The Person in the Jacket

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2007)

Who is the enemy in war? What if it's somebody completely unexpected? What if it's us?
Stanley Kubrik's incomparable, eye glazing, and sometimes too funny for its subject matter movie entitled "Full Metal Jacket" (1987) expands on the theme of the enemy in war. Co-written by Michael Herr, author of "Dispatches" (a memoir of a combat correspondent), the film watches like a war novel. Composed of choppy scenes that pick up like rounds of fire and usually end with a message hidden beneath a seemingly meaningless line such as, "You know there's not a single horse in the entire country of Vietnam? There's definitely something wrong with that," the movie connects with even the biggest fanatics of classic war literature, putting you in the action through its cinematography just as a writer would with his voice or style.
Like the protagonist, Private Joker (Matthew Modine), who wears a peace button on his flak jacket and a helmet inscribed with the phrase, "Born to kill," claiming that it "suggest something about the duality of man," the movie is also divided into two parts. The first half takes place in an American boot camp where Private Gomer Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio), an overweight and clearly misplaced product of the draft, takes verbal and physical beatings from Gny. Sgt. Hartman (Lee Ermey) and his bunkmates. Although Joker tries to help Pyle, the constant harassment is too much too bear.
The movie then shifts to Vietnam where Joker, now a combat correspondent (like Herr) reports on the war with a rifle in one hand and a pen in the other. Sitting on the remains of a concrete building with a squad of marines, Joker is confronted by an action figural GI. "This is his party," he says, removing a cover from the face of the person sitting next to him only to reveal a dead seventeen year- old North Vietnamese corporal. "He is the guest of honor," he continues. "Today is his birthday."
It hurts to laugh.
The movie examines the way we dehumanize the enemy in war. We call them "Dinks" or "Charlie" so that we can convince ourselves that we are fighting anything but a human being. But as depicted in the end of the movie (don't worry, I won't spoil it), the enemy could truly be anybody. And that includes us. We are trained to deface the enemy so that we can kill them without remorse. We strip them of all their humanity while trying to maintain our own. Like Joker we are divided human beings. We are divided between wanting to help Pvt. Pyle load his gun so that he avoids more ridicule and wanting to beat the living s*** out of him with a towel.
"Full Metal Jacket" examines the issue of creating our enemies, doing so in a way that is unprecedented by any other war movie. By putting us, the viewer, through boot camp and then dropping us into combat, we experience dehumanization. But that can only last so long. And indeed, in the movie, it lasts only until the end.
What "Full Metal Jacket" lacks in plot, it makes up for in its script. Its realistic representation of war as long periods of boredom interspersed with moments of horrific excitement is enough to make you fearful of another draft. The images of the glazed over look of soldiers attack your insides like a piece of shrapnel to the gut. "Full Metal Jacket" is a remarkable movie that examines humanity during a brutally inhumane time.