Summary
In a makeshift base nearby, Joker finds Cowboy, and the two share a happy moment of reunion. Cowboy introduces Joker to the rest of the Lusthog Squad, saying he'll make them "famous." Animal Mother, a hulking man who wears two ammunition belts and whose helmet reads, "I AM BECOME DEATH," approaches Joker, and asks him if he has seen any combat. In a showdown of masculine bravado, the two taunt each other until another soldier named Eightball intervenes. Eightball assures Joker that though he is aggressive, Animal Mother is "one of the finest human beings in the world" when under fire.
Another soldier named Crazy Earl beckons Rafterman over for a photograph. Crazy Earl uncovers a dead body lying in a chair, and refers to it as his "bro" and "guest of honor." As Rafterman photographs him posing with the corpse, Crazy Earl explains that he loves the Viet Cong, and praises their toughness. He rhapsodizes about wartime, calling his enemies, "the finest human beings we will ever know," and the Marines, "jolly green giants walking the earth with guns." Crazy Earl explains that if and when the men return home at the end of the war, they will soon miss the fact that they don't have anyone around, "worth shootin'."
Later, the men slowly advance behind a tank through enemy territory. A series of coordinated explosions kills Touchdown, and Crazy Earl steps in to give the squad orders while another soldier calls for backup. The squad moves forward in teams to infiltrate the area, and open fire on a building front when another soldier is killed. Rafterman nervously photographs the battle, until Crazy Earl kills the last two remaining Viet Cong, securing the territory for the Marines.
A montage sequence shows Marines flooding into the newly acquired territory, still burning in places from the recent battle. A three-person news crew wielding a boom mic and a film camera form an assembly line, huddling down a row of weary Marines to capture a tracking shot of them sitting with their rifles. The men banter about the war and their enemies with the crew, including Joker, who reprises his John Wayne impression, saying, "John Wayne, is that you?"
Later, the Lusthog Squad peers down at the corpses of Touchdown and the other slain soldier. They all say a phrase of farewell to the two men. Animal Mother chafes at Rafterman's suggestion that they died for a venerable cause, like freedom. Cowboy explains that the soldier's nickname was Handjob, due to a compulsive masturbation problem that led a Navy psychiatrist to deem him a "Section 8."
The news crew films individual interviews with Animal Mother, Cowboy, Joker, Eightball, and other Lusthog Squad Marines. A subdued Animal Mother describes how Marines infiltrate, and Cowboy struggles to talk about combat, stuttering nervously. Several men refer to the South Vietnamese as "gooks," and complain about the fact that they do not seem to appreciate the work being done by the American Marines. When the news crew asks Joker why he came to Vietnam, he wryly replies, "I wanted to meet interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture, and then kill them."
In the next scene, a Vietnamese man and woman ride up to the squad on a motorcycle, revealing themselves to be a pimp and a prostitute. After haggling with the pimp over her fee, Eightball demonstrates interest, but the prostitute refuses, fearing that black men's penises are too large. After Eightball unzips his pants and shows her his penis, she accepts. At the last minute, Animal Mother grabs the prostitute from Eightball, insisting that he go first.
Analysis
The name of the Lusthog Squad is yet another example of the film's thematic linkage between sex and death, creation and destruction. The character Animal Mother is perhaps the film's most distilled example of a character who embodies both physical vitality as a protector and lethal force as a destroyer. "Animal Mother" is a name that suggests a fierce, protective nature—a creature that runs on evolutionary instincts to protect its young. At the same time, Animal Mother's helmet ("I AM BECOME DEATH") and his reputation among the squad are clear indicators that he wields tremendous destructive power.
Animal Mother embodies the paradox not just between creation and destruction, but also between femininity and masculinity. His muscular body, steely disposition, and thick ammunition belts lend him the conventional appearance of a hardened, masculine warrior, the kind of which Hartman would approve. Joker even parodies Animal Mother's hyper-masculinity by lapsing into a John Wayne impression during their charged exchange, just as he did with Hartman. On the other hand, Animal Mother's name conveys more conventionally feminine qualities like nurturing and intuition. Eightball implies that the men look to Animal Mother as a maternal figure in combat—someone who can care for and protect the rest of the group. Like the symbol of the rifle, Animal Mother is simultaneously masculine and feminine.
Kubrick and his script collaborator Michael Herr were both interested in rendering the various kinds of grave mental deterioration that war engenders in its participants. Whereas the opening of the film is mostly dedicated to the psychological breakdown of Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence, the second half of the film provides a gallery of characters whose minds have been warped in various ways by the war effort. Not unlike the way Pyle began speaking to his rifle as a living partner, Crazy Earl takes up a similar relationship with a Vietnamese corpse, whom he props up in a chair and refers to as his "bro," relishing the perverse intimacy that he has with the man he has presumably murdered.
Another character, Handjob, is killed just before being shipped home due to a compulsive masturbation problem. His inescapable need for sexual relief once again echoes the fact that the men can only express aggression through traumatic violence, rather than sensual pleasure. Each man's farewell message to Handjob reflects their attitude toward the war effort: Crazy Earl, completely devoted to state-sponsored murder, recites the Marines motto: "Semper fi" / "Always faithful." Animal Mother, a consummate survivalist, says, "Better him than me." A relatively naive idealist, Rafterman says, "At least he died for a good cause."
Kubrick once again questions whether mass media can accurately capture war by rendering the earnest efforts of a film crew to interview the Lusthog Squad. The very fact of being observed changes the way the men behave, such as Animal Mother, who becomes completely subdued when interviewed, or Cowboy, who stutters and halts as he tries to describe combat. The men tell jokes and blow off steam in front of the cameras, rather than divulge traumatic details. Only Joker remains his characteristically irreverent self, implying in his interview that although he does not support the war, he remains on a certain level dedicated to being there and documenting it.
