Full Metal Jacket
“This is my rifle.This is my gun. One is for killing. The other’s for fun.”
The Hurt Locker
“The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” –Chris Hedges
Restrepo
“Battle six Romeo this is two-six. Right now we have the hilltop.”
The idea that the evolution of cinema has proceed along a parallel track with the development of warfare technology is one that has been taken up by students of film theory as well as by philosophers and cultural studies theorists. Oddly enough, one of the first movie cameras was derived in part from the technology used to make the Gatling gun. Since then the imbrication of war with film has intensified over time. In our present era, we find the technology used in pilot headsets, night vision goggles, and un-piloted ROVs or “drones” has evolved to the extent that modern combat appears choreographed to mimic cinematic effects: war is like a movie or video game, only one that has life-altering and often deadly consequences for its players. Given that the overwhelming majority of us experience war and conflict, not from the front lines but indirectly, through entertainment venues, i.e. cinema, television, video, or online via the Internet, it is increasingly important that people exercise vigilance when it come to making choices about media information sources. The three films depicted here are all award winning pictures that in many respects make war their central character. Reflect on our classroom discussions and consider the following questions:
How are social hierarchies portrayed in the films? In other words, how are the characters ranked and organized into social groups; furthermore, who has access to social power and on what basis do they claim that power? How might gender concepts based on notions of what is considered proper masculine and feminine behavior be operating in the films, either overtly or covertly? What do the films tell us about what it means to be a man or woman who is at war? Do “parts” matter?
What underlying critique might be presented by the film makers that speaks to the social organization of violence in our culture?
What are the significant personal attributes, attitudes, and behaviors that define the major characters in these films? What stereotypes are indicated in terms of race, class, and gender?
How is group membership and social solidarity expressed and shared by the different group members? What happens to people when they become separated or separate themselves from their primary group?
Full Metal Jacket was an exceptional film that portrayed the experience of men that enlist into the army while exemplifying the raw reality of it’s negative impact on them. In the beginning of the film, the drill sergeant exerted his dominance to the men and let them know that they are ranked to the equivalence of garbage. His militant ranking allowed him to dictate, humiliate, and mentally destroy these men. The men in training on the other hand had to endure physical and emotional anguish while putting on a facade that they are “man” enough to take it. The way they’re chastised can eat away at they’re masculinity and they may feel the pressure of going through with this commitment to prove themselves. Throughout the film, it was evident that women were not apart of this war. The only women roles in this film were a prostitute and a sniper assassin. This can illustrate the stereotype of women being used for sexual pleasure or that they’re men’s enemies. The film overall highlights the violence that occur during war. Whether its the violence they’re experiencing during training or the one on the battlefield, it’s evident that Americans romanticize violence. One particular part of the film that stood out to me is when one of the soldiers were killing innocent civilian’s ,“gooks”, and when asked if he killed women and children he callously said yes and laughed while killing more people. They’re being trained to kill but are forgetting to be human. They’re killing other people, but ultimately killing themselves. The sad part about this culture is when they come back home, they’re idolized for being trained to be killing machines for a cause no one is certain about.
War and cinema has been a very powerful tool to emulate and display vast views of how American war and soldiers are very loyal to their own. In fact, a movie like Full Metal Jacket shows the effects of war and despite how anyone looks and or appears in the movie, doing war is always for the American cause. Highlighted in this film in particular you witness the over sexualized themes of how war is portrayed. Also this gives way of how women are viewed. Only two women appeared in the film. The first was a prostitute and the last was a sniper. The inevitable meaning suggests how women are viewed and movies of these kind suggest about the thoughts of American soldiers that tend to highly skew the means of war when it comes to gender and sex. War is a masculine thing that is “only” for men. Women “should not be allowed”. However history tends to prove us as a nation wrong when it comes to the important roles that many women played through war within the United States.
According to the movie “Full Metal Jacket”, the purpose of their social organization is to be professional soldiers for Vietman War. The purpose of organize socially is to achieve official goal and to be a member of the social organization in our culture, a person should be unified and well adopted in the social organization. The indepence and autonomy should not be allowed in this reason. However,
some people separated or fall behind other members in skills, abilities and some reasons. They cannot socialize well and disharmonize in the social group. This problem causes the social organization of violence.
