The Vietnam war was one of the most traumatic events in recent memory in terms of American history and due to the harsh criticism from both in the US and overseas over the America’s involvement in Vietnam, the film industry struggled to produce any noteworthy representations of the Vietnam war in film realm. It was really until the 1970’s that Hollywood produce films of significance when it came to portraying these past events.
During the war period between 1964 and 1973 approximately 8,615,000 men served in the armed forces of the United States. There were two ways of entering the military: men either volunteered or were drafted.
The film Full Metal Jacket, the films paints a disturbing picture of the psychological behaviour of American soldiers of how they were treated in boot camps and also how they treated enemy soldiers with acts of savagery and brutality. For the new recruits, especially Private Pyle, they are subjected to extensive psychological and physical abuse and turned into emotionless killing machines who resonate within isolated environments. Kubrick depicts the boot camp as a world of verbal and physical abuse. In Private Pyle’s case instead of becoming a killing machine, he turns into a severely mentally scarred individual from the ridicule he has received from the his drill sergeant as well as the fellow recruits.
Vietnam Veteran ‘John Ketwig’ praised the depiction of the Pyle’s life within boot camp as it related to his time spent in the same situation. He describes boot camp as “a place where everyone is depersonalised stripped of any prior civilian status and forced to give up their individuality for the general will”
Cruelty towards enemy soldiers was also very apparent within the film, particularly through the character of Animal Mother, he is the perfect example of a patriotic American who is willing to kill anything he has to in order to accomplish the mission, they are also willing to make jokes out of the killing of their enemies. One scene in particular shows one of the soldiers requesting a picture of him and his friend to be put in the paper, just before the picture is taken it is revealed that his friend is a dead North Vietnamese soldier who he had dressed in American uniform. This type of disturbing behaviour while comical to some was commonly carried out in the Vietnam War and has been cited by many soldiers as a real scenario. This quote by a former platoon leader ‘James Simmen” states that this war showed “how easily some of these soldiers killed and thought nothing of it You would be surprised how similar killing is to hunting I get excited when I see a VC (Vietcong) just like when I see a deer”
Sources: http://undersoutherneyes.edpinsent.com/full-metal-jacket/
https://sites.psu.edu/connorzimmerman/2013/11/21/full-metal-jacket-a-criticism-of-the-vietnam-war/
Sources: http://undersoutherneyes.edpinsent.com/full-metal-jacket/
https://sites.psu.edu/connorzimmerman/2013/11/21/full-metal-jacket-a-criticism-of-the-vietnam-war/
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