Blog 5 CA

The Movie " Full Metal Jacket" has been produced by Stanley Kubrick in 1987, and has become a classic between the many war movies who intend to show the audience the real face of war. We can say that "Full Metal Jacket" has accomplished this goal thoroughly by investigating the pre-war training soldiers are put through in order to become killing machines, the journalist and media aspect of war and its importance in propaganda and on sight conflict and its effect on each and every individual.
Some of the most basic concepts in war are analyzed in the first quarter of the movie. The long speech by the overly vocal Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, prepares both the soon to be soldiers and the audience to the upcoming war. The simple goals of the training are to inflict a sense of aggression towards the enemy and equality towards the fellow soldiers. These goals are expressed by the quotes " You will be a weapon!", and " Here you are equally worthless!". We can see the transmition of each and every soldier in the training. They are transformed from normal citizens to killing machines. Especially the case of Leonard Lawrence clearly analyzes the change in character that is inflicted by the training.
The second part of the movie follows Joker and his days as a journalist. It is clearly shown in this middle part of the movie; that the war journalists goals are propoganda and pro-war story telling, instead of portraying the basolute truth. The importance of this part of the movie becomes clear, once we realize that this same the same situation is valid for todays war reporters and journalists.
The third and last part of the movie takes the audience to the front lines and investigates the stress level that each trooper has to endure on a daily basis. We see how horrifying events cause soldiers to become numb to any kind of emotion or rationality. Many concepts like the thousand yard stare, the irony of war for peace and the ethics of killing are investigated and presented to the audience in a vivid manner. The Mickey Mouse song at the end conveys how brutality and death can be manipulated with and be represented by a fictional character.
All in all the movie " Full Metal Jacket" is a masterpiece which criticizes and analyzes war, hereby making the audience evaluate its validity in our society.