Blog Five NC

The three parts of Full Metal Jacket are the training, the graduation (DI and Pile's deaths), and the war. The first part of the movie expresses the psychological idea of the film in terms of the experiences of the soldiers. The soldiers are compared to the DI, who is the military extreme, to Pile, who is nearly the opposite of the military ideal. Their journey through basic training examines the human element of the soldiers before they are deployed. The second part of the movie examines anticipation, as the soldiers receive their assignments and realize that they will soon be going to Vietnam. Though this part is relatively small compared to the others, it is integral as a transition to the war as Joker experiences an almost war-like experience as he is about to be deployed. The third part of the movie is in Vietnam, in which the soldiers are exposed to the war, lives are lost, and the reflection of the first part of the movie is seen in how they deal with the situation in which they must survive. Together, the three parts demonstrate the war as a vehicle for the American men drafted in the military to go through a transformation as a child becomes an adult, but the final scene in the movie in which Joker is confronted with the sniper changes the entire idea of the war as the sniper, though seen with disdain among many of the soldiers, seems to be too human and does not seem to be fighting as the Americans fight. To clarify, the sniper seems to lack certain freedoms and experiences that the soldiers were blessed with and did not have the idea of the military family but the ideas of survival against an invading force, and for this reason Joker seems to not be angry at the sniper even after killing off friends but compassionate for everything the sniper is rather than what the sniper had done; he reaches a sense of understanding of everything that is going on in Vietnam.

The Micky Mouse song parallels the "Eskimo Pussy" song in that it builds comraderie, as the words of the song illustrate. More than that, it is a happy and cheerful song, and seldom in the film are there real smiles. There are jokes cracked, but no one is truly happy with what is going on the film, and the idea of transition of adulthood also means a taking of innocence with both the transitions and the actions that the soldiers execute, so the song is a reachout back to childhood, innocence, happiness, and all the things that the soldiers want but can never have.