Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick portrays one marine's journey through the Vietnam War. The movie is split into three parts, basic training, Joker's time serving with stars and stripes and Joker's servinvg with Cowboy's platoon during the Tet Offensive. During basic training the group of future marines is broken down into fighting machines. They lose their rawness and innocence. They become fighting machines. During Joker's time with stars and stripes he lives a pretty care free lifestyle writing peices of war journalism. His partner Raffterman wanted more action but Joker told him that that was a bad idea. When the camp is hit with artillery and all the marines must act to defend the camp the innocent writers were forced into the war headfirst. Rafterman got what he wanted. The innocent writers lost their innocence when they had to fight when they had to defend the camp. The new to battle writers become fighting machines from that moment forward. When the two men go to fight with Cowboy's platoon they become even more battle hardened as they see war up close and personal. The men further lose their innocence and become fighting machines. The two men can be seen experiencing the thousand yard stare. The men are not completely damaged by the war. They have become the strange, war crazed soldiers that they looked at with contempt. The movie as a whole shows how the Vietnam war took the innocence from everyone who served there. The war made them all love kill and look forward to the next chance they got to kill the enemy. Kubrick makes this film to show that the war took the innocence away fromevery american soldier that served and made them into a total animal.
The mickey mouse song at the end of the movie is very symbolic. When Private Pyle has the gun in the head at basic training the Drill Sgt. runs in he asks "what is this mickey mouse shit?" Pyle's actions were mickey mouse because they were insane and crazy and he was doing something he would have never done had the war not broken him down mentally. By the end of the movie all of the soldiers had lost their innocence. They had all been made crazy and become the animal that Pyle had become. In effect they had all joined the mickey mouse club when they were mentally broken down and driven to near insanity by the events of the Vietnam War.
Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick portrays one marine's journey through the Vietnam War. The movie is split into three parts, basic training, Joker's time serving with stars and stripes and Joker's serving with Cowboy's platoon during the Tet Offensive. During basic training the group of future marines is broken down into fighting machines. They lose their rawness and innocence. They become warriors designed to kill. During Joker's time with stars and stripes he lives a pretty care free lifestyle writing pieces of war journalism. His partner Raffterman wanted more action but Joker told him that that was a bad idea. When the camp is hit with artillery and all the marines must act to defend the camp the innocent writers were forced into the war headfirst. Rafterman got what he wanted. The innocent writers lost their innocence when they were forced to fight to defend the camp. The new to battle writers become fighting machines from that moment forward. When the two men go to fight with Cowboy's platoon they become even more battle hardened as they see war up close and personal. The men further lose their innocence and become fighting machines. The two men can be seen experiencing the thousand yard stare. The men of are finally partaking in the actions they were brainwashed into believing they were destined for. The men of Cowboy’s company are completely damaged by the war. They have become the strange, war crazed soldiers that they looked at with contempt before their service.
ReplyDeleteThe movie as a whole shows how the Vietnam War took the innocence from everyone who served there. The war made them all love to kill as well as look forward to the next chance they got to kill the enemy. Kubrick makes this film to show that the war took the innocence away from every American soldier that served and turned them into a total animal.
The Mickey Mouse song at the end of the movie is very symbolic. When Private Pyle has the gun in the latrine at basic training the Drill Sergeant runs in and he asks "what is this Mickey Mouse shit?" Pyle's actions were Mickey Mouse because they were insane, crazy and amateur. Pyle was doing something he would have never done had the war not broken him down mentally. By the end of the movie all of the soldiers had lost their innocence. They had all been made to act crazy and childish and become the animal that Pyle turned into. In effect they had all joined the Mickey Mouse club when they were mentally broken down and driven to near insanity by the events of the Vietnam War. Also the fact that all the men follow along and sing is symbolic of the blind following of the commanders’ orders by their inferior soldiers. The soldiers never questioned what they were ordered to do and this may have caused some of the loss of humanity present in the soldiers who are seen as drones singing the “Mickey Mouse Club” song.