Full Metal Jacket helps to portray the nitty gritty of the training of Marines at Paris Island and the psychological affects that can happen and shows a different side from the normal commercials or other videos you have seen about the Marines. For me I liked seeing how rough the drill sergeants are towards the recruits and how tough the training truly is. Plus the language used such as "do you suck dick" was one very hardcore example of the verbal and mental abuse you take going through boot camp. Events like these show how the marines turn a normal man into a killer and this theme of the men being a "killer" is talked about and portrayed throughout the film. For instance when the drill sergeant lists assassins such as Lee Harvey Oswald to describe the type of marksman the marines turn their soldiers into, he has no anger in the death of JFK that a former marine did the act but instead describes to the detail the shot to show his men that marines are true killers. Once boot camp was over FMJ helped to portray the craziness of the men over there plus the boredome that takes place over time. Such as the scene on the helicopter when the gunner is just firing at civilians because he can and he is crazy enough to do so. There is a pattern that goes on throughout the movie that the men who have not seen any action want to get into the "shit" while the ones who have benn there or are in it already want to get the hell out of the "shit." Also there is hidden little jokes in the movie such as when the hooker shows asking for money for sexual favors and the soldiers reply with we have some AVRN rifles that are brand new, never been shot. This joke is directed at the AVRN which is the South Vietnamese Army and pokes at how they were worthless when it came to fighting the enemy and how the U.S. soldiers were having to do all the work.

Platoon on the other hand however focuses more on just a unit that has been deployed for awhile with the addition of one soldier and the day and day out in the country and the experiences a soldier went through. This movie goes into greater detail of the daily lives of th emen from the patrolling of the forest all they way to smoking in a tiny shack to relax. This movie dives deeper into the darkness of the war than FMJ for instance with the raping of women in the village or the burning of the village that is suspected of housing Vientcong. Oliver Stone tries to hide nothing from the audience but instead portrays the war he remembers when he was there, helping to open people's eyes that we were not the good guys that many people try to portray. He shows the drug use of the soldiers which helps to explain how so many soldiers came back from Vietnam with drug addictions. Also he portrays the tension that can build up between soldiers and higher ranking men such as the arguing between the two NCOs and how this can split apart a unit into different factions and the detrimental effects that can come about such as the village scene when one sergeant kills a lady and could care less whiel the other ends the whole scene. He also shows how at times officers had no control over their men by how the Lt. in the same scene does nothing to stop the killing of the woman.

Though the two movies have their differences they alike in some parts by they both portray some form of the war time economy the U.S. helped to create over there. For example how in FMJ you have the hookers all over that make money by sleeping with the soldiers while in Platoon you see the soldiers have wasted their money on acquiring drugs to smoke. Also both movies help to show the gruesomeness of the war by how both sides commit atrocities. In FMJ when the bodies are in the massive grave because the people did not agree with the NVA's ideals so the NVA felt the need to eliminate them. Then in Platoon you have the American soldiers raping girls and then burning down a village just because it was suspected of being Vietcong. Lastly both movies show the chaos that was the war by in FMJ you have the Tet offensive that shows the U.S. they do not have control over charlie they thought they had and in Platoon the last battle scene shows how most of the time the lines the U.S. thought they would have would break down and instances such as the suicide bomber blowing up the command center ensues.