Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film, Full Metal Jacket, is best described as two films in one.  The first half depicts young marines in basic training.  In the first images, their shaggy hair is shaved off, individuality wiped away.  Then comes Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey), barking endlessly like a machine sent to pulverize the men into marines with orders and insults.  The second half follows our main young marine, Private Joker (Matthew Modine), as a journalist covering the Vietnam war in Hue.

Along the way, a loss of human life and dignity is constantly shown.  Sgt. Heartman’s constant flamboyant insults are just mental preparation for the disgusting things ahead.  The weak are weeded out and punished, mentally by Sgt. Heartman and physically later by their fellow men.  The men who can’t take it…well, I won’t reveal the fate of Private Pyle (Vincent D’Onofrio) for any newbies.  In Hue, the men barter with Vietnamese prostitutes in the street and disagree on who gets her first.  Crazy Earl (Kieron Jecchinis) shows off a dead Vietnamese soldier propped up in a chair, calling him one of the finest people he’ll ever know.  On Joker’s chopper ride into the warzone, a man yells “Get some!” constantly shooting a machine gun at anything they fly over.  When two of their own have fallen, the men stand around their bodies laid out on a tarp and hardly a minute passes before one man bluntly brings up the “medical issue” that was about to send one of the men home.  These men seem to have very little respect for human life, even when it has passed.  Perhaps that is what’s needed to survive the horrors of war in Vietnam.

The real star of Full Metal Jacket is R. Lee Ermey.  He was originally a consultant for the first half of the film, making sure things were as authentic as his own boot camp.  After Kubrick saw a video of Ermey spouting his military style insults for fifteen minutes straight, without breaking, he was offered the role.  Most of the first half of the film, Emery’s voice is the main soundtrack, hollering at us, beating out the softness and molding us for the next half of the film.  It’s best to toughen up before heading to war.  He is also one of the most prominent characters in the first half.  While all his men stand together, silent and still, Sgt. Heartman moves and leads them through the sterile barracks and through the grounds.

Full Metal Jacket only received one Oscar nomination, for adapted screenplay.  No love for Kubrick’s direction or the cinematography I’ve come to love from his films.  Thing is, given the duality of the two parts I can see some arguing that Kubrick was a bit unfocused.  And that crisp, symmetrical depth we love in other Kubrick films is not present in Full Metal Jacket.  Sadly, this may be because Kubrick’s usual cinematographer, John Alcott, died shortly before production.

I’ve heard many people say that the first half of Full Metal Jacket is what makes it a great movie.  Though I loved both parts, I have to agree.  Seeing the marines in training, losing more of themselves every day to Sgt. Heartman is intriguing and like no film I had ever seen.  But being out in the warzone feels a lot like other films depicting Vietnam.  Kubrick keeps a few tricks up his sleeve to make it stand out, but just barely.  The idea about the duality of man best sums up the film.  Joker wears a peace sign button, yet has “born to kill” written on his helmet.  One part of the film shows the men being molded into straight and honorable marines, the other they’ve become dehumanized war fodder.

“Bullshit I can’t hear you. Sound off like you got a pair!”

Born on the Fourth of July

Born on the Fourth of July is partly a coming of age film and partly an anti-war film based on Ron Kovic’s biography.  It opens with a look at Ron’s childhood in 1956, on his birthday, the Fourth of July.  He watches the parade on top of his father’s shoulders and excitedly points out, “Look daddy, the soldiers!”  These are old men being pushed in wheelchairs, flinching at the sounds of firecrackers, but I think all young Ron sees are decorated American heroes.

Ron (Tom Cruise) is the ultimate American boy.  We see him playing little league baseball with his dad cheering in the stands.  He kisses the pretty little blond girl under the fireworks.  In high school, he’s a star wrestler, works hard at the local grocery store and prays that God will make him a soldier.  He carries a strong sense of pride and duty about going toVietnam, telling his parents, including his WWII veteran father, “I want to go to Vietnam, and I’ll die there if I have to.

