Nietzsche said, "Be careful about casting out your demon, you might be casting out the best part."

Jung called it the duality of man - the idea that within each of us is two people - a devil and an angel (as religion likes to call it) or an Id and Superego (as psychology prefers).  And this question of balancing the dark and the light (Chiaroscuro) brings me to one of my favorite Stanley Kubrick films, "Full Metal Jacket" (1987).

Of course, "Full Metal Jacket" gives you a great look at the Kubrick style, especially his famous "point of view" camera work. Watch how Kubrick puts you in line with the soldiers as they scurry ahead to seek cover. Watch how he puts you into the point of view of the sniper as she takes out the American patrol one man at a time. Remember Kubrick's use of the POV shots during the maze scene in "The Shining," (1980) when Jack chases his son, as well as his other classics? 

However, for this article, I prefer to focus on the theme of the film - the questions raised of having to face your dark side. And more importantly, the idea that maybe the dark side, if harnessed, is a very necessary aspect of personality.

Very few of us have the chance to face our dark sides. But what better place to have to face it than in war. How many people today, fighting in Afghanistan, have to do that very thing right now? Society tells them not to kill. But war says kill or be killed. Would you be able to kill someone? Would you be able to unleash your dark half? And then, the question put forth by the film, would you be able to live with your other self uncovered?

In "Full Metal Jacket" the stripping away of society (the Superego) to uncover the dark half begins with shaving the recruits heads and changing their names - the first two scenes. The civilian, Leonard (Vincent D'Onofrio) becomes Pyle, who can now be trained to be a killer after society's civilized trappings are stripped away. 

Joker (Matthew Modine) watches and listens intently to Sgt. Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) who asks to see Joker's war face - his dark side. Joker tries, but Hartman says, "You'll have to work on it. You don't scare me." It isn't easy to show your dark side. Besides, we'll have to wait for the climax to see Joker's.

So it's the Joker character we need to watch because Joker represents the view that we can "balance the dark and the light." He puts forth the notion that one side does not have to conquer the other to survive, that the light and dark can live in harmony. That they are equally valuable. Notice how he later wears a "peace sign" on his body armor and writes "born to kill" on his helmet to make his point.

During the basic training segment of the film (Act I), we watch Joker watch Pyle spiraling out of control, giving in totally to his dark side and abandoning the light completely. As Pyle is beaten down and humiliated into becoming a fighter - a killer - Hartman tells him and us: "It is the killer instinct (psychology's Id?) that must be harnessed if you expect to survive. A hard heart kills. If your instinct is not strong, you will hesitate and be killed and then you will be in a world of shit." Finally, when Pyle's dark side surfaces, Hartman tells Pyle, you are "born again hard."

After graduation, Joker patrols the barracks, coming upon Pyle in the latrine with a loaded rifle - a full metal jacket. Pyle has obviously lost his mind or his "self." Pyle has surrendered totally to the dark side and doesn't like what he sees, doesn't like what he has become, can't live with himself. He tells Joker he's in a "world of shit." 

But the thing to notice here is that Joker never talked to the killer - Pyle. Joker only talks to the civilian - Leonard. And Leonard is not a killer. Even during their basic training, when Joker was forced to take Pyle under his wing, he never calls him Pyle. He only addresses Leonard. "Take it easy, Leonard." And this will save his life. 

However, when Hartman enters the latrine, he reawakens "Pyle," calling him names and challenging his killer instinct. Pyle kills Hartman, but Leonard spares Joker. Pyle finally kills himself because he can't live like this - in a world of shit. And this frightens Joker. Is this what happens when your dark side reveals itself? Or can he survive and remain balanced?

In Act II, Joker goes to Vietnam as a reporter for "Stars and Stripes," where we meet Rafterman, the photographer, who tells Joker he doesn't like the name "rafterman," (Which means he is in the rafters above the action, an observer, not part of it). Rafterman tells Joker he wants to "go into the field." He wants to "get into the shit." He's telling us, he wants to face his dark side. Joker laughs it off. He's seen what can happen.

Later, on a helicopter flight to the field, Joker and Rafterman confront a machine gunner shooting women and children from the safety of the chopper. When Joker asks him, "How can you kill women and children?" The gunner replies, "You just don't lead them so much. Ain't war hell?" Another example of someone who has surrendered totally to the dark side? Again reminding Joker of what he fears might happen to him (if he doesn't shoot himself like Pyle did).

