Full Metal Jacket (1987) by Zachary vanBuuren

Title/Year; Full Metal Jacket/1987

Director/Birth Country/Year Born; Stanley Kubrick/U.S./1928

Budget; 30 million

Gross; 46.3 million

Synopsis; The film Full Metal Jacket starts by following a group of new recruits into the marines. They all begin having thier identities stripped as they have thier heads shaved and they are quickly homonigized in thier new military basic dress uniforms. The drill instructor sets the tone by lettin the new recruits know that they are scum, they have no place in society anmore and they will not be anything until they graduate bootcamp and become men. The drill instructor goes as far as to rename recruits as he sees fil. A larger individual played by Vincent D'Onofrio is known only as "Gomer Pyle" by the intstructor for the first half of the film struggles through the training constantly, adn only shows sucess when taken under the wing of private James T. "Joker" Davis played by Matthew Modine. The drill seargant constantly berates and belittles the men through incessant verbal abuse and esclating to physical abuse when the drill instructor sees it fit. The recruits are constantly taught how to shoot, run in formation, overcome large wooden obstacles and generally train to be a killer by the constant shouting of the drill seargant. Leonard Laurence (a.k.a. Gomer Pyle) finally finds acceptance by the drill seargant when he displays an ability to be a capabale rifleman. The night before the cadet's graduation. Pyle is found after hours in the latrine with his rife, talking to himself. He offers dazed responces to questions by the night guard. The Drill seargant comes in and demands the rifle, Pyle responds by shooting the drill seargant in the chest, killing him instantly, and then killing himself.

The marines are now in vietnam being propisitioned by prostitutes, finding thier places as soldiers in different squads. The film now follows Matthew Modine playing "Joker" who is now a war reporter writing for the internal military news publication "Stars and Stripes". We follow him finding stories of american troops who have killed villagers and finding a platoon with many of his schoolmates there. He joins them during the defense from the aftermath of "the Tet offensive" The platoon works to sweep armed sirvivors from cities that have been bombed to rubble. A sniper draws the group into an ambush while the platoon is down into the last few men. While sweeping through to the back entrance, Joker gives away his position and is nearly gunned down by the sniper. Another marine enters and mortially wounds the female snoper, but it is only Joker who has the humanity to give her a merciful death.

The film ends with the surviving

Characterization/ Dialogue; The soldiers are shown growing and progressing through thier military careers. They start in basic training and we follow them into combat zones. The bulk of the characters believew that they are fighting the good fight, and helping to eradicate communism. The soldiers speak bruskly, unquestioningly of thier ission other than to 'kill gooks'. Most of the characters are played very shallow, with only the reporter asking why.

Narrative and Visual Keywords; Opera, Tragedy 

Camera/lighting/editing technique; Narratave, Handheld, 

Political/ Social Commentary; Satire, Antiwar,

Historical Relevance/ Recognition; Kubrick's return to filmmaking after 7 year hiatus. 

Notable Collaboration; Papillon Soo plays a Vietnamese prostitute. Her line "Me love you long time" was sampled by the rap group 2 Live Crew which made billboard top 100 charts in 1989.  

Random fact; Vincent D'Onofrio gained 60 lbs. to play the part of "Gomer Pyle"

1. Is the soldier/veteran depicted as being in control of his destiny? Give examples.

The first half of the film, the soldiers are shown whipping boys from their drill instructor. In the process of "transforming them into men" the soldiers are constantly berated and abused. This drives one of the main characters in the first half of the film to kill themselves. 

The second half, The soldiers are in Vietnam, and portrayed as having a high degree of control over their situation. The main story arc follows a soldier who has become a reporter and chooses to pursue stories as he sees fit. He meets up with a group of marines and they are left to fend for themselves even when calling in for support.

2. What political sub-text, or overt theme is the film exploring?
Full Metal Jacket is an anti-war film satire of the military. The first half of the film franchises on the abuse of boot camp and military training, while the second half plays into the absurdity of the Vietnam war. 

3. How are masculinity and patriarchy displayed through the main character(s) -- broken and dissociated or reinstated and productive. Please give examples

One of the selling points of Full Metal Jacket, is the transformative process the marines go through. Satirical and comically painful at the start. The men are stripped of their masculinity and "rebuilt" by the drill instructor. The drill instructor plays the father figure to help them grow from boys to men, as is portrayed in many films regarding boot camp. Full Metal Jacket however, has become an iconic standard that is the measure of how much of an asshole the drill sergeant can be. 
The second half of the film, where the men have "grown up" and are in a place of power themselves, the soldiers are productive and have embraced the masculinity of being infantryman with a gun.