Ron’s tour of Vietnamis terrifying.  There is so much confusion and the boys are so scared they just shoot at anything.  They unknowingly open fire on a small village full of women and children and we are not spared the gory mess.  After the boys are trying to figure out what to do and what went wrong they have to make a run for it, and in the confusion Ron accidentally kills one of his comrades, Wilson.  Like the good, honest young man Ron was brought up to be, he tells his officers the fatal mistake, possibly looking for some punishment or penance.  It seems they just want this accident to be swept under the rug, saying Wilsonwas simply killed in action.  This only makes Ron feel guiltier, perhaps the reason he decides to take another tour of duty, where he is sent home, paralyzed.

Even after being told he will never walk again or be able to have children, Ron is determined to beat the odds and walk again.  It’s the American way right?  He can’t just take this sitting down.  We watch him make some valiant efforts in physical therapy only to fall so hard he breaks his femur.  At least we can take some comfort knowing he didn’t feel that, but this incident only keeps him in the hospital longer.  The care for disabled vets at this hospital is terrible and the facilities are disgusting.  These men have bed sores on their butt and poor Ron has to ring his buzzer for over two hours before anyone comes to check on him.  Rightfully frustrated, he yells, “I fought for my country, I deserved to be treated descent!”  Thing is, many of the staff at the hospital have ill feelings about why the Vietnam War is being fought and tend to ignore their more patriotic patients.

When Ron returns home, these anti-war ideals are spreading even thicker.  Ron’s own brother tells him, “You served your country and what did you get out of it, I mean look at you.”  Still, Ron tries to uphold his patriotic values and becomes the veteran in the Fourth of July parade that flinches at fireworks.  It’s not until after Ron is beaten in a riot against peaceful anti-war protesters that he slips into an unpatriotic depression.

It is in this long-haired, alcohol fueled, pissed off version of Ron that Tom Cruise’s performance really bombed for me.  Not only did I like him better as the innocent, All-American boy, but he was slightly more convincing there.  Here, yelling profanities at his strict Catholic mom and getting in a cripple fight with Willem Dafoe after a binge of tequila and whores in Mexico, not only is it over the top, but I could not take it seriously.  But I was glad when he sobered up and become a great anti-war leader for the Democratic Party.  I hope that’s the part that the real Ron Kovic wants us to remember best.

While I did not particularly care for the film, I appreciate it.  Oliver Stone always does a great job directing politically charged dramas, and Born on the Fourth of July is considered to be the second installment (between Platoon and Heaven & Earth) of his Vietnam trilogy.  Ron Kovic’s life so dramatically changed by Vietnam is fascinating, but Tom Cruise does not do it justice.  There’s just something I didn’t believe about being so stubbornly patriotic and then turning into an anti-war hippie so fast.  If this is considered an anti-war film, does that gain or lose young, innocent Ron our sympathies?

“People say that if you don’t love America, then get the hell out.  Well, I love America.”

The Deer Hunter

Under Michael Cimino’s Oscar winning direction, The Deer Hunter is a film about three friends from a small steel mill town in Pennsylvania who experience the horrors of the Vietnam War together.  The film starts with a good long look at the men on the eve of their departure.  After a hard day’s work, they stroll down to the bar, sing and drink like they’ve got all the time in the world.  Steve (John Savage) is getting married that evening, but only Steve’s mother feels the hurry.

The wedding scenes of the film take their time, showing the men’s last hurrah together.  The reception doubles as a going away party for Nick (Christopher Walkin) and Mike (Robert De Niro).  And as Steve and his bride, Angela (Rutanya Alda) drive off to spend a night together, the rest of the boys go deer hunting.  The hunt scenes have a mysterious, poetic vibe about them, especially to Mike.  Then the film drops us straight into the madness of Vietnam, where Nick, Mike and Steve are captured and forced to engage in a game of Russian roulette.

The Russian roulette scenes are the most memorable parts of the film.  It becomes a symbol for the intense and random violence that was the Vietnam War.  Each of these scenes are an amazing mixture of suspense, horror and violence that are not for the faint of heart.  With each pass of the gun is the possibility that these men will blow their own brains out, but if they don’t play, they’ll be killed by their captors.

