Risselada Blog

Under discussion:

Full Metal Jacket  (1987)

Human Condition, Part 2: The Road to Eternity  (1960)

Ningen no jôken (The Human Condition II - The Road to Eternity)

It struck me how structurally similar this film is to Full Metal Jacket and I was wondering if this may have had any kind of influence on that film.  The main similarity is that the first half deals with soldiers in a boot camp of sorts, and the second half deals with actual combat.  And the other most striking similarity contains a spoiler

*SPOILER*
In both films there is a less capable soldier who cannot keep up with the physical demands of training even though he tries very hard.  He has to put up with a lot of extreme harassment and punishment.  And in the end he kills himself in a bathroom by shooting himself in the head with a rifle.  I find the similarities between these scenes to be shocking.  The main differences however are that in Full Metal Jacket the soldier also gets homicidal and kills the sergeant before killing himself, whereas the soldier in Human Condition just kills himself.  And as unbearable as the harassment and punishment may seem in Full Metal Jacket, these things seem even worse if you can believe that.
*END SPOILER*

The battle scene at the end with the tanks and trenches also lives up to some of the more famous battle scenes in cinema history.  If you can survive through the misery and hardship of the rest of the film.

Rating: 9/10