This is my perspective on the final scene from Stanley Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket.'
If you agree or disagree, please feel free to let me know what you think. Thanks.
The film concludes by reconciling what Joker refers to as the duality of man. Man, by nature, is an animal and will revert to his basic drives under the right circumstances. The battlefield brings out the animal side of man’s personality. Joker’s cognitive dissonance comes from his desire for peace being in conflict with his basic animal drive which is that of a killer. God commands men not to kill when He, Himself, kills when doing so is justified. This is why Joker’s gun jams at the end of the film when he tries to shoot the sniper in the back; this kind of kill would have been impersonal and not have reconciled humanity and the act of killing. To harmonize his “Peace” button with “Born to Kill” on his helmet, he has to find a moral justification for killing the sniper and this moral justification is given when she looks him in the face and begs him to end her suffering. Killing her this way becomes a mercy killing, something that involves humanity and something that brings the act of killing in line with his idea of peace. In killing her out of mercy, Joker transcends the animal side of his personality, combining the qualities of both humanity and animal, acquires the 1,000-yard stare, and becomes the Full Metal Jacket.
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