Full Metal Jacket
...f he really is a killer. It’s a two-part look at the effect of the military training and war itself on Vietnam era Marines. Full Metal Jacket could easily be two movies: Part I and Part II. The first part takes place in Parris Island, North Carolina, one of the USMC's basic training locations. The iron-fisted Srgt. Hartman meets new and naive recruits and has to whip them into shape to go to 'Nam. Most of them make it through but Private Pyle snaps during the training and kills Srgt. Hartman then himself with an M-16 rifle loaded with 7.62 Full Metal Jacket ammo, thus the movie title. During the second half the troops find themselves in Vietnam and begin to die like soldiers do in war. The main character of the 2nd half, Private Joker becomes more hardened and violent as the movie rolls on and he watches his buddies die at the hands of the Viet Cong. War is not as glamorous as they had hoped and people actually died right before their eyes. Those that survived at the end of the movie are marching along together whistling the Mickey Mouse Club Theme in some surreal scene, the background being smoldering buildings bombed and destroyed by the battle. Private Joker narrates throughout the entire movie. This film is entirely based on the Vietnam War. It illustrates military combat as dehumanizing and degrading. It robs the soldier of personal identity and reduced him to the level of an object, a thing to be washed out by a high-pressure steam hose. The war itself is a prolonged effort by South Vietnam and the U.S. to prevent North and South Vietnam from being united under communist leadership. It became the most unpopular war ever fought by the U.S. government. Opposition to it grew into an "anti-war movement." The civil rights movement of the 1960’s created protest. The first anti-war protests were held during President Kennedy's administration and as the war escalated, the number of protestors increased. For example, an antiwar demonstration in Boston in 1965 drew only 100 people, while a similar demonstration in the same place drew over 100,000 in 1969. As Americans from every social class began to turn against the war, more and more members of Congress began to express their doubts. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. began to speak out against the war, explaining that the conflict drained money from the economy and that too many combat troops sent to Vietnam were black. A poll conducted in 1965 found 60 percent of Americans favoring military involvement in Vietnam; by 1967 polls began to show a majority opposed to the war; and by 1971 over 60 percent were opposed. The strength of the anti-war movemen...