The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 94 Days to go: 62
Movie #346: Full Metal Jacket
If there’s one Kubrick film I really really like, it’s Full Metal Jacket. Maybe I’m showing my uncultured hand a little bit here, but I like a movie that can be just a movie — a movie with a clear-cut story, a beginning, middle and end. I like a movie that doesn’t need to be interpreted or pondered or dissected and instead can just be consumed — watched and enjoyed and put away, no questions asked. Full Metal Jacket works as that kind of movie. What makes it really great, though, is that it’s also a thoughtful study in contrasts.
When Private Joker (Matthew Modine) is in Vietnam, he wears a peace symbol pin on his jacket. He’s also written “Born to Kill” on his helmet. When asked about this contradiction, he claims to not know why he is sporting both messages, but settles on it being a statement about “the duality of man.” That duality is present throughout the film, and is highlighted again and again. We are not just one thing. We contain multitudes.
From the very beginning, the soldiers are Marine Corps. training are meant to have a single purpose — to be killers. The opening scene, in fact, is shot after shot of different recruits getting their hair shaved off, going from various individuals to identical cogs in a machine. They are not individuals anymore, and yet each one is given a personal nickname by Sargeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey). That’s how Joker got to be Joker, how Cowboy (Arliss Howard) got to be Cowboy, and how Gomer Pyle (Vincent D’Onofrio) got to be Pyle. And even though they are now all part of a single unit (reciting cheerful upbeat lines about death and killing — another duality), they also fit their names. Gomer Pyle, naturally, is the biggest dolt in the squad. He screws everything up, he can’t do anything right. He’s the weakest. But then he also becomes the deadliest.
The contradictions continue from basic training into combat. Private Rafterman (Kevyn Major Howard) even comments on how the war frustrates him because the Americans have supposedly liberated the South Vietnamese, given them their freedom, but the Vietnamese don’t seem to want it. They don’t appreciate it. And Rafterman himself is a jittery little kid, itching to go out in the field, but scared shitless once he gets there. However, in a critical moment, it’s Rafterman who doesn’t hesitate. Just as it’s Joker who is the most serious, the most respectful, when a wounded Vietnamese sniper is lying before them begging for death. He’s not just one thing.
Even minor characters are given the chance to be more than a single character trait. For instance, Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin) is the fiercest, most gung-ho soldier out there — a seeming Neanderthal. And yet his helmet reads “Now I am become death,” a line from Hindu scripture. He has depth as well as single-mindedness, thoughtfulness as well as brutality.
Even the movie itself is a contradiction of sorts. It’s a serious film with a very heavy subject matter, and yet the tone is light and often comic. War is hell, after all, but even the most embattled soldiers are entitled to a little sucky-sucky once in a while. They love you long time.
Viable Option 