Somehow out of this violent madness, Mike finds a refreshed will to live and carry on stronger than the rest.  We understand that when Mike comes home, he has been changed by his terrible experiences, but he doesn’t show it as much as Steve and Nick.  I’d rather not spoil anything, but they have a great deal of physical and psychological issues to deal with.  Christopher Walken doesn’t earn that Oscar win for nothing.

While at times I didn’t exactly enjoy watching The Deer Hunter, I can appreciate its intensity and quality.  The film did what it was supposed to and did so very well.  After spending so much time at the bar and wedding, I could not help but become very invested in the characters, affected emotionally by their situations and held my breath at every pull of the trigger.  If you can stomach the intense games of Russian roulette, checking out The Deer Hunter is worth it.

“You have to think about one shot.  One shot is what it’s all about.  A deer’s gotta be taken with one shot.”

Coming Home

Coming Home examines three types of people affected by the Vietnam war.  There are the soldiers who come home crippled, unappreciated for their sacrifice and in horrible care.  Then there are the soldiers still out there or about to leave, full of pride and little anxiety at first and then disillusioned and wondering why they get to live or keep their limbs.  Lastly are the women left behind to worry about their men overseas who see the devastation of the dead and paralyzed men returning.

As Bob (Bruce Dern) is about to leave for Vietnam, his wife, Sally (Jane Fonda), tells him she will stay with his mother and not work, just like he wants her to.  Soon she starts volunteering at the Veterans hospital and rents a house near the beach with her friend, Vi (Penelope Milford).  At the hospital, driven mostly by curiosity, she finds an old classmate, Luke (Joh Voight), who is now paralyzed and enraged about the way he is treated.  As Sally becomes closer to Luke, and eventually starts a steamy affair with him, she wants to make people more aware of the treatment the injured veterans are having to endure.

While visiting Bob on leave in Hong Kong, we understand more of the current soldier’s plight.  Before Bob left, he was much more laid back and calm, but now overseas he seems drained and tense.  He talks about the horrible things he’s seen, like how his men cut off victims heads and put them on spikes as warnings, and how everything just seems like bullshit, not at all the patriotic duty everyone makes them think it will be.  We also get the real reason he doesn’t want Sally to work, or volunteer (her once justifiable loop hole).  Bob is really just afraid she will be unfaithful while he is away.

For Sally, it seems that she is on a path of self discovery while her husband is away.  It felt like she and Vi always had men to depend on all their lives, but now with just the two women running a house, they realize they can exist without men.  Sally is more taken care of than Vi though, who still works regular shifts while her husband is away.  With Sally realizing how wonderfully privileged her life has been, she feels more obligated to give back and volunteer.  And once she finds Luke, she finds more purpose in helping him, both with his physical setbacks and political agenda.  Then, as they become lovers, Sally learns that men can be sexually giving as well, but no one really wants to see Jane Fonda in that explicit of a position.  You have been warned.

By this tail end of the film journey, I’ve seen multiple movies about the mistreatment and plight of paralyzed Vietnam veterans.  I’d say that this gives the viewer a broader perspective by not just focusing on a man in the wheelchair, but becomes watered down to a love triangle.  Sadly, the only character I really liked here was Luke, he gained my sympathy while Sally and Bob seemed to be setting themselves up for their problems.

“And I know some of you guys are going to look at the uniformed man and you’re going to remember all the films and you’re going to think about the glory of other wars and think about some vague patriotic feeling and go off and fight this turkey too.  And I’m telling you it ain’t like it is in the movies.”

Platoon

“Somebody once wrote: ‘Hell is the impossibility of reason.’ That’s what this place feels like. Hell.”

By this point in my cinematic quest, I’ve seen a shitload of war movies, but non of them have such a dire feeling of Hell on Earth like Platoon.  From the moment Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) steps off a plane and in Vietnam, he is deep in it.  Before his eyes can even adjust to the light, veterans shout to him, “You’re gonna love the Nam.  For fucking ever.” and to his side, a newbie comrade points to a line of body-bags and asks, “Aw man, it that what I think it is?”

