Blog 5 JY

Full Metal Jacket follows Joker who goes through military training and then becomes a reporter in the Vietnam War. The movie is separated into three parts that depict different parts of the war. The first part of the war is the military training they receive on Parris island. The very beginning shows the soldier getting their heads shaved. This shows how they are losing their innocence and all becoming uniform soldiers. Pyle was one of the recruits on Parris Island. When the instructor first goes up to him he is smiling. This depicts how before the military the soldiers were innocent and still were happy civilians. Then as the military training goes on the audience see how the soldiers are getting in unison and trained to kill the enemy. The audience also see how Pyle gets more into a mental delirious state. He is left behind and is constantly yelled at by the instructor. The only part of the training he excelled in was the shooting. In the end when they all become killers, Pyle kills the instructor and himself.
Part two starts with Joker in the Vietnam War and is with his partner Rafter Man. They are photographers for the Stars and Strips, the army newspaper. The newspaper is propaganda so that the army can look good and make the people in America believe that the war is going well. Joker wrote an article about a mission where Americans were shot and killed. The editor then tells Joker to make it sound like Vietcong were killed. This part depicts how the war was very disliked and opposed against.The part ends with the Tet Offensive where American bases were attacked during the Vietnamese New Years.
Part three starts off when Joker is sent of to the combat zones. He meets his friend from Parris Island, Cowboy. They go on a mission and mid way they walk into a trap where one soldier is killed. They then enter an area where a hidden sniper injures one of the soldier. The sniper tries to lure in more soldiers into the area. One more soldier goes in and gets shot. Then they all decide to find the sniper. At this point Cowboy gets shot and Animal Mother leads the soldiers into the building. They find out that the sniper was a little girl. When they shoot here they see her on the floor in pain. Animal Mother wants to leave her to die, but Joker says that they should do something. Later she says to kill her and Joker ends up killing her. This part shows the brutality of war. How even kids were included in the war. It also showed how a helicopter gunner shot innocent civilians. Then he said how running Vietnamese are Vietcong and ones that stand still are brave Vietcong. This basically labeled all the Vietnamese enemies.
The whole movie tries to show what a soldier goes through since the very beginning. They are trained to become killers and it shows when Joker kills the child. In the end the soldier are singing the Mickey Mouse song. Mickey Mouse represents innocence and purity. This is ironic because they are solider and have killed people yet they still have the innocence of a child.