The first part of the film Full Metal Jacket depicts marine recruits going through basic training on Paris Island. The soldiers are very young, and their Sergeant is extremely brutal to all of the soldiers. The Sergeant is especially tough on an overweight, metally slow solider Pyle. Sergeant Hartman appoints the film's protagonist, called Joker throughout the film, to help Pyle with basic, everyday training things. With the help of the Joker, Pyle seems to adapt better to training, until Hartman finds a doughnut in Pyle's possession. The whole group of soliders is ordered to pay for Pyle's mistake, and the group becomes resentful. That night, each solider puts a bar of soap in a towel and violently swings it, one by one, at Pyle. Joker is hestitant, but eventually hits him too. Because of this violence, Pyle snaps and one night loads his rifle, yelling out his commands, and shoots Hartman when Hartman confronts him. After shooting Hartman, it is unclear if he will shoot the Joker, but instead he turns the gun on himself. This part shows that the way the soliders were treated even before going to war can cause the young boys to stray from his own personality, to the brink of insanity. For most of the boys, this was the beginning of their loss of innocence.
The second part of the film follows the Joker as a war journalist for Stars and Stripes. His assignment allows him to follow the war. At this point, Joker still does not fight. He is wearing a peace sign pin and a helmet that has the words "Born to Kill" on it. When asked about this, Joker claims that it represents the duality of man, "A Jungian thing, sir," referring to the psycologist. This part shows life in Vietnam, including the most grusome parts such as the prostitutes and the graphic warfare.
The third part of the film is when Joker gets reunited with Cowboy, a solider he trained with on Paris Island. Cowboy is second in command of his squad. At the time they reunite, the North Vietnamese have just launched the Tet Offensive and they are in Hue. Cowboy's squad, along with Joker become lost near vacant buildings. The squad sends a solider out to see if there is a safe way to pass, but it is soon discovered that there is a sniper in one of the building. Because the sniper killed three of the soliders in the squad, including Cowboy, the squad wants to get "payback". At this point, because of his friend Cowboy's death, Joker is ready for combat. The squad eventually finds the sniper, who is a young woman. She is shot, but her death is drawn out and is begging for one of the soliders to kill her, so Joker performs a mercy killing. This part of the film shows how even a person who is most opposed to war, like Joker was, can become consumed with the war and end up fighting and killing.
All together, the parts of the film explain how young soliders change in war. This film was extremely graphic and unrelenting, which, as only I can imagine, how the war really was. At the end of the film, Joker has a voiceover where he states that "he is in a world of shit, but unafraid." This solidifies the idea that his innocence is lost. Also, the soliders are singing the Mickey Mouse March, which represents how young all of these soliders are that they know all of the lyrics to the song. The song is upbeat, which is ironic considering that they have lost so many of their comrades. Not only did this film show the horrors of war, it also showed how young American boys were forced into a war they knew nothing of. The film depicted Americans treated the Vietnamese poorly and showed how the war was almost impossible to win.
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The film Full Metal Jacket is a very powerful film that depicts the unnecessary tragedies of the Vietnam War. The film has many themes, including language, media coverage of the war and the issue of if killing in war is murder.
ReplyDeleteThe first part of the film Full Metal Jacket depicts life during basic training for a group of young soldiers at Parris Island. The soldier’s heads are shaved as the opening credits are displayed, which is a symbol of their loss of unique, personal identity. The group has an unrelenting, vicious Sergeant, ironically with the last name Hartman. Hartman nicknames the soldiers in the group, stripping away their real name, and virtually their entire identity. Hartman refers to religion many times throughout the film, as if he believes that fighting and killing are God-like activities. He even states that when Marines die, they will be next to God. Hartman is harsh with all of the soldiers, especially a solider whom he nicknames Private Pyle, which is an allusion to Gomer Pyle, a buffoon from a television program during the 1960s. Pyle cannot take the pressures of training and the prospect of going to war, so one night he shoots Sergeant Hartman and then turns the gun on himself. Pyle’s death represents that soldiers truly become killing machines, and how invaluable they felt their lives and the lives of other people were once they became a soldier. The protagonist, named Joker by Hartman, is an intellect and always has a sharp wit despite being in a less than ideal situation. In one part of the film, while being interviewed, Joker sarcastically remarks that he wanted to be the first one on his street to have a confirmed kill, which shows Joker’s reluctance of the war.
The second part of the film is set in Saigon, where the media was located during the war. During this part, the viewer can see that Saigon is not considered to be in country, and is usually where soldiers spend their R&R time. Throughout this part of the film, you get to see the disparity of the Vietnamese people, not just the American soldiers. The Vietnamese were clearly affected by the war financially, as displayed by the Vietnamese having to resort to prostitution, pimping and stealing. The director criticizes the media coverage of the Vietnam War and it is shown by Joker’s involvement with Stars and Stripes. At a meeting, Joker is told to invent stories and falsify the number of American soldiers who died to make the reports to the American public more pleasing. This shows the American public was already unhappy with the government for getting involved in the war, and the last thing they wanted to hear was how American soldiers were dying overseas.
The final part of the film is set in an area of vacant buildings in the city of Hue. At this point, Joker is wearing a peace sign pin and the words “born to kill” on his helmet. He claims that it represented the duality of man; men can be killing machines but they can also idealize and desire peace. The Joker meets up with a friend from Parris Island, whom Hartman named Cowboy. Joker follows Cowboy’s squad, and they eventually get lost. This symbolizes how lost all of the soldiers in the Vietnam War were, and that the soldiers really were blind to the reasons of the war. In this part of the film, Cowboy and two other soldiers are killed by a young Vietnamese sniper in a vacant building. Joker kills this woman, who at that point is begging for someone to shoot her. This shows the complex issue of killing other humans for the cause of the war was. Joker was hesitant to kill her, because of his internal struggle determining the difference between an act of murder and a mercy killing. This struggle can be universalized to all soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War, because in order to stay alive they had to kill.
ReplyDeleteThe film ends with the soldiers returning back to a base after combat, and there is a voiceover of Joker saying that he is in a world of shit, but unafraid. This solidifies the fact that Joker’s innocence is gone. The soldiers are also singing the Mickey Mouse March, which represents that these men were part of a club. Being a part of a club was self-justification from the guilt they felt from killing because they were part of a club that condoned, if not mandated, killing. This song is upbeat, which is ironic because they have blood on their hands, and will forever know the tragedy and terrible aftermath of war.