Full Metal Jacket vs. Platoon

In both Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, the soldiers were trained to kill. They were told that all they had in the field was their rifle. The men were dehumanized either before they went to the war or within the first couple of months while there.

The film Full Metal Jacket starts off with a group of approximately 30-40 newly recruited men training for the United States Marine Corps. It shows how the drill instructor starts to dehumanize the men. For example, the drill instructor yells, curses, and disrespects them both mentally and physically. For one of the men, Leonard (Pyle), it drove him crazy, literally. The film depicts him as being somewhat mentally distant from the rest of the men. The director does a good job showing Pyle in his state of dementia and the look he has in his eyes. He begins to be somewhat psychopathic which to me is how the Marine Corps wanted to train the men. They wanted them to lose all morals and just kill. Towards the middle of the movie it actually shows some of the men from the Marine Corps training camp while they are battling in the Vietnam War. This movie didn’t really show much of the fighting. It showed a lot of the events happening in the background such as the newspaper and documentaries.

In Platoon the movie starts out in already in the war. The main character, Chris, left college to volunteer in the war. In contrast with Full Metal Jacket, he is a rookie with no training. He just got thrown out there with no guidance and older guys refusing to help and teach him how to survive. He quickly learns that he has to kill or he will be killed. As the movie progresses, the director shows Chris changing and maturing. He goes from this timid kid to this brutal, patriot man. Throughout the movie the scenes are very up close and personal. They show many Americans and Vietnamese being killed and slaughtered. You get to know what really happened in Vietnam, the good and bad.

In contrast, Platoon made you feel like you were right there in the war with the soldiers. In Full Metal Jacket it made you feel like you were writing a report about the war after reading about it. Both movies were a great depiction of the Vietnam War.