A true anti-war film

Rating: 10/10 (31 March 2005)

I have heard of the idea that every war movie is in fact an anti-war movie, because they all show the horror and brutality of the situation.
I do not agree.
Some war films, while showing violence and blood, have stories describing how war gives people the potential to be heroes; movies like 'Saving Private Ryan', 'A Bridge Too Far' and even 'The Great Escape' fall into this trap; they seem to say that, even though war is terrible, some good can come from it.
A true anti-war film has no heroes. The statement is very clear: war turns men into vicious animals, with no drives except to eat, copulate, and kill. Films in this category include 'King Rat', 'The Dirty Dozen', 'Platoon', and of course Stanley Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket'.
With 'Jacket', Kubrick provides what is perhaps the most comprehensive and complete overview of how human beings are de-evolved through the military process. He begins in boot camp, where they are treated as scum, beaten and abused, and (in some cases) driven completely mad. By the time they reach the field, they are "killing machines...angels of death", and the horror of battle only makes it worse.
They suppress fear, pity, love...and and all emotions that distinguish humans from animals. Sex is purely physical gratification, and killing is a rush. There is no loyalty or patriotism; the desire to retrieve a wounded comrade is more akin to how a pack of wolves protects one of its own. They act on instinct rather than reason, and they do not hesitate to destroy everything they see.
That is the plot of Full Metal Jacket. The movie itself is a scathing example of how horrible war truly is. Perhaps there is the potential for heroism...but few, if any, rise to it.