Brant on Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket offers a different view on Vietnam than other movies about this war. Most Vietnam movies spend a lot of time in the jungles of 'Nam while usually focusing on infantry soldiers. FMJ takes the viewer through the full military experience. The first part of the movie, and probably the most memorable, shows us the experience of boot camp. Stanley Kubrick makes these scenes terrifying yet humorous. During this part of the movie, I was really unclear on who was the main character of the movie, but I believe that Kubrick purposely made the movie this way so that viewers would focus on the transformation of civilians into fearless soldiers.

Throughout the whole movie, the the thing that sticks in my head the most is Private Pyle. I think the way he was treated was tragic. He didn't have the mental capacity for military service, and because of the mental and physical abuse he received while in boot camp, he never got the opportunity. I am currently under the assumption that he was more than likely drafted. It was quite sad that the drill sargent turned all the other soldiers against him, in which they eventually attacked Pyle even though he couldn't really help his problems. Boot camp created a mentally unstable person who eventually killed himself and the sargent. This makes me wonder... how many people have died because of situations like this during boot camp?