From the very beginning of the film we are introduced to Sergeant Hartman giving a speech, which is setting the tone on how the men will be trained, how they will act, and how they will essentially think. He breaks them down psychologically and in so tells them what they will become… a weapon. “If you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian shit! Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair.” This establishes the sergeant’s approach of training the men to kill and in does so by placing the duality of man within them, coaching them that it is in their very best interest to learn how to kill. So after his speech the eight-week boot camp begins. Hartman then begins using his exceptional strategies on the men. He starts off by taking away the men’s names and provides them nicknames that they will use from that moment on. In doing this it inhabits their mind into believing that they are becoming someone completely different. Private Brown becomes Private Snowball, Private Davis becomes Private Joker, and Private Lawrence becomes Private Gomer Pyle. While training the men into becoming soldiers, he makes them say a prayer every night, while holding their rifle, about how their rifle is their only friend and that they must shoot the enemy before they shoot them. The men slowly start believing that they are cold-blooded killers and by the end of the training they believed it.
Private Pyle is the character that I have the most sympathy for in this film. He has a childlike manner about him. Pyle is a bit overweight and he receives constant abuse from Hartman for it. Pyle couldn’t catch a break from anyone throughout training. In the beginning Hartman orders Pyle to choke himself with the Sergeant’s hand because he laughed at something. Hartman’s relentless abuse towards him makes Pyle struggle with his individuality and he was mentally being trained as a killer, which wasn’t a good combination. The sergeant assigned Joker to help Pyle, so for a time there was someone there for Pyle until Hartman found a donut in Pyle’s footlocker. Instead of punishing Pyle, Hartman punished the other privates. As the other privates were being punished Hartman tells them that they have not given Pyle the proper motivation, which was basically permission for what was to happen next. While Pyle is sleeping the rest of the privates performed a blanket party hazing on him. Pyle was broken for it was his snapping point since he had no one anymore. His unstable mind helped him get through the rest of boot camp and even became good at the training. Boot camp was to challenge the duality inside of them, but occasionally it’ll completely change a man’s duality can make him snap as in Pyle’s case. Everyone had graduated and on their last night Pyle snapped. Joker finds Pyle in the bathroom holding onto his rifle. The look Pyle gives has forever been implanted within my mind. The look on his face is so unbelievable, such pain and insanity. This scene is the most memorable for those who watch it. While Joker is trying to calm him down Sergeant Hartman comes in yelling. Pyle shoots Hartman and points the gun at Joker, but decides to take his own life in front of Joker. Pyle’s struggle had ended and became like the other privates… a killing machine. This ultimately represents the dangers of training soldier duality of mind to be a killing machine.
After that the privates were sent off to Vietnam. Private Joker is now the central character. He views the Vietnam War as a big joke and is constantly telling jokes to others. Payback confronts Joker on it and says he won’t be joking once he gets in the shit storm of war and when he does he will have that thousand-yard stare that every marine gets. He lost his friends during a sniper attack, which turns him into a mindless killer. He finds the sniper only to discover that it is a young female. He realizes that he’s just not fighting other men, but he’s killing the whole country whether it’s men, women, or children. Joker is struggling with his own morality when he is debates whether or not to kill her. He ultimately conforms when everyone is encouraging him to shoot her. He pulls his trigger and kills the sniper. He now has the thousand-yard stare. Kubrick during the film showed the mental struggle taking place through ones duality.
The cast is excellent. Matthew Modine as Private Joker acts beautifully. Vincent D’Onofrio is unforgettable as Private Pyle and gives one of the best facial performances of all time. Lee Ermey played Hartman perfectly and he makes Nicholson’s character from the Shining look like a harmless puppy. The film is flawless. It is Kubrick’s best? No. Is it his most beautiful? No. Is it a classic? It most certainly is. Kubrick only made two films in the 80s: The Shining and Full Metal Jacket, such beloved classics that were given to us by the legendary director.
5 out of 5
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