However, the social organization of violence doesn not solve the problem but it makes the situation worse. It is the action that disrespect one person’s rights. When the person feel the disrespect of his rights, that person hope to have back his human rights. In the movie “Full Metal Jacket” conveys this message well. Historically, people who were trampled their human rights resist to it and raise coupdeta to against them. They want to fight back to regain their human rights.
The group membership and social solidarity are the invisible commitment of the social organization. Therefore when someone become separated or separate himself from the primary group, the other members believe that separated person disobeyed their invisible commitments and they are willing to punish him for not obeying their commitments. In their perspective, the person who breaks their invisible rule is the violence because that person raises disharmony of their group.
When I think of War and Cinema, the first movie to pops up Emma mine days also a favorite is “Saving Private Ryan”. The movie was looked at as the perspective of a soldier looking for his brother. All of the scenes pretty much put you on a roller coaster of sadness, guilt, and a little bit of joy. It shows how people lose it Friends with an army. It shows the sacrifices that people make in on me for not only for the family, not themselves, but also as a unit. But what about the bad side. What I mean is how do they get recruited? Other than lives being lost which is obvious, but what are these soldiers exposed to?
As we watch Full Metal Jacket, the first 45 minutes displays what goes on in basic training. It’s not easy as everyone thinks it is. The sergeant got killed and the guy killed himself. Or what about the movie Black President. It shows how people going to the army and get exposed to different drugs, and when he come back to the United States they can’t find a decent job to help them stay afloat. So what happens is they decided to take matters today on hand. They either continue to use the hard drugs or they try to find a way to make quick money by using the skills they learned an army. There’s just a couple of movies that displays war in ways that Hollywood doesn’t want to do. A lot of times these movies a popular to a certain crowd who can relate, but they don’t make it known for society to be aware.
War&Cinema.. for me that sounds like two subjects that go very well together. As an American, I feel that when we watch movies and shows about war or even those that have a slight mention towards war, we automatically get defensive and pick the good side. As citizens here, I feel that the “good side” we defend is usually America. We constantly think many times that there is a “black and a white” or a “good and a bad” and do not focus on the grey. This is how media on war affects our minds.
The U.S media does not go in depth to show us what really happens behind the scenes. We usually here about “successful wars” or big events or even if some mistake was to happen at the war scene. This is what the media tends to cover often times, but do we ever think about the emotional/physical abuse, the truth behind these stories?
Unlike the garbage news, these films show us the reality. They bring the emotions of the soldiers to life and watching these kind of films really opens my eyes.
These soldiers are away from their loved ones, they are out there fighting for us, going through hell for us.
These are the films that the news media should be covering to show Americans the behind the scenes reality.
In media, consumers all around the world have generated most revenue in a specific genre, horror/violence. It is proven and has been studied extensively in science because people consume violence in different manner be it imagery, verbal, reading, and even science articles result of studying in depth and measuring attraction. Male gender is also identified by a major statistical significance to feel gratification from violence and ideas of violence. Therefore, it is not a coincidence that the consumers targeted most for advertisement in media are male fishing them in through ideas of masculinities and power through violent imagery such as Full Metal Jacket, The Hurt Locker, Restrepo, Narcos, Taxi to the Dark Side, Rambo, Avengers, etc The list itself of possible types of violence is endless.
Thanks to psychological studies uncovering human desire to watch violence and seek violence in different ways, corporations designed advertising with intent to develop and make society believe in the need to purchase and invest in intelligent advance weapon production. Results from such overexposure include detachment from feelings of remorse due to objectification of target, training programs and games perfecting use of intelligent weapons, new line of weapons for use in civilian, political/military conflicts. With no one regulating the impact of rapid production and growth in corporations is immense and affects human behavior with time. We see more violent acts as normal behavior where before people were capable of empathy and feelings of uneasiness when listening to acts of violence such as beheading victims, rape and sexual assault, murder, use of inhumane methods of torture in governmental policies not easily disclosed, the use of drones to kill and remove faces from targets, high numbers of violent suicides, the legal system categorizing types of violence under occupational hazards is acceptable and constantly pardon with little to no reprimanding. It truly alarms me to see where human behavior evolution is heading. We lack and discourage traits of emotional higher development because emotions don’t produce revenue, hate and detachment behavior does.
