51 GREATEST FICTIONAL BAD GUYS

#15. GUNNERY SGT. HARTMAN from FULL METAL JACKET

Back in the late 80s, my best friend was in the Canadian Militia (for my American friends, it isn’t as redneck as it sounds — the militia’s just what we call our Reserves). They were recruiting, I needed cash, I lasted an hour. I had decided that being physically exhausted while being barked orders was counter-intuitive to my life goals. I did, however, hear of my friend’s many great misadventures while serving: court-martialed for going absent-without-leave, extreme push-ups for not having the uniform on right, getting crabs from dirty bed sheets (how tragic is it to get a sexually transmitted disease minus the sex?!) Yes, there are many things in life I regret, but serving in a military institution isn’t one of them.

In lieu of actual service, I did enjoy my time watching movies about soldiers. And between 1986 and 1989, we were besieged by Vietnam War films driven by social commentary: PLATOON, HAMBURGER HILL, CASUALTIES OF WAR and FULL METAL JACKET. They all hit similar beats and characters, summing up that war as a complete-and-utter fucked-up, morally bankrupt horror show to those sent in to fight it. Most seemed to have held the same tropes (burning villages, horror-filled battlefields, exploded limbs, dark humor amongst brothers in arms). You think you’ve seen it all, but then you’re introduced to Senior Drill Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Jesus, what a title!).

Hartman doesn’t seem to be human. His sole purpose in life is to seek submission, find fault and punish severely. He seems to have been born with two voice modes: loud and abrasive. The only time I remember his voice changing was in Private Pyle’s bathroom episode, where Vincent D’Onofrio’s character decides to say bye-bye to the sanity train for good. It’s a compelling scene for many reasons. Everything is cold blues and shadows. The best way to describe the music is a lulling pulse of dread. Private Joker is a statue observing something that is very, very wrong. The look on D’Onfrio’s face is five miles beyond deranged (the lighting makes him look like a broken doll). And when Hartman enters, he enters with the same caustic tone we’re used to. But even Hartman sees the thin ice of the situation. He takes the voice down a notch, downright quiet for this guy. But unfortunately, breaking his usual character is a double-edged sword. I sometimes wonder if Pyle shoots him because Hartman shows a form of weakness for that whole ten seconds.

Hartman, of course, is the cause of his own fate. Earlier, he tells his trainees they’re not human beings; they are killers. He teaches them about Charles Whitman and Lee Harvey Oswald, invoking them for their prowess as marksmen with no mention of their moral failings. He brings god up only as a continuation of Marine philosophy: the Almighty loves the Marines because they send him fresh souls (“God plays his games, we play ours!”). Like Frankenstein and his monster, Hartman and Pyle are caught in a loop. They are the cause and consequence of their own actions. They aren’t the first, they won’t be the last.

Hartman: “The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle. It is your killer instinct which must be harnessed if you expect to survive in combat. Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and strong you will hesitate at the moment of truth. You will not kill. You will become dead marines and then you will be in a world of shit because marines are not allowed to die without permission. Do you maggots understand?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j3_iPskjxk