Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket Review:


I'm not a big war movie person, so I don't know a great deal about them, but from the ones I have seen this movie was far different from the rest. The first part of the movie is completely dominated by Hartman's loud insults toward the recruits. You can't help but laugh at the creativity of words he uses within a sentence to get the point across that the recruits mean nothing and are stupid. The first dialogue we hear that does not contain screaming or the word, "sir", is twenty minutes into the movie as Joker helps Pile load his gun. Pyle is always a step behind everyone else which makes him the front of most of Hartman's jokes, and hated by the men in his Platoon. Throughout the entire first part of the movie I was trying to figure out what importance Pyle had in relation to the whole film. Besides an easy target and struggling supporting role, my thoughts are that he stands for the ignorant optimism most people have when thinking about war, and that when he actually experiences the beginnings of war, he cracks. Then again maybe he's just a supporting role put there for comedy.
The second part of the movie then breaks into a more easygoing vibe. Hartman is not there to scream at anyone anymore, and Joker is working for the newspaper, kept out of the frontline of war so we at first only see him writing about what is going on. When he does go into war the first time with the Lusthogs, the first person Joker meets makes me think of Pyle. I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or if he is supposed to relate back to the character. I thought I had not seen any of this movie before, but it turns out I have. The explosion when heading to invade Hue is an iconic scene. In this scene apart from the gunshots and explosions you see two new characters new to war movies; the camera man and the photographer are capturing everything that is happening. The film portrays this new aspect very well as the man holding the camera is shaking and the filmer is being drug across the scene by soldiers. This is the first war people at home new what was going on, on a more instant basis.
A very interesting part of this movie was the emphasis on the phrase, "We are Killers". I feel like most war movies only focus on the patriotic view of the war, and not actually what's going on. Hartman repeatedly says, "You men are killers", and they take this saying as a good thing. Joker even says he was born to kill and is there to kill. It's very real. Joker is also a great symbol of what war really is. He wears a peace symbol but has a helmet that says Born to Kill. This is an oxymoron much like war is, where you are dying and killing for peace. He says that it represents the duality of man. I really like that part.
Side Note: I like the music throughout this whole movie; it's surprisingly upbeat and happy adding to the surprising bits of humor, making war seem not so scary for the men in it, but the songs are just short enough so you don't get comfortable with that idea.
Overall I generally liked this movie, but it wasn't my favorite. Part one and part two of the movie were choppy and not put together cohesively, and I don't like how Pyle's character was handled. I get his death was probably symbolic, but it's a bit of a copout, I would have liked to see how his character would have developed in war. There were also a few scenes thrown in there that I think didn't necessarily make sense

I give this movie a 7/10