Turns out, Taylor dropped out of college to serve in Vietnam thinking it would be some great honor where he could emerge with a new found purpose and honor in his life.  He soon discovers that his generation’s war has no honor, dignity or purpose.  When his comrades die, they are then referred to as a “pile of shit” and made an example of what not to do.  It is all so brutal and savage and as Taylor becomes more disillusioned, he writes home less, smokes more pot and just doesn’t care if he lives or dies.

His platoon is lead by two opposing sergeants, Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Elias (Willem Dafoe).  Barnes is the indestructible, scar-faced, brute who has seen a lot of action and doesn’t give his men any slack.  Elias is a more spiritual, passionate man who smokes dope regularly and tries to connect with his men.  Both Berenger and Dafoe were nominated as best supporting actor.  When Taylor realizes a horrible injustice between Barnes and Elias, the battles won’t just be left out in the jungle anymore.

The film quickly becomes a collection of horrific images.  We witness the men slay innocent villagers for no reason.  They kill each other, leave the weak or slow behind and watch their dramatic and iconic death.  After the final battle, the amount of bodies scattered around is just staggering.  One of the last images is from a helicopter we see a crater and all around, almost neatly spaced, are fallen men in and around the crater.  These images are not about gore, but the brutality, destruction and devastation of the Vietnam War on human life.

With all these horrible things being just another day in Nam, it is no wonder that many of the men turn to drugs and alcohol.  In a bunker, they smoke pot and drink beer just to escape reality for a while.  This form of escapism brings out the anti-war message.  These men realize that they are not really accomplishing anything out there, their fighting and dying is just an undignified bunch of bull.  With that astonishing level of mental defeat, yeah, I’d be lighting up too.

Oliver Stone wrote and directed Platoon after his own tour in Vietnam where he won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.  He has said, “I believed in the John Wayne image of America. My father was a Republican, and he taught me that it was a good war because the Communists were the bad guys and we had to fight them. And then there was the romanticism of the Second World War as it appeared in the films we mentioned. Obviously, the reality was very different.”  We can easily see that Sheen’s character is loosely based off Stone’s own motivations and experiences.  Stone was introduced to drugs and revolutionary anti-war music while in Vietnam.

From Stone’s experiences in Vietnam sprung this great film, one of the most brutal and honest depictions of war you can find on film.  He put his actors through an exhausting boot camp before filming even began to give them that haggard look of just wanting to go home.  It worked.  Platoon rightly won the Oscars for best director, sound, editing and picture.  If you can stomach two hours of Hell on Earth, Platoon is a must see film for all generations.

Finally, I hope you don’t mind my quote choice.  I just never thought I’d hear this outside my hometown.

“Ain’t nothing like a piece of pussy, except maybe the Indy 500.”

Apocalypse Now

I’ve heard the line that this film isn’t about Vietnam, rather it is Vietnam.  Ravaged in violence, wrapped in madness, soothed with beautiful scenery and laced with drugs; that sounds about right.

In Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) is in Saigon, impatiently awaiting his next mission.  Alone in his hotel room, he’s drunk and violent enough to punch a mirror, cutting his hand and bleeding on things.  He seems on the verge of madness.  His mission finally comes, brought up to him like room service.  Willard is to travel to Cambodia, seek out and “terminate with extreme prejudice” Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a decorated special forces soldier with a nearly spotless record, who has set himself up in the jungle as a god-like ruler of a tribe.  It’s a dangerous journey, partially by helicopter and then by boat, tangled in battles and bloodshed.  Along the way, Willard studies all the files he has been given about Kurtz and not only begins to understand the man more, but to respect him.

