Journal Article Analysis 1-3-2

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.