Full Metal Jacket Is a 1987 Academy Essay

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Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 Academy Award nominated film made by Stanley Kubrick about the Vietnam War. It is based on the novel Short-Timers, by Gustav Hasford and it follows a group of recruits through their basic training and eventual deployment to Vietnam. (Hasford) The movie is divided into two parts: basic training and Vietnam. While this movie is not accurately depicting any one particular person's experiences, it does give an accurate overall portrayal of the U.S. Marine Corp basic training and the experiences of U.S. Marines in general during the Vietnam War.

The film begins with a group of young marine recruits entering basic training at Paris Island South Carolina. Paris Island is the actual Marine Corp training facility for all make enlistees who come from east of the Mississippi. Those from west of the Mississippi go to California for training. Today it is the same for male recruits, while all female recruits, regardless of where they are from, go to Paris Island for basic training. (MCRD) Marine Corp Basic training at the time of the Vietnam War was only eight weeks long, not counting zero week, or the first week of orientation. While today it is nine weeks, ten if you count zero week, back then the Marine Corp Drill Sergeants had only eight-week to get a recruit ready for combat in Vietnam.

Because of the large numbers of men needed to serve in Vietnam, the Marine Corp did not look too closely into the techniques used by Drill Sergeants when it came to preparing the troops. Drill Sergeants were given a great deal of latitude when it came to their training programs, and this is exemplified in the film by the treatment of the recruits by their drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, played by R. Lee Ermy. Ermy's personal experiences as a drill instructor during this time were accurately transferred to film in the boot camp scenes.

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(Wikipedia "R. Lee Ermy")

The film focuses on the experiences of "Joker," played by Matthew Modine, and "Cowboy," played by Arliss Howard, and their attempts to aid the training of "Private Pyle," played by Vincent D'Onofrio. "Private Pyle" is an overweight recruit that has much difficulty adjusting to the life of a Marine. Joker is paired with him in order to aid his progress, which helps Pyle, until Hartman finds a jelly donut hidden in Pyle's foot locker. After this the drill instructor begins to punish the whole group for Pyle's mistakes, turning every man in the group against Pyle, including Joker. Pyle eventually loses his sanity and kills the drill instructor and himself.

While this particular incident did not happen in real life, there were plenty of men who brought punishment down on their entire platoon as a result of their inability to perform. The scene in the movie where the members of the platoon hide bars of soap in towels and beat Pyle with them is an accurate portrayal of the type of "company punishment" which was common at the time. Drill instructors commonly punished entire groups for the actions of a single individual, and then looked the other way when the men retaliated. And while there was no murder-suicide incident like in the movie, there were plenty of recruits to received extra "help" from their fellow recruits from time to time.

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