Full Metal Jacket

Michael Bihn

Coms 206

Relational Movie Analysis

Introduction

My movie analysis will be on the movie Full Metal Jacket, released in 1987. It stars actors Matthew Modine (Pvt. Joker), Adam Baldwin (Animal Mother), Vincent D'Onofrio (Pvt. Pyle), and R. Lee Ermey (Gny. Sgt. Hartman). Throughout this paper, I will give a brief description of the movie, a communication theory and how it relates to the movie, twelve course concepts that relate, and lastly a description of three key scenes of the movie.

Brief Description of the movie

Full Metal Jacket takes place during the Vietnam War. It starts with the new recruits entering boot camp, or as they call it, the Island. The boot camp drill sargent is Gny. Sgt. Hartman leads the new privates through the paces. Throughout their time on the Island, the privates cope with the pressures put on them by the Drill Sargent along with the constant mistakes made by Pvt. Pyle. The night of boot camp graduation, Pvt. Pyle, who had been harassed for his mistakes and is now very emotionally disurbed, shoots Sgt. Hartman and then himself.

After boot camp, the movie skips to the battlefields of Vietnam where the recently graduated marines are located. Pvt. Joker works for Stars & Stripes as a journalist and is sent out into the field with a unit who has some soldiers with whom he graduated boot camp. Here he observes the cruelties of war as he sees his friends kill and be killed.

The newly recruited marines have an interpersonal relationship of friendship. The military has a strong power structure, and this can be seen by an organizational relationship between the privates and their drill instructor. Throughout this, all parties show great relationships reflecting issues of diversity including race, sexual orientation, and ability.

Communication Theory

This analysis will be centered on the interpersonal communication theory of relationship development. It will reflect on how the troops interact with each...