Summary
Over the opening credits, the country-western song "Hello Vietnam" by Johnnie Wright plays. A number of new military recruits sit in barber chairs while getting their heads completely shaved. One by one, the film shows each man's blank, downcast expression as the barbers summarily do their jobs. Among the men are James T. "Joker" Davis, and Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence, who will eventually share the same Marine Corps squadron. One final shot shows the piles of hair that have fallen to the floor.
The film flashes forward to a large military barracks, where the men have now entered Marine Corps basic training, or "boot camp." They stand facing forward in a perfect row in front of their bunks, as their drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, paces down the line and introduces them to life in the Marines. Hartman commands that the men only speak when addressed, and use "sir" as a formal salutation to begin and end all statements. He explains that the goal of basic training is to transform each Marine into a "weapon" and a "minister of death." Until then, however, he tells the men that they are sub-human "pukes." He says his job is not to discriminate, but to weed out "non-hackers."
Hartman tries provoking an African-American recruit, who he nicknames "Snowball." Across the room, Joker quietly performs a John Wayne impression under his breath, infuriating Hartman, who demands to know who said it. Joker confesses, and Hartman admits to admiring Joker's honesty, before punching him in the gut and making Joker practice his "war face"—screaming loudly in rage. Hartman moves on to Cowboy, a new recruit from Texas, who Hartman mocks for being homosexual. Finally, Hartman interrogates Leonard Lawrence, giving him the nickname "Gomer Pyle." After berating Pyle for grinning, Hartman orders him to get on his knees and "choke himself" by leaning forward and placing his neck in Hartman's outstretched hand. Pyle struggles to breathe, and stands up afterward looking clearly shaken.
Later, the men run in formation, led by Hartman. In voice-over, Joker describes the United States Marine Corps Recruit Depot as an "eight-week college" for the "phony-tough and crazy-brave." During one of the drills, Pyle falls behind, drawing Hartman's ire, who strikes him twice across the face. To humiliate Pyle further, Hartman makes him perform the rest of the drill sucking his thumb with his pants around his ankles. Back in the barracks, Hartman explains that each man will sleep next to his rifle, and give it a woman's name. Hartman orders the men into their bunks, and they recite the Rifleman's Creed in unison before falling asleep.
The next day, Hartman berates Pyle again for making mistakes during military drills. That night in the barracks, the men perform a suggestive chant in their underclothes, holding their rifles and grabbing their crotches. A montage shows the men competing and running through an obstacle course. Hartman viciously castigates Pyle for being slower than the others and for not being able to do a single pull-up. By the end of the day, Joker holds up an exhausted, faint Pyle, still being mocked by Hartman, and walks him to the last exercise of the day: a run through a mud-pit, where Pyle falls, before Joker helps him up.
That night, Hartman orders Joker and Cowboy to clean the latrines. He asks Joker if he believes in the Virgin Mary, and becomes enraged when Joker says no, calling him a "maggot" and backhanding him across the face. Hartman asks Joker again, but Joker refuses to change his answer, fearing that wavering would make his retribution even worse. Joker's determination impresses Hartman, who makes Joker a squad leader on the spot, replacing Snowball. Hartman then orders Pyle into Joker's squad, and has the men bunk together. Kind and patient, Joker tries to help Pyle improve upon daily tasks like loading his rifle, lacing up his boots, and folding his bedsheets. Hartman lectures the men about the value of their rifles, and the kind of "killer instinct" that Marines must exhibit in order to survive in war.
One evening, during a routine inspection in the barracks, Hartman notices that Pyle's locker is unlocked. Hartman reprimands Pyle for the unlatched locker, and begins rifling through his possessions, scattering them all over the barracks floor. When Hartman finds a jelly donut in Pyle's locker, he becomes apoplectic, given that food is not allowed outside of the mess hall. Addressing the group, Hartman declaims that Pyle has "dishonored" himself and the platoon, and rebukes them for not giving Pyle the proper "motivation." Instead of punishing Pyle, Hartman tells the platoon that he will instead begin punishing the rest of them for Pyle's mistakes. He orders the entire platoon into push-up position, and shoves the jelly donut in Pyle's mouth as the platoon carries out their corporal punishment.
