Full Metal Jacket Review

This cinematic masterpiece will be my first movie review on this blog and during "these times" I think it is quite appropriate as a look in to our current society. Quite a stretch you say? Sure, I see your point, it is a Vietnam war movie and centers around a journalist in the Marines. How is it even relevant to today? Well I think a global pandemic could be viewed as a war of sorts and the journalist is of course us as the protagonist looking for a solution to a problem. 

The movie is a classic two-parter and shuns the cliche'd three part structure most movies follow. That is my favorite part about the film and I always viewed it as a coming of age film where Joker is in his youth during boot camp and suddenly thrown in to an adult life during his time in Vietnam. The first part of the movie does carry over some themes and characters but it could be split up in to two sections in terms of environment. There could even be two climactic endings to both parts. The first being when Pyle goes crazy and the second when the guys finally kill the VC sniper. The editing style, mood and art direction are all similar in both part one and two but the 'split' that happens comes right after Pyle kills both the Sargent and himself. The very graphic nature of the bathroom scene is what causes the viewer to separate both parts of the film I think. As well as the more superficial changes like Joker now having hair or the change in scenery. It almost seems the characters are now turned loose in the world and thus the rite of passage shown to us in technicolor. 

The duality of man as a theme is brought up in one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Joker is in the field on assignment and a superior officer approaches him inquiring as to why he has both a button with a peace symbol and the words "Born to Kill" written on his helmet. At first Joker tries to shrug off the officer moving subjects but the officer persists and eventually Joker explains the reason behind his choice of garb. He explains how they symbolize the duality of man and this scene I feel is about the very theme or moral of the story. Not only is the movie split in to two but so are the soldiers in the field, so are the people today who are yelling for politicians to open up the country and bring the economy roaring forward. But the other side of us tells us to remain logical and to stay indoors until more data is collected and the virus analyzed properly until a vaccine is created. 

A lot of the characters in Full Metal Jacket are like the personality types we all see now during this pandemic. Pyle, a disillusioned misfit who does not fit in and splits from the program. Joker, a curious cynic with a passion for knowing more about the war. Cowboy, going through the motions making the best of it to get by, a true Texan. Animal, a war hungry madman hellbent on just getting things going. We may know people who are acting this way right now as the war against the virus rages on. 

The war remains a struggle for our citizens as we grapple with new ways of living. Some would say, forced ways of living. Others call it prudent or just the right thing to do. We may look at the pandemic as something like out of a movie but it is in some way affecting everyone on the planet weather we like it or not. As Pyle put it after Joker told him that they would be in a world of shit if the Sgt. found out, "I AM in a world of shit."