“THE HIDDEN HAND”
An in-depth analysis of
Stanley Kubrick’s
FULL METAL JACKET
© by Rob Ager June 2008
12) Spree killers
Kubrick’s friend and co-writer / co-producer on FMJ, Michael Herr, was originally a reporter during the Vietnam war and he wrote of his experiences in a book called Dispatches. It was from this book that a chilling scene from FMJ originated – the helicopter gunner indiscriminately shooting farmers. This airborn random killing of men, women and children was allegedly witnessed by Herr. Kubrick directs this re-enactment in a documentary style that appears to lack any kind of emotion. It's ironic that a fuss is made over just twenty dead Vietnamese bodies in a grave a few scenes later. The helicopter guinner claimed to have killed 157 and how many more like him are on tour? However, just as the seemingly cold Lusthog encounter with a prostitute was reversed in the sniper scene, the spree killer issue is also turned on its head.
Hartman introduces this theme verbally when he cites Charles Whitman and Lee Harvey Oswald as case examples of how effective a marine and his rifle can be. He speaks of Whitman’s death count and target distances with pride. He also told them during his Christmas speech: “God has a hard on for marines, because we kill everything we see. He plays his games. we play ours”. This is certainly what the helicopter gunner does.
There are definite connotations that recruit training has transformed Private Pyle into a potential spree killer. After his blanket party beating with soap bars, Pyle stands silent. The camera zooms in to a close up of his dead expression, as Hartman asks the recruits to repeat the phrase “kill, kill, kill”. From this close up of Pyle we dissolve into the recruits being asked by Hartman: “Does anyone know who Charles Whitman was”, thus implying a connection to Private Pyle. As Hartman’s spree killer speech ends we again zoom into Pyle, while Hartman explains: “Those individuals showed what one motivated marine and his rifle can do, and by the time you leave my island you will all be able to do the same thing”, again implying a connection between Whitman and Pyle.
The concept of Pyle as a walking loaded gun may have been more subtley re-inforced as he demonstrates superior target practice skills. When reloading, he throws a supposedly empty cartridge on the grass, but a bullet can be seen inside it’s chamber, where as the one he reloads with appears to already be empty. This may be a continuity error, although there are many other similar errors related to ammo clips and safety catches during the Vietnam scenes. Perhaps this is communicating another hidden theme.
After the helicopter gunner incident the spree killer theme seems to disappear until the sniper scene. As well as being a reversal of the gang bang rape, the sniper incident also appears to be a reversal of the spree killer concept. Rather than admiring Whitman’s rifle skills, as Hartman wanted them to, the marines are made to experience the spree killer mindset from the victims point of view.
A subtle hint that this was coming occurred during recruit training - a shot of the marching platoon dissolved into a set of practice targets.
As the Lusthogs argue about wanting to rescue their wounded friends, Cowboy tells them: “I’ve seen this before. That smiper’s just trying to suck us in one at a time”. Remember that Cowboy was from Texas, where Whitman carried out his killing spree. Cowboy was also the only recruit who could answer Hartman’s question about who Whitman was.