Review of the movie full metal jacket and relate it to the book The Vietnam war 1945 - 1990 by marilyn young - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The film is set in the 1967 Vietnamese war. It is structured in two parts. The first part of the movie is in a boot camp at Parris Island. A group of new US marine corps arrive at the boot camp for basic training. When they arrive at the camp, they are first made to shave their heads before they proceed to meeting Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, who is their senior drill instructor. The main agenda of sending the new recruits to the boot camp is to prepare them for the war. Hartman therefore uses extremely harsh tactics to train the marine corps. The draconian, or harsh tactics are aimed at turning the marines in to hardened soldiers that are ready and fit for combat. The three main marines from the new recruits group are privates “Cowboy”, “Joker”, and “Gomer Pyle”. Private ‘Gomer Pyle” earns the nickname after the wrath of sergeant Hartman befalls on him. Hartman’s continued efforts to discipline Pyle are not fruitful. He therefore opts for pairing the private with Joker. After the two are paired, Pyle’s performance at the boot camp begins to improve. However, Hartman finds a contraband jelly doughnut in Pyle’s foot locker. It is against the rules of the camp to have such paraphernalia. What happens next is that Hartman advances his punishment towards Pyle because he believes that his peers are not helping him reform as much as the Sergeant would want. From that particular moment, the whole platoon is punished for the mistakes that Pyle does. The drill master makes it worse by passing that Pyle himself will not be punished for his mistakes. The platoon realizes that they will be constantly punished if they do not help in reforming their fellow marine. They throw a blanket party for the lad; they restrain him to his bunk,and give him a beating using bars of soap that have been wrapped up with towels. The torture is their way of retaliating to the suggestion of Hartman. This torture tactic works and Pyle reforms to a model marine. However, he exemplifies withdrawal symptoms as a result of the beating that he receives because he begins to make conversation with his riffle. The marine corps finally graduate and are given their Military Occupational Specialty. During their last night at the camp, Joker finds Pyle in the bathroom loading his riffle and reciting the Rifleman’s creed. Joker tries to calm him down but the commotion wakes up the whole platoon together with Hartman. Unfortunately, Pyle kills Hartman after he tries to confront him to surrender and then commits suicide. In the first part of the movie, Kubrick puts the viewer in the place where they feel like they are part of the whole training process. He highlights how the naive marines are slowly transformed through the rigorous training process. Kubrick also maintains a certain athleticism in the film through the obstacle courses and the chants the sergeant makes the marines to repeat. It also highlights the psychological effects that the whole training process can have on a marine, as exemplified by the eventualities of Pyle’s discipline from both Hartman and the other marines. The second part of the movie is in the rubble that was Hue. The Marine Corps kids-turned-killers are now in the battle ground. It is in January of 1968; Joker is now a sergeant and is a marine war correspondent for stars and stripes. At the base where Joker is a correspondent, there is a Private first class marine, Rafterman, who is a combat ...Download file to see next pagesRead More