Full Metal Jacket and Platoon

Compared to Full Metal Jacket, Platoon was a lot more intense for me. Not only the action, but what each character was facing mentally during the war. It went straight to the Vietnam, rather than going through the training, showing opposing choices of the two directors. Obviously, Kubrick, thought this stage of a soldier in Vietnam was very important and contributed to his story.

What stood out the most in Platoon is how the war itself affected the soldiers. For some of them, Vietnam was home. Bunny claimed to have liked it there, saying he could do whatever he wanted and nobody told him what to do. The violence didn't affect him, as he had no remorse for the civilian who got his head cracked open by his gun. However, other soldiers just wanted to go back to the "world," using this word to separate their home from Vietnam. They didn't want to go into a battle, in fear that they would be killed before being sent home. The contrast between these types of soldiers was interesting.

What Platoon also showed that Full Metal Jacket did not, was how the war drove some soldiers against each other. When Barnes had that girl in his arms with gun held to her head and Grodin showed his disagreement with a fight, some controversy was brought up. However, it is interesting to observe the situation with the little girl at the end of Full Metal Jacket and compare it to this one. When Joker killed the little girl, there was a lot less commotion as someone referred to him as "hard core." In the Platoon scene, Grodin stopped Barnes from shooting the girl, but can still be looked at as similar to Joker who killed the girl. While all the other soldiers were so used to violence, this situation did not faze them. However, Grodin and Joker were two characters that saw things the others didn't. Joker saw that it was wrong to let the girl just lay and rot on the ground, contrary to his soldiers and stepped up by doing something brave by shooting here, the same as Grodin.