The stunning cinematography builds up both the natural beauty of the jungle and the realistic horrors of the Vietnam war.  We are shown aerial shots of mountains, swaying palm trees and lush jungles with tree roots as tall as hurdles that just nourish your eyes.  Then there’s the helicopters flying in like giant wasps to Ride of the Valkyries, fires blazing, hazy smoke of all colors, flares and explosives whizzing by like fireworks.  These are all captured so beautifully it can be maddening and frightening.  I can’t even begin to imagine what Lance (Sam Bottoms) was feeling on that acid trip.

My only gripe is that once Willard got to Kurtz, everything afterwards was a bit of a let down.  As a character, Kurtz was build up so much on paper and in Willard’s mind, that I had formed my own expectations.  Not that Brando didn’t put on a great performance, he always does.  It’s just I had been waiting in anticipation for two hours to see just how crazy Kurtz was, only to have him obscured in shadow and quote T.S. Eliot.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it.

While it was perfectly understood that Willard was in a dire situation and Kurtz was mad with power and his own ideas, I was becoming more and more emotionally detached from the film.  I’m still trying to figure out exactly why.  Perhaps it was the photojournalist (Dennis Hopper)who seems to just be worshiping Kurtz in between bong hits.  Man, it was like everything he would say started with man and I just could not take him seriously.  He really did become a distraction to me and I started wondering what he ate around there when he got the munchies.  Would mangoes satisfy?

The film is loosely based off Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and borrows lines from T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men, which he wrote inspired by Conrad and thrown is into the Vietnam war setting.  It seems like an odd mixture, but it works.  The journey takes us further and further from civilization, the conventional war and brings us into something much darker and primordial.  The realizations about how fragile civilized life is can throw a man into utter despair and madness.  When he’s fully realized that, as Kurtz has, what else is there to do except declare yourself a god and wait for the rest of the world to fall:  Apocalypse Now.

“This is the way the fucking world ends!  Look at this fucking shit we’re in, man!  Not with a bang, but with a whimper.”

Forrest Gump

From the moment we see Forrest sitting on a bus bench with muddy Nikes, a half eaten box of chocolates and placing the feather at his feet between the pages of his Curious George book, we see he’s a unique person.  Most could quickly write him off as “special” and tell their kids not to stare or talk to him.  His southern drawl mixed with his slightly jarring speech is unusual, but the way he’s able to recollect his story with such a modest kind of innocent passion and gusto proves that there is much more than meets the eye.

Forrest (Tom Hanks) tells the story of his life, beginning from his childhood with braces on his legs.  We see the lengths his mama (Sally Field) goes through for Forrest to feel like a normal child and we meet his first and only friend, Jenny (Robin Wright as an adult).  They go together “like peas and carrots” and grow up.  Forrest is able to go to the University of Alabama on a football scholarship since he “can run like the wind blows.”  After he graduates he joins the army and is sent to fight in Vietnam.  Forrest’s life intersects many important events of the 1960s and ’70s, including integration, Vietnam and Watergate.

Like Forrest, we will all have good times in our lives, bad times, accomplishments and times where all we can do is run.  These are all just chapters in our lives.

One of my favorite parts of the film, is when Jenny asks Forrest about being scared in Vietnam.  When he answers he doesn’t really talk about those fears, instead he tells her about some of the most beautiful things he’s seen in his time.  It’s not that he avoids the question, but perhaps his perspective in life is coming from complete optimism, without even realizing it.  If only we could all have that sort of focus on life and everything around us.

I’ve seen this movie, about as many times as Forrest has had a Dr. Pepper, but it still tugs at my heart and brings a few tears to my eyes.  A good friend of mine and I once had a great conversation about this movie (he said he enjoys this blog and for that I can’t be more grateful).  Anyway, we talked about how Forrest shows us a great way to live.  We talked about how great it would be to just get up and run for three years and have great things just sort of fall in our laps.  We remembered his struggles as well as his triumphs, laughed at how he felt a little annoyed at meeting four presidents and just took the film as a way to approach life.

Today, Forrest just made me feel alright that I’m in a running chapter of my life.  I don’t know where I’m headed, but my feet are moving somewhere and that’s just fine by me.

“Why are you doing this?  I just felt like running.”