One of the best war films ever made

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2012)

This movie is quoted as the best war movie ever made. I am not really so sure about that, but then this movie is, at the time of this writing, thirteen years old, so superior films can (and have) been written in the meantime. Personally, I think Thin Red Line is by far the best war film, but Full Metal Jacket still is a good movie and it does address some interesting points.
Full Metal Jacket has been divided into two sections: one during training and one during the Vietnam War. It follows a marine named Joker through his basic training and into his experiences at war. It is not psychological to the extent of Thin Red Line, nor does is show the horrors of war, but rather is seems to be far more stabbing towards the attitude of the American military.
There are a few points that need to be raised. Firstly nobody is ever called by their real name. At the beginning, during the introductions, everybody in the platoon is given a name. In fact, we know absolutely nothing about the soldier's prior lives. Everything we know about them is what we see when they are in the army. We are not permitted to see who they really are but rather only allowed to see them as killers. In fact, the whole purpose of training is to turn them into killers and the whole process, as we see, seems to slowly strip the soldiers of their humanity.
The first thing we are allowed to see is the soldiers having their hair shaved. This symbolises their removal from their old lives and entrance into their new lives. They are then babies and as such are put through a naming ceremony, through which their last identifying feature, their name, is destroyed and are now the property of the Marine Corps. The ability to give somebody a name shows superiority over the person, thus by giving them names the Marine Corps becomes their father.
Then we have a look at Private Pile. He is the one character that is picked on the most during the movie. The drill sergeant seems to take an instant disliking to him, and turns the entire platoon onto him. We see the vestiges of humanity vanishing mostly in Pile and the way the platoon treats Pile. By the end of training, Pile has lost all sense of who he is, yet he has not become a cold efficient killer. In fact, he has reached a point where the only way to fulfil his life is to destroy that which has been tormenting him - the Drill Sergeant. It is interesting that Kubrick used this here because we see this more in prison type movies, such as Missing in Action II. Yet by linking Pile's final actions with movies like Missing in Action II, we come to see that the Marine Corps is more than just a job, it is a prison.
The Vietnam scenes basically take what has been developed in training and puts it into the field. We basically see characters that are little more than bloodthirsty animals. Joker still seems to hold onto his humanity, yet he is a trained killer and does not flinch at the sight. In one scene we have a helicopter gunner shooting at something and talking. From our view we think he is simply shooting to waste ammo, until we look out of the window and see unarmed peasants running for cover. When ask how he can kill women and children, his reply is that they take less time to die.
Joker shows this dichotomy, and in fact mentions it to a colonel, by wearing a peace symbol and having the words "Born to Kill" inscribed on his helmet. The peace symbol symbolises his humanity, while the words symbolise the beast that he has become by joining the marines.
The final scene is set in a ruined Vietnamese city where the patrol has been pinned down by a sniper. There is only one sniper present, but he is holding back all of the marines. The born killers do not seem to be able to stand up to this one person sitting somewhere in the building. To add further insult, we later discover that the sniper is actually a woman. A woman, who to a marine is little more that a piece of flesh designed to give them pleasure. Through out the movie, the women are practically non-existent, and those that are, are prostitutes. So when the sniper scene arrives, we expect the sniper to be male, and thus it surprises us that the sniper is a woman and has put the fear of God into the hearts of some of the "toughest" fighters around. This is another dichotomy of the movie.
In fact, Full Metal Jacket seems to be a movie about dichotomy's. Fighting a war to protect the peace, killing for the sake of peace, and the man being bested by a woman. This is a very intelligent film, and is far more than a simple redneck violence feast.