier at Parris Island the language was much more vulgar and used to tear down the soldiers. Now while working at the newspaper, every word used is carefully picked out and evaluated to make sure that the correct message is sent to the American people. Language is further emphasized through the tag-names of the main characters. For example, Joker's nickname is ironic because he is very intellectual, Cowboy is from Texas, Sergeant Heartman doesn't appear to have much of a heart, and Pyle represents Gomer Pyle from the popular sitcom on CBS.

Also in the second part of the movie we see how the Vietnamese citizens are struggling with the war. Many women are forced to turn to prostitution and the men also have to steal from the Americans or do whatever they can to get by. So just like the American soldiers, the Vietnamese citizens are also fighting for their own survival.

In the third part of the movie, Joker is sent on a mission in country to work on a story about being on the front lines of the war. Joker meets up with one of his old friends from Parris Island, Cowboy. This reunion shows the companionship and brother-like bond that the soldiers have amongst themselves. Finally we see what the real war is like. We become aware that the soldiers are there to kill and stay alive. Besides those two goals, there is no other motive behind the war. On one of their missions the soldiers become lost and Cowboy and some other men from the group are killed by a sniper. Joker is then forced to perform a mercy killing and shoot the suffering sniper girl. After he experiences this he changes, he loses all of his innocence and gets that "blank stare" in his eyes.

At the end of the movie all the soldiers were marching along and singing to the Mickey Mouse theme song. This is ironic because they are in the dark, walking through a destroyed country with dirt and blood on their hands and singing to a childlike melody. This scene is very powerful and represents the loss of their innocence. It uses the language from the song to symbolize the transformation that they have gone through to become these killing machines. Singing the song brings the soldiers back to safe and happy memories from their youth. This is important because for many of them memories are the only way they are able to survive.

The movie as a whole shows the entire transformation that the soldiers go through, from boys to soldiers to mindless killing machines. It shows how they were dragged into a war that they didn't understand and forced to pick up a gun and fight to stay alive. The only thing that mattered to these soldiers was to stay alive. For Joker, this is represented at the end of the movie when he says "I am happy that I am alive. I am in a world of shit, but I am alive and not afraid". The movie takes the point of view of the American soldier and shows the American government negatively. It emphasizes how the government basically abused all of these boys and lied to the public about what was actually happening in Vietnam.