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.
