Journal Article Analysis
The
article that I chose to analyze is Full Metal Jarhead: Shifting the Horizon of
Expectations by Michael Charles and Keith Townsend. One of the reasons why I
picked this article is because of the title itself. I myself was in the military
and served under the Army, a little different than the Marine Corps but same
concept solider wise. This article went into detail in how the movie Full Metal
Jacket came through in the movie Jarhead. I enjoyed both films since I have
experienced the military life, in a nutshell, being in the military is an
experience that is difficult to explain and is something that people have to
experience in order to get a full understanding. That is why I like these
movies because it does allow people that do not go the military get a glimpse
of what it is even about.
The movie Full Metal Jacket came
out in 1987 and was not like your ordinary military movies. It started off
showing marines going through boot camp and then going to the Vietnam War. Full
Metal Jacket came out in a limited amount of theaters and was not very popular
when it came out. Drill Instructor Hartman (played by Lee Ermey) became an icon
for how drill instructors teach soldiers in becoming a marine. This allowed the
public to see (at a high level) how marines are trained and how they breakdown
the marine. This is only to make the marine forget everything he knew before
and learn how a marine communicates, listens, kills and handle situations. The
movie then goes into the Vietnam War and gives more of a perception of what the
marine life is when at war.
The movie Jarhead came out in
2005, roughly 18 years later than the movie Full Metal Jacket. It follows a
specific marine throughout the whole movie (like Full Metal Jacket) and with
him being the commentary about how marines act and what his personal life is
like back home. It first starts off where he is stationed and does give a
glimpse of what his boot camp was like. The marine becomes a scout sniper and
is entered into the Gulf War. I like the part at the end where it showed
everyone going back to their normal life, building a family, working at a job
and just living at home like a normal civilian demonstrating how different it
can be when being in the military.
One of the main points that the
article points out is how Jarhead came through Full Metal Jacket and how they
are alike. It gave an example of them both being “stand-alone films”. Another
example it gave, but easiest to pick out, is how both showed marines going
through basic and how the marines are treated. The terminologies used in both
films are similar because of how marines are taught. Another way that it
compared both films is how a marine and his rifle are useless without each
other. These comparisons showed how Full Metal Jacket was shown through
Jarhead.
Jarhead did show some differences,
one example is how the marines never got to fire their weapon at one single
enemy and that more sophisticated weapons already completed the mission. This
is good topic to discuss because of popular culture, we are looking at new
technologies to either make life easier, or in this case, kill the enemy more
efficiently and help eliminating casualties. Jarhead pointed out how miserable
a marine’s life can be whenever at war and not able to see the enemy let alone
kill the enemy. With more and more sophisticated weapons being developed, this
might reduce the amount of soldiers being killed which is a good thing, but
against some of the upbringing of how a marine needs to kill when in a war. In
Full Metal Jacket, it displays marines from the movie killing (or being killed)
the enemy. This a little different tactic do to the circumstances of the
different wars the movies filmed. I thought it was a good way to let people
know that all war is not the same, which some people get while others might not
understand.
In my opinion, this article
pointed out the right comparisons in demonstrating how the movies were and
weren’t alike. After joining the Army, watching these types of films makes me
think back to what I went through while being in the military. Now that women
are in the military I wonder what type of film will depict different genders in
a war environment.
References
Charles,
M., & Townsend, K. (2011). Full metal jarhead: Shifting the horizon of
expectation. 44(5), 915-930.
