The Act of Killing

In viewing Platoon and Full Metal Jacket I found virtually the same movie to have two very different accounts of what it was like to be in battle and in war. Personally I liked the Full Metal Jacket film better simply because I tend to like movies that take the audiences on a journey and FMJ was truly a journey. All the way from the opening scene when the soldiers got their taste of military life to the first night they spent in boot camp, the audience feels as though we are witnessing the transformation from the beginning. Hence, when the transformation takes place we can fully understand and see how it happened, and who they were before it took place. Nevertheless, the point of this blog is not for me to tell you how much I liked one over the other but to compare and contrast what I thought were some of the most powerful scenes in both movies.

When watching Full Metal Jacket my heart went out to the private Pyle and his struggle in the boot camp process. I know that many people could identify with private Pyle because he was the one that was picked on by the others and because of his struggle and obvious mental capacity he was scrutinized because of his short-comings. Therefore, because he was lacking, we witnessed a true change in character as he over-worked himself to become just as good, if not better than the other privates in drilling and every way possible. He became obcessed and it is then that we witness his true full transformation and he has become a new person, a soldier. However, on the last day of camp after graduation, we witness private Pyle's final meltdown. In the middle of the night as Joker was patrolling the baracks he comes across private Pyle's in the bathroom drilling at a clearly inappropriate time and place and it is then that the audience knows that he has truly lost it. Sitting on the edge of our seats The Sergant walks in with his usual loud and boistrous antics and in retaliation perhaps for his scrutiny or just being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, saying the wrong thing, Pyle's kills him. Then after lowering his gun from Joker he sits down and shoots himself. This scene is so powerful because it represents a common problem that we face in today's society and the consequences that those people face because of the lack of self esteem. Suicide is actually more common than we think however with the agenda setting of the media we see more homicide than anything when actually suicide is often times more common in many cities than murder itself. Nevertheless, this represented the notion of killing and even more specific the murdering of those who are innocent in the terms of those serving in the army. This was evident in another scene in Platoon when the soldiers invaded a village and killed 2 innocent members of the village for no reason. Or more of the reason being the life of combat and what it does to you. In many cases combat dehumanizes those who partake in it, and they take on those same animalistic characteristics that come along with the act of survival, even if it means killing the innocent. This is something that both of these scenes have in common. The fact that they are now partaking in an act of "survival" and taking the lives of those who do not deserve it. This reminds me of a phenomenon that happens to many veterans as they return to the U.S. Many times they have seen so much that often times they go crazy and can't cope with the nightmares and reliving the horror and often times kill themselves because of it, or many times struggle with it all their life. So it could be argued that these soldiers of victims of combat themselves and simply acted out of the learned behaviors that they have acquired over the years. The very idea that these men have been taught to be killing machines and have acted accordingly could be the explanation for the changes that they endure and the lives that they take with them. Nevertheless, the comparison between these two scenes represented two animalistic transformations of men who were trained to kill and the consequences that the men faced because of these changes attributed to their journey as a soldier.