Full Metal Jacket Analysis

Among a number of puzzling questions raised in the film Full Metal Jacket (1987), one of the most important is “Why did Pvt. Pyle kill the drill instructor and himself?” To answer this question, one must analyse several scenes in the first third of the film where the platoon is in basic training. Right from the start of the film, Leonard Lawrence (nicknamed Gomer Pyle) is singled out from the platoon for poor decision making and simply being physically unfit. Throughout bootcamp, a sequence of events takes place that alienates Pvt. Pyle and eventually culminates in the deaths of the drill instructor and Pvt. Pyle himself. The first scene that comes to mind for anyone when they think of Full Metal Jacket is the very beginning. The soldiers

At this point the drill instructor realizes that Leonard will never make it through boot camp without help. He assigns “Joker” (a fellow soldier and the main character of the film) to mentor him. Joker and Pyle work together on even the simplist of things that Pyle cannot get right, such as tying his boots. There is one scene in particular where Pyle is finally able to make it over the obstacle that has given him problems. That scene was a turning point because it shows that Pyle is capable to accomplish anything in boot camp with help from the other soldiers. In the Marine Corps boot camp, the soldiers are taught that they are weapons and their sole purpose is to kill. The drill instructor notes that there have been a lot of former marines that do horrible things, including Lee Harvey Oswald. He uses this to explain that they were trained within the Marine Corps and by the time that they are though, they would be capable of doing the same. You can imagine what being told your only purpose is to kill does to someone like that. A little later on, Pyle is starting to do well (even surpassing Joker in some ways). They start to learn how to shoot their rifles. The drill instructor immediately takes notice to Pyle’s proficiency with his