Animal Lover is a character that everyone remembers from Full Metal Jacket. The first time we meet him he is clutching his oversized gun, covered in head to toe with ammunition and aggression. He instantly calls out Joker about his lack of experience regarding combat. He is an intimidating, brute force that has "become death," as his helmet will have you believe.
Animal Lover is the quintessential All-American soldier. When engaged in a firefight, he doesn't use those lame little rifles like everyone else; instead, he uses an enormous mounted gun which uses the 4 inch bullets that he carries around with him. He goes big or goes home, and that's the American mentality: Win by being the biggest and most powerful force on the battlefield. He also shows the All-American loyalty when 8 Ball gets shot. Instead of waiting for backup and a tank, he goes with his gut decision (that there is just a single sniper) and wants to run over to help his fallen brother. He also is loud and pushy, as he gets pissed at Cowboy for not rescuing 8 Ball earlier and refuses to listen to his orders. All of these things show the attitude of the American Army during the war, that being "hey we'll just use more firepower and personally kill every last enemy" (Operation Rolling Thunder anyone?).
The reason I like Animal Lover so much is because he is pretty much a superhero. Everything about him is exaggerated, from the huge knife attached to his left shoulder to his facial expression while firing his oversized gun. He doesn't care if he gets hurt or shot while rescuing a fellow soldier. When he scoped out the sniper situation, he got pegged down but didn't freak out; he just ran to cover without hesitating. He thinks he's immortal, and I'm fine with that.
Since I have noticed no comments on anyone's blogs yet... I'm going to ask who your favorite character was from either of these two movies (Platoon and Full Metal Jacket) and discuss why in the comments part of this.
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