Later when Joker witnesses the result of a massacre of civilians he realizes, "the dead know one thing, it's better to be alive." Remember that. Joker does.

Joker, after joining up with his old friend, Cowboy, also meets Animal Mother, another character who, it seems, has become his dark side. "You talk the talk," Animal Mother challenges Joker, "but do you walk the walk?"

Another soldier tells us that Animal Mother will be just fine, "as long as he has someone to chuck grenades at for the rest of his life." However, there's more to Animal Mother. Notice how when his Black friend (and Animal Mother claims to hate Blacks) is wounded and trapped, only Animal Mother wants to save him. Maybe Animal Mother was more balanced then we thought.

But it isn't until Act III (the patrol) that Joker's "balance test" is challenged. A female sniper has killed two soldiers and Joker's best friend, Cowboy. Now Joker, Rafterman, Animal Mother and one other soldier decide to find her - seeking revenge appears to be one way to stir the dark side to life. 

Joker finally comes upon the sniper hiding in a burned out building, but Joker's gun jams. Just when it looks as if the sniper will finish Joker, Rafterman enters and blows the sniper away, allowing Rafterman to see his dark side, to which he asks, "Am I a heart breaker?" wallowing in his new found freedom, obviously pleased with his dark uncovering.

However, the sniper isn't dead and begs to be killed. When the others decide to leave her for the rats, Joker's compassion takes over (Superego?) and he is given the task of putting her out of her misery. It is during this climax of the film that Joker must finally face his dark side. 

Remember. "It is a hard heart that kills. If your instinct is not strong, you will hesitate and be killed and then you will be in a world of shit." -Sgt. Hartman. 

After a moment of hesitation, Joker musters the courage to kill (to face his dark side), but out of mercy and is, as the others tell him now "hard core" (born again hard), and ugly (referring to his real war face), not the phony one he showed Hartman.

Then, as the surviving soldiers march over the hill singing the theme song of the "Mickey Mouse Club," Joker tells us how he feels about seeing his dark half. "I'm so happy I am alive. I'm in a world of shit, yes, but I am alive, and I'm not afraid!"

I wondered about the singing of "Mickey Mouse" when I first saw the film, but after talking to some Vietnam Vets, I learned they actually sang it (everyone knew that one) to identify Americans and let the enemy know there were plenty of them coming. 

I like promoting the idea that these guys were the Mickey Mouse generation (the innocent), forced to face their dark sides to survive in Nam. I can't prove it, but I'd guess that's why Kubrick has that in the film.

In any case, "Full Metal Jacket" remains one of my favorite films because of the very questions it makes me ask. Are humans born in darkness (the Id), driven by selfish primitive motives? 

Babies see the world with them as the center. Nothing even exists if it out of their view. Put two children in a sandbox with one toy and they will (instinctively?) fight over ownership. 

It isn't until an adult intervenes to explain the concept of sharing that the two children will even consider the concept. This introduction of higher order thinking is what psychologists call the Superego - the moral, altruistic aspect of personality introduced to the Id by family, schooling, and society.

Now the actual battle begins! To which side of the self should we listen? The Id (our primal, self-centered self) or our Superego (our socially conscious self). Psychologists say we negotiate a treaty between the two camps and that "balance" becomes who we are - our personality, our ego. 

Of course, the balance is never equal. I'm sure some of you are more Id (primal), while some of you are more Superego (socially conscious).

Western Religion (I emphasize "Western" because many Eastern views have no "devil" concept, no eternal battle raging between good and evil) looks at this battle for the self as having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. "What should I do?" you ask. "Think of yourself!" says the devil (or the dark half, or the Id?) "Think of others," says the angel (or the light, or the Super-ego?)

Western religions tell us good must triumph over evil. That the light must vanquish the darkness. Or, in psychological terms, the Superego must overpower the Id. But doesn't this lead to constant conflict for supremacy? How can there ever be peace of mind? 

Or is it as Jung and Joseph Campbell argue: that peace can only come when the light and dark, good and evil, the Id and the Superego, come to terms and accept the necessity of what each has to offer. Can we as people or a society actually survive with only one side of our personality?

Now I'm not saying there isn't evil in the world and that it should be tolerated. When confronted with evil actions by others, I ask myself, "What would Xena do?" And the answer is "Kill them all!" And it's that side of us, the dark side that needs to do the necessary deed. 

Maybe Nietzsche was correct, by casting out the demon, we might be casting out our best part. Maybe it's time we had some sympathy for the devil, after all, it might be your best part.