Collateral Damage?

After I watched Full Metal Jacket and Platoon, I can recollect two scenes that will remain engraved in my mind. These scenes involved the death of the innocent. I’m not talking about death as the result of friendly fire, but death caused by the cruel intentions of those men that depict the brutal reality of the Vietnam War.

In Full Metal Jacket, one scene in particular begins through the perspective of a passenger in a UH-34 Choctaw. The viewer can only hear the resonant wisps of the chopper’s rotating blades, while taking in a vista of thriving Vietnamese greenery. The viewer enters a third person perspective of the chopper as it transits the sun seen near the distant horizon. The viewer is then treated with a first person perspective through the eyes of the pilots. We are immersed in a fertile environment, with the foggy jungles of Vietnam racing underneath us. The atmosphere of these shots is one of tranquility and serenity. Deep in the jungles of Vietnam, the viewer is aware of the chaos and turmoil that takes place. However, from above, the jungle doesn’t carry the same negative connotation. This atmosphere dissipates as soon as we see Rafterman on the verge of vomiting while hearing a machine gun firing in short bursts in the background. In between bursts, we hear the phrase, “Get some” exclaimed by the door-gunner. We witness the door-gunner experiencing his chronic adrenaline rush, as each pull of his trigger downs an unsuspecting foe. As Rafterman gags once again, we see Joker with a grin on his face. At this point, it’s hard to tell what exactly is going on between the three. First of all, who is the door-gunner engaging? Is Rafterman airsick, or is there something else that is fueling his disgust? Finally, why does Joker’s smile seem forced? The viewer is finally presented with some evidence that may answer these questions as we see the world through the door-gunner’s point of view. As we see muzzle flashes emitting from the tip of the gun, a quick burst of fire takes the life of a fleeing farmer as others run for their lives.

The reality of war is a subject that is often brought up in the context of Vietnam, such as in the rhetoric of this scene in Full Metal Jacket. I define the reality of war to be the cold-blooded conglomeration of attitudes and sentiments that fuel the men in arms and the commanders in charge to commit to what most would consider corrupt acts. This of course includes the murder of the innocent. In this scene, much in the same way that Staff Sergeant Barnes was personified as the reality of war, I find this door-gunner to exhibit similar characteristics. Despite his relatively short screen time, the door-gunner came off as a testosterone-enhanced, instinctive slayer with absolutely no remorse for the innocent he intentionally kills. Including the farmer he gunned down in the scene, he also claimed to have had "157 dead Gooks killed, and 50 water buffaloes too." In response to Joker’s question regarding how the door-gunner could kill women and children, he sarcastically remarks, “Easy, you just don't lead 'em so much! Ha, ha, ha, ha. Ain't war hell?!" The key difference between the door-gunner and Staff Sergeant Barnes has to do with the way the viewer reacts to how the reality of war is presented among the two characters. I found humor in the way the door-gunner spoke, perhaps due to his limited vocabulary or the bluntness and simplicity of his statements. As a conglomeration of everything negatively associated with the Vietnam War, the character of the door-gunner was essentially an exaggeration. Perhaps it was the intention of Stanley Kubrick to present this character in this manner as a means to get the viewer to realize the absurdity of this savage mentality.

The reality of war also understood through the development of the viewers understanding of what’s exactly occurring in the scene. The beautiful Vietnam landscape argues deception. Much in the same way that most of us require first-hand experience in order to have a better understanding of a particular subject, the same is true for the viewer as we are presented with an external point of view that masks what’s truly occurring within the helicopter and the lush greenery below. Only when the viewer enters the chopper alongside Joker, Rafterman, and the door-gunner, do we begin to get a more realistic picture. However, we are still presented with more questions as we cannot provide a good explanation to Rafterman’s disgust. Only until we enter the perspective of the door-gunner, the so-called “reality of war”, do we witness the death of the innocent first hand. Only until we immerse ourselves in war can we truly understand its hardships and consequences.