Full Metal Jacket: Reality Of War

James Smith
Writing 121
Leslie Ormandy
February 12, 2014
Reality of War No one can tell you what something is like without experiencing it for themselves. In many cases you can research a topic and have a good idea or grasp on the topic, but never the full understanding. When it comes to something like war where there is untold feelings and emotions trapped inside, there is a lot that goes by the wayside. Military films do their best to portray what life was like during the rough times fighting for Uncle Sam, but none of them can compare to Full Metal Jacket. . Full Metal Jacket is the best military film to come out of the 80’s. Released in 1887, director Stanley Kubrick walks the viewer through the brutal experiences of a United States
Ermey calls out Jokers name and tells him that he has made it into basic military journalism. Journalism is a very big part of any war, and can really help create propaganda. The only way to create positive propaganda is to receive positive information on the war. The journalists are commanded to only to report news that supports morale instead of reporting the truth. This seems to be very wrong, not telling the truth, but in all reality, it happens all the time. Once these soldiers kill without thinking, anything goes. Rob Frank says in his article “Full Metal Jacket Analysis” published on April 9th, 2013 that, “The killing of civilians shows how war is more animalistic than rational”. This shows how animalistic these men get after they’re tuned into killing
This is the weaker half of the film, and is why most people dislike the movie. Being the actual battle of the movie, the men move through Vietnam encountering a sniper who changes everything. At this point in the film Joker has met up with Cowboy and they get themselves in a bad position. Cowboy is killed by the sniper, enraging Joker and the rest of the squad. The squad finds the sniper and wounds her. They all stand around the young, suffering Vietnamese girl in silence. Joker has no choice but to put the girl out of misery. Joker pulls the trigger, and an unknown actor laughs, “Hardcore man, fucking hardcore”. Joker is in complete shock, and is taking in what he just did. The brutality of war has taken over, and is pushing their rational actions. The killing of the young girl can be seen in two ways. It may seem ruthless to some, but maybe not too bad for others. The young girl was an enemy soldier who had already taken three of the squad’s men, and it was time for that to stop. This is a very important part of the film because the audience sees Joker turning into a killing machine. Not only did the first half of the film end negatively, now the second has ended in another death of a main character and the animalistic act by