Analysis
Stanley Kubrick told Michael Herr, a co-writer on Full Metal Jacket's screenplay, that "he did not want to make an anti-war film, he just wanted to depict war. He wanted to show what war is like." Released in 1987, Full Metal Jacket was Kubrick's first film since The Shining (1980), and arrived at a moment when other major directors like Robert Altman and Oliver Stone were also exploring the sub-genre of the Vietnam war film. Like Altman's Streamers (1983), which was based on David Rabe's 1976 Broadway play, Full Metal Jacket devotes considerable attention to the pre-war phase of basic training— nearly half the film is set at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, before the men arrive in Vietnam. Also like Streamers, Full Metal Jacket stars Matthew Modine, here playing Private James T. "Joker" Davis, the film's writer-journalist protagonist.
The first scene of Full Metal Jacket is a crucial portal into the film's harsh, brutal, exclusively-male world. The film's minimalist use of quick, white titles over a black background anticipates the song that ends the film—"Paint it Black" by The Rolling Stones. The song that opens the film, "Hello Vietnam" by Johnnie Wright, is notable for being one of the only pro-war folk/country-western songs to become popular, written in 1965 at a time when protest songs dominated the airwaves and public support for the war was already waning. Kubrick's decision to open the film with the song signals his desire to interrogate the military-industrial complex and mindset—to probe the deepest psychological recesses of the U.S. Marine. Specifically, the film uses the idea of the "killing machine" promoted by the Marine Corps as one of its running themes.
The image of the men having their heads shaved symbolizes the process, both physical and mental, through which their bodies are reduced to interchangeable units in the Marine Corps—"all equally worthless," as Sergeant Hartman tells them. Rather than acknowledge the men as unique, separate individuals, Hartman emphasizes their shared, dehumanized condition in basic training, calling the men "scum," "pukes," and "sub-human." In addition to using vicious corporal punishment techniques, like punching Joker and choking Pyle, Hartman delights in humiliating the men psychologically, such as referring to them as "ladies," giving them embarrassing nicknames like Snowball and Gomer Pyle, and using personal details to mock them, like when he accuses the Texan recruit Cowboy of being gay, saying, "Only steers and queers come from Texas!"
R. Lee Ermey, the actor who plays Sergeant Hartman, was originally a consultant for Kubrick's production before auditioning for and winning the part of Sergeant Gunnery Hartman. In a rare gesture for the notoriously controlling director, Kubrick allowed Ermey to improvise many of his on-screen tirades, given Ermey's extensive firsthand experience being a drill instructor in the U.S. Marine Corps. Hartman uses violence, brutality, and humiliation as motivational strategies to transform the men from civilians into Marines. Although privates like Joker and Cowboy are mostly able to cope with the physically and psychologically demanding nature of basic training, the slower, less capable Pyle quickly becomes a target for Hartman's abuse.
The film's stark imagery also emphasizes the completely male world of the U.S. Marines. The first woman does not appear on screen until forty-five minutes into the film (a Vietnamese prostitute trying to solicit Joker for sex). Joker invokes John Wayne, an exemplar of masculinity that also appears later in the film, when he mocks Hartman. Kubrick visualizes the metaphorical relationship between violence and maleness in scenes like the one where the men chant, "This is my rifle, this is my gun! This is for fighting, this is for fun!" while grabbing their penises and holding their rifles over their shoulders. When Hartman urges the men to forget women like "Mary-Jane Rottencrotch," and instead give their rifles a woman's name, the implication is that bloodlust will now completely overtake their presumed desires as heterosexual men. Violence, not sexuality, is their only available outlet for recreation and aggression. Interestingly, the symbol of the rifle has paradoxically male and female connotations—male because it functions as a kind of second penis, and female because each one bears a woman's name.
