Full Metal Jacket Film Analysis

Film Analysis Within every man resides good and evil; which quality manifests itself is determined by how one is raised and views the world. Stanley Kubrick's film Full Metal Jacket takes the concept of good or evil in man and shows how war, the marines, and government blur soldiers' ideas of right or wrong. By injection of propaganda from these sources a misidentity is created within the solider. Once this misidentity has taken place it is the soldiers' job to figure out what he is: a killing machine as he has been trained, or a bringer of peace to a war torn nation. A soldiers' identity is stripped of him the second he enters boot camp. It first begins with the shaving of the head which likens boot camp to brain surgery, then continues with the identical uniforms which strip them of their visual identities, and completed by the mental degradations of boot camp, delivered by Sergeant Hartmen. Sergeant Hartmen uses many different psychological attacks ranging from repeated chants in training to insulting their masculinity (constantly calling them sweethearts or ladies). For example, “I love working for Uncle Sam, it lets me know just who I am,” is contradictory in and of itself because these recruits know nothing of who they are, only that they are cold killers (as told to be by Sergeant Hartmen). These types of psychological attacks continue throughout basic training and even have religious ties in them. The most shocking is Sergeant Hartmen's line to the men about god, “We keep god happy by giving him fresh souls.” He yells this to the recruits as they are singing happy birthday to Jesus on christmas. This is a ploy at trying to make killing rational to those who feel it to be immoral by their own ethics. Yet again, his speech is a contradiction because in the Ten Commandments it says, “Thou shall not kill.” Sergeant Hartmen is trying to reason it is alright because god enjoys fresh souls. While from a christian viewpoint, both sides of fighters should be going