Full Metal Jacket anti-climax of war

Anti-Climax of War

During the intro scene of Full Metal Jacket, we are introduced to a group of new recruits in a marine bootcamp. The film opens with the men getting their heads shaved, which is a way for Sgt. Hartman to dehumanise them, making them work as a group rather than as individuals. He takes away their names and refers to them with a new name. We are not properly introduced to the characters, and we only see them during their dehumanisation, meaning as an audience we do not see them as humans from the beginning, this takes away the effect of dehumanisation as their identity is taken from them at the start. It could be argued that because we do not see the characters before they start the bootcamp, we generalise them as stereotypes for people, and this could make you feel disconnected from them, similarly to how the sergeant wants them to feel disconnected from themselves.

During the bootcamp, they are build up to be blood-thirsty killers in order for them to be prepared for war, and we see this as we watch them becoming desensitised to violence and they adjust to their treatment by the sergeant. However, their training to take away their humanity backfires, as their perspective of who the enemy is ranges differently. War does not always have a good and bad side, as there is evil within everyone, and for Pyle his enemies were Hartman and himself, after the mental and physical torment he had been put through. Pyle is physically not cut out for the marines, according to the real life standards, however Kubrick has put him into the bootcamp to show that everyone can be a killer, and everyone can be evil, even those who are considered to not be cut out for war.

However, all of this is contradicted as the second half of the film shows the anti-climax that conveys the pointlessness of War. With their new names and their shaved heads, Hartman attempted to dehumanise the marines, however they still manage to keep their individuality, and in Vietnam there is nothing but chaos compared to the strictly enforced control which was shown previously. In Vietnam, their hair has began to grow back from the head shaving sequence, this could be seen as them regaining their individuality. This could be considered an anti-climax because the bootcamp sequence encourages the idea that these men were going to be vicious, cold-blooded killers, who lacked humanity. However, we see that these men do have their own thoughts and they still have their individuality, which makes them seem not cut out for war. It could be seen that the film is shows anti-climax of war as by the end, none of them are truly cut out for war.

When the marines are asked about their reasons for going to war, each gives a very different answer.