These movies are just what Hollywood wants us to see what war is about but coming from their opinion. They might be able to show us more or less how attacks happen. They might show us so much emotions that we as the audience are able to feel the pain through any movie, video games and/ or stories. We are able to sympathy with the family members of these characters but in reality we will never know how any one may feel at any given moment. Movies, shows and the media are here to amuse us and make money by doing it. Yes they can show us the wars, the emotions, the pain, and the happiness but we will never know. I’m honestly not a big fan of war movies. This class has opened my eyes to a couple things that I salud to those that have served and are serving because now knowing what I know, I do not regret not joining about 15 years ago. I know and understand everyone’s experience is different but I have conclude I’m ok now with my own decision. I believe that people should be more educated before joining such a strict institution.
I was raised in a conservative home, who like many I believe were fooled into believing the war in Iraq and Afghanistan were a good idea. It is easy to now say that in hindsight they were not. It amazes me though that so many people worship films like American Sniper. What’s even worse is that Hollywood is so willing to cash in on the tragedy of war to make a profit and get people riled up. This film has caused a great divide in the country between people who loved it and people who hated it. I cannot understand where people who enjoyed the film are coming from, as it is taken almost directly from the film Inglorious Basterds in which the Nazis are holding a propaganda film premier in France. That is all I can think after watching American Sniper, is an easy way to make money and promote war propaganda. It is however nice to see films like Restrepo that show the darker side to war and the more dramatic and negative things that people experience there. When I was younger I had idealized the idea of war and wanted to be in the marines. This quickly changed after I saw the film Born on the Fourth of July and read the Red Badge of Courage. These types of things show a much more realistic view of how war effects soldiers.
I agree with Vinny; I was raised by immigrant parents who were very anti- U.S. in some ways. My solution to that was to steadfastly hold on to who I was (I was born here, educated here, and felt a very deep sense of patriotism at a very early age.) As a result, I had great respect for men who were willing to put their lives on the line for their country and considered being a marine or navy pilot for a time.
I’ve seen my share of war movies and most of it is very sanitized. They constantly show war as this great big adventure where America is on the side of the God and wherever they are fighting is the devil and we always win. (If we don’t win, they show soldiers doing things that are very brave to give viewers a feel-good feeling.) I think this is a function of the media’s role in making war a game and that encourages people to sign up. I will describe how that makes me feel in class.
I look forward to you sharing this in discussion!
Out of the three films listed above the only one I have seen is Restrepo. In that film, especially since it is filmed in the middle of war, it paints a clear picture of war and the structure of war and the military. I think one clear thing in the film is the gender boundaries in war. Although women are allowed to be in the military and are allowed to be on the battlefield, there were no women in the film. In class we discussed that at that time women were not allowed to be in the particular unit that the men in Restrepo were a part of. That speaks a lot about the military and gender roles in the military. As much as women are “equal” by being allowed into the military, not having equal opportunity for all positions means women still have a far way to go. Women not being in the film however allows for a different view of the men in war. The men in the unit obviously still act in a very masculine manor, especially when trying to assert their dominance over the local people. When interacting with the native people they talk very down to them with and I am much better than you kind of attitude. This attitude seems to come from being an American man in the military as well as just being a man in the military. They have been given the power by the American military to go into these villages and take over, and at some times it seems that power has gone to their head, and they have lost some of the reason they have been told they are there for. They are trying to convince the people they are there to help them and bring democracy and peace, but at the same time it is in a forceful manner, asserting dominance, saying it is my way or no way. At one point in the film they shoot at a village where they end up killing five innocent adults and wounding innocent men, women, and children. When the head of the unit was talking to the locals who said they did not approve of the actions they had taken, the head of the unit said well I killed one Taliban and that makes up for your five innocent. It was almost like he was saying tough luck, I came and did my job and I do not care if that means killing you or any innocent people. Understandably, this man was doing his job as put forth by the United States Military, but it is interesting to see how these men internalize their orders. He was handed an order and he fulfilled the order, but he was also given a lot of power by being handed that order and being handed all that power, he turns around and abuses it with these people. I am sure when he returned home and was no longer surrounded by war, his attitude and reflections of the situation may have been very different from when he was in war. This film in particular really made you think about how much the situations you are put in truly shape you and the decisions you make. Being in the military and in the situations they were in made them make decisions that when they came home they could not handle.
