The Last Scenes are Just as Important

As we discussed in class, the opening scenes of both movies are important in that they help to understand what the rest of the movie is going to be like. Similarly the last scenes of both movies are also as crucial. They provide a nice summary of what the main characters have learned and the realizations they have made along the way. The last scenes also serve another purpose; they are the last chance the movies have to make the audience think and reflect before sending them out of the theaters.
At the end of Platoon, we see soldiers dealing with the aftermath of the previous night’s battle. The camera jumps from area to area watching as soldiers clean up all the dead bodies. The insensitivity of this act is demonstrated by the fact that they were either being poured out of a flat bed truck like rubble, throw into massive pits where they seemed to accumulate in large numbers, or scooped up into bull-dozers. To me, this demonstrates the static nature of most of the soldiers. They still see their enemies as just their enemies, not as humans. This is contrasted by the few statements Chris Taylor makes as the movie draws closer to the credits. Accompanied by the remorseful and somber piece of music playing in the background, we can get a feeling for Chris’s emotions. He is unsure if he will ever be able to sort out for himself what the difference is between right and wrong in regards to war. He feels conflicted, evident when he states “As I’m sure Elias will be fighting with Barnes for what Rah called 'possession of my soul.'” This leaves the audience with the feeling that although war is a necessary evil, the soldiers don’t have to lose their humanity in order to be effective killers.
In contrast to Platoon, Full Metal Jacket wants to reaffirm its opening idea that in order to be effective soldiers, you must distance yourself from your sense of morals, and have to have the ability to obey commands. In the last scene, you see a group of soldiers walking towards their next objective, showing that there is no time to think about things that happen. Just like the beginning of the movie, the seriousness of the situation is assuaged by the fact that they are singing the “Mickey Mouse” song. Although the last twenty minutes of the movie have been grueling, the director chooses to counter the mood by having them sing this song. As for the last words, Joker admits that he is “in a world of shit, yes, but [he] is alive, and not afraid.”