Blog 6: JWE

Stanley Kubrick's film Full Metal Jacket is broken up into three clear parts which are different but come together to tell a story. The first part follows marine recruits through boot camp on Parris Island. We see how physically and mentally draining this can be especially with a Gunnery Sergeant like Hartman. He is brutally tough on his men, basically making them feel worthless. He has to do this to prepare them for war but while some young men can step up to the plate, others like Private Pyle can't quite cut it. Even from the beginning of the movie it is clear that the ways of the marines, the killer attitude, isn't in Pyle. By the end of the first part Pyle was so mentally unstable from the brutal tactics of Hartman he goes completely mad and shoots him and then himself. The first part shows how even in basic training, without anyone trying to kill you, the young men begin to lose their innocence. They are trained to be killers and thats all.

In part two, we see Private Joker working for a military newspaper called "Stars and Stripes". He spends his days writing stories that "the why are we here civilian newsman ignore" and anything that will encourage the grunts to keep fighting. His superior at the newspaper tells him that they must continue to write these encourage stories because it is not a very popular war. This part of the film shows how the government tried to only show what it wanted to show and how it tried to control what the American people knew about the fighting.

Part three of the film takes place in country with Joker and Rafterman fighting in the bush. Joker is experiencing death everywhere including his first run in with NVA's where Lt. Touchdown is killed. We also see the companionship and brotherhood that the military is when the sniper picks off two platoon members.