While watching the film Restrepo in particular, I immediately thought of my co-worker. He served in the US Army and fought in Kuwait. He is a middle class man with Hispanic lineage. It is a bit hard to find words expressing his personality, however even if you do not know him, you will be able to see that he has been through a great deal just by speaking with him.
The men in Restrepo all reminded me of my co-worker because they had very similar personalities. They were fighting for America, and were following orders. When I got to work after watching the film Why We Fight, I asked him why he believed was he fought in Kuwait, and he answered, “Why did I fight? For my country. What do I think we were there? For oil.” Frankly, however, after the class lecture we had that day I was not surprised.
What I noticed, was how excited and pumped they seemed when they were on the bus ride “Going to war”. However, when they were filmed after they got back and were commenting on their experience, they seemed like completely changed individuals.
I, for one, am fascinated by war films. Not because the films necessarily end in victory or heart-felt good endings, but because of the subtle ways the films portray and represent the soldiers and the “enemy”. From the films listed above, I have seen The Hurt Locker and Restrepo. Both films give a very powerful representation of the many difficult and extremely dangerous operations that soldiers endure in the Middle East. Explosive Ordinance Disposal (deactivating bombs) and deployment to the most dangerous areas of war. I believe the films give a clear indication of gender roles at a time of war. Women are at war as well, but are still not given representation when it comes down to performing the most grueling tasks in American warfare. Males are given the most rigorous tasks that exist. These males at war are shown as regular American men mostly middle class and lower middle class who are risking their lives for the military. Both films portray the men as had nosed, tough as nails and able to perform any task that is asked of them, but also deal with a lot of emotional issues that many men and women might not be able to handle as well as the men in the films. These two films are great examples of what soldiers really go through during times of war. The U.S media outlets don’t really go into depth about what really happens behind the scenes in these countries. Most news reports are about casualties of war (both Allied and Middle Eastern), operations that were successful and current events, but not the emotional stress that these soldiers endure on a daily basis. A strong male figure might be represented at times of war, but a human can only take so much physical and mental strain until it begins to affect them during war. In these films we see the characters emotions come to light. We see the toughest individuals in the world ultimately break down. Caused by what they are put through. The extreme isolation from their natural habitats might make soldiers change their mental processes, emotions and overall behavior. These soldiers are in combat with themselves and their enemy. These soldiers only have themselves when they are performing these war tasks away from home. Soldiers in the films cope with these hardships by unifying with each other. Building a brotherhood is essential in keeping themselves safe and sane, helping one another out when they are many miles away from home and away from their families.
The movie, Restrepo, is a heart felt film that manages to capture the emotions of its audience. The soldiers in the film represent a diversified group of individuals, who live in a class driven society, and fight to break economic barriers. The movie does an excellent job of revealing the mindsets of the soldiers and how they have prepared, developed, and trained themselves for war. The idea of gender roles is highlighted within the film as we see the reactions of the men in regards to each death that takes place. When fighting a war, the soldiers are divided into informal groups, those that take on a leadership role and serve to regroup their members In times of distress and those who may be consider ‘weak links’. These soo called ‘ weak links’ can disrupt the group dynamic if their is not a stronger figure present to motivate and encourage. The scene in the film where a soldier begins to cry hysterically after a member is killed, draws much attention to this idea of gender roles and what the characteristics of a man should be. Society associates men with strength and courage and those men who do not fit such a mold may be looked down up. Is it okay for a man to cry? Where do we draw the line between acceptable behavior for a man and unacceptable behavior?
Although I can’t speak on all three movies listed I will speak on the ones I have seen. When watching the movie Restrepo for example and considering the notion of gender and seeing the lack of diversity I begin to question if there is equality. We see now more and more women in the military front lines as a pose to years ago but not nearly enough to balance the scale of male to female. My first thought was maybe female soldiers are not given extremely dangerous missions that the male soldiers in Restrepo was given. It could have been any number of reasons there were no females in this platoon but it goes to show there is a long way to go before there is an equal male to female ratio.
When watching movies and shows we are stimulated and emotions are often drawn out of us. War movies especially are captivating because it forces the audience like myself to cheer for the good guy. We are fed the idea that there is a good and bad, a black and a white. Many times in American films including many documentaries America is depicted as the good guy. Most recently with the help of educational outlets and through mass media I began to closely examine the ideas and the perspectives thrown at us. Also realizing there are different perspectives often not portrayed, that gray area.