full metal jacket Essay -- essays research papers fc

Full Metal Jacket and Platoon are clearly two of the biggest movies ever made about the Vietnam War; therefore, they will always be compared and contrasted to each other. Platoon was based on Oliver Stone’s own experience so he used simple war movie techniques to give a realistic sense of what jungle warfare was like. Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket was based on Gustav Hasford’s experience, but Kubrick wanted to use the story to explore what made people into killers. These two films take very different approaches and if we are to compare them it should be in the capacity to understand what war means to the average person. Both of the films are very detailed in depicting what actual warfare is like; however, Platoon gives a great sense of the environment: miserably hot, extremely intense, disease filled, and a very scary environment no one would readily want to visit. Full Metal Jacket explores this too, but focuses a lot attention on the process and training involved in preparing for war. These two films are a lot alike in two aspects: they both view the war pretty much through the eyes of one soldier and they both seriously glorify war and make it appear very glamorous. Both have strong male leads who it appears live in a strange masculine realm where everyday rules do not necessarily apply to everyday people. This concept is always appealing to males because even if they were never in combat they feel as if they have â€Å"experienced† it. Both ...