Blog 6 NR

If Full Metal Jacket is to be divided into three parts, the first is surely Paris Island. Here we get a view of what boot camp might be like. Gunnery Sgt. Hartman was rough on his platoon, especially on Pvt. Pyle, but he does so in order to prepare them for a wartime situation as best he can. While Pvt. Joker ends up being the central character of the film, the Paris Island stretch focuses more on Pvt. Pyle. The mentally slow and physically inept trainee has a particularly hard stay, eventually killing his drill instructor and himself the night of his graduation. This was foreshadowed the day Hartman discussed Whitman and Oswald with his platoon and we got a good look at Pyle’s face. One could say that the “eight week college for the phony tough and the crazy brave” may make or break American youths, but produces killing machines nonetheless.

Joker’s stay in DaNang up until his rendezvous with Hotel 2-5 is the second major part of the film. We get our first taste of this portion of the film’s message here during the haggling scene with the prostitute. After they agree on a price, a Vietnamese man comes out of nowhere and snatches Rafter Man’s camera. If the civilians of the country saw the US troops in a positive light, they wouldn’t be stealing from them. Additionally, we sit in on Joker’s meeting with the other military journalists as they get their articles reviewed. In the meeting we get a glimpse at a couple key points trying to be made by the film makers; hints at a possible Vietnamese attack were taken too lightly, newspaper articles were getting irresponsibly glazed over to appease naysayers, and there was an overall sense of ignorance by the brass. This third point is further emphasized later when an officer brings attention to Joker’s pin, telling him how every person in Vietnam has an American inside it that’s waiting to get out.

The third and final part of the film begins once Joker and Hotel Company are fired upon. One lasting image in this segment is when they finally shoot down the sniper, only to realize that it is a young girl. Rafter Man is the one that gets her down, boasting about it afterwards as if he has something to be proud of. However, it’s Joker that puts her out of her misery after much deliberation, finally getting his kill. The scene as a whole is a symbol of that the war has done to the country of Vietnam. With the film taking place around the year 1968 and the girl looking as young as she does, one realizes that there is a whole generation of Vietnamese that were born into a world of war, and particular distaste for Americans.

The film as a whole is a statement of how ugly and crazy the war was as well as a criticism of the military’s mind set at the time. Pyle’s suicide, the meeting in DaNang, shooting down a 14 year old sniper, and the attitude of particular US troops and officers are all building blocks of a war film that stands without an established hero, fanfare music, or a feel good ending. The Mickey Mouse song at the end can be interpreted on two levels. It serves as a symbol of the US’s foreign policy and its desire to spread democracy. It also serves as another glimpse into the mindset of the troops. What are they doing singing something as juvenile as the Mickey Mouse song? This along with their runs on Paris Island could be the film makers trying further express their feelings that something was off with this war.