I never thought about it before but Full Metal Jacket is kind of retrograde the way it portrays the guy who blasted his CO as a sobbing incompetent moron. In reality there was a lot of resistance and direct murder of COs by GIs during the Vietnam War, but it wasn’t done by antisocial mouth-breathing idiots but principled resistors.
Sir, No Sir is a great documentary about GI anti-war resistance whose thesis is that it was actually the internal resistance to continuing the war at all levels from infantry to intelligence that forced US withdrawal.
the thing is, Pyle was just a little slow in the ways the military can’t accept. When he came in, he was an affable sort of guy. Always smiling and chatty. Didn’t really seem to be the type to lose their temper or have hate for another. He would have been fine doing just about any manual labor job where the ability to be gentle and friendly are an asset, like being an orderly in a hospital.
The movie reveals the purpose of boot camp is to traumatize young men and train them to follow orders, move fast, and kill without hesitation. Put simply, it sands away the finer edges that create the humanity of a person. But that was all Pyle really had. So he became a beast, driven by the rage the instructor fed him.
if he were more calculating, he may have waited to deploy and took out a flag officer. But shooting his DI has a logic to it. Fuck Hartman. He died too quick.
I never thought about it before but Full Metal Jacket is kind of retrograde the way it portrays the guy who blasted his CO as a sobbing incompetent moron. In reality there was a lot of resistance and direct murder of COs by GIs during the Vietnam War, but it wasn’t done by antisocial mouth-breathing idiots but principled resistors.
Well, Gomer Pyle is not supposed to be a depiction of a “principled resistor”. He’s supposed to be a depiction of a guy who is obviously mentally disabled, but got pushed through medical examination anyways due to lowering recruitment standards. As I understand that was also a hot-button issue at the time.
That said, I would personally prefer that you did not speak so frankly on your opinions regarding Mr. Pyle. Comparison with the character is actually one of the ways people where I live used to use to try to get at me.
I know he’s not supposed to be a depiction of a principled war resistor, but he is supposed to be a depiction of a GI that blew away his commanding officer. I’m just saying it’s an ahistorical representation of the type of person who actually did that.
