The Duality of Music in Full Metal Jacket

The music played behind visuals in film help connect viewers to themes and motifs in the film itself. Music can help set moods and even change moods. Music can work sarcastically against what is happening visually, or it can work as a parallel to what is happening. The soundtrack from Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket does all of this. His choices he makes for the soundtrack are brilliant and work very well with the themes he creates in his film. I have posted on the duality of man before, and I believe that the musical selections in Jacket somewhat hint at that theme, directly or inversely to what is shown on the screen.

Music sets the mood in every scene it is present in. When you hear a song, you make connections with what you hear to you see. The first music we hear is the song “Goodbye My Sweetheart, Hello Vietnam.” This first helps us because we immediately learn the setting from this song. We also infer a direct meaning from the lyrics in the song. It relates to the characters that are saying goodbye to what they once knew, what they loved, their sweethearts, and hello violence, warfare, and Vietnam. More indirectly, the simplicity of the song also hints somewhat to the simplicity of the characters at the beginning of the film. They have not had any experience and they are simple people.

When Kubrick wants to present a mood, he thinks about many ways to do that. He does it with lighting and shot angles but he also does it with music. One of the original scores of the film is very dark and quiet. It is used in the dark scenes of the film - the scenes where we feel suspense and fear, even sadness for characters. The score is pretty much silence with a repeating noise, almost as if a pin is dropping. The score helps us focus on what is happening in frame by not being too over the top and overdone. Nothing flashy or too dramatic is needed to distract us from what we are seeing. The first scene it is used in is the scene where they beat up private Pyle. The next scene is the bathroom scene, where Pyle commits suicide. In this scene, we hear the music and relate it to when we heard it earlier. The two scenes can be related through the music. This music represents the darkness inside people. The music feels cold and on edge, which can arguably describe human nature. In these scenes in particular, we see human nature in its worst form. Revenge is made in both scenes. First, the soldiers get revenge on Pyle for screwing up and making them work harder. And secondly, Pyle gets revenge on the drill sergeant who has cause him much embarrassment over the last 8 weeks. This music suggests one part of the duality of man, the violent side. The music in these scenes helps relate the scenes to each other. We get a shared meaning out of both scenes because of the score behind it.

When we get to Vietnam, Kubrick decides to start using modern music to play a role in his film. Like I discussed earlier, Kubrick uses the music both directly to relate to the action in scene, and inversely to imply some sort of sarcasm. One example of when a song is used inversely and directly is when the song ‘Surfin’ Bird’ is played under a scene during combat and such. This song is an odd choice to put into a film like this, but I believe Kubrick understands its playfulness and uses it to contrast the brutal ways of war, and it also helps directly relate to how the soldiers are still easy going and somewhat childish. We see a tank blow up a building, not something we would typically associate with an upbeat goofy song. But it does work perfectly with the jokes the soldiers make when the film crew walks by them. Immediately after the song ends, we are hit with a totally opposite mood when we see two dead soldiers in the center of the soldiers, giving short eulogies, both sarcastic and sincere. We can immediately make the connection that the duality of man goes from playful innocence, right back to harsh violence.

Kubrick uses music to do a lot of things in his films, and I think its pretty fun to try to interpret why. We make meanings, and tie meanings together with certain songs, and we see that the songs also work with what we see in frame. Whether inversely or directly, the music works to present a meaning, and it certainly accomplishes it. 

The Naive, The Disciplined, and The Psychopath

A dynamic character is one that changes throughout a story. He starts out one way and ends up another. It’s not simply physical things like being alive and then dying. No being dynamic reaches deeper, into behaviors, and actions of the character and their psyche within. Private Leonard Lawrence in Full Metal Jacket is an example of a dynamic character. We see him evolve throughout the film. Starting as a harmless, incompetent, boy and being turned into a deviant, killing machine.

            We first see Leonard in the head shaving montage at the start of the film. Like I stated in an earlier post, the longhaired kids of the sixties and seventies were sent to war, so we can get a feel for who Leonard is just by seeing him with long hair at the beginning. A kid. He probably not ready for what is about to come. We see that he isn’t ready for the marines when he and Gunnery Sergeant Hartman first interact. Like most immature viewers watching the film, Leonard gets a kick out of everything Hartman says to his fellow marines. But order and discipline is the military way, and Sergeant Hartman is not afraid to call Leonard out for it. He exclaims he can’t help it, a clue into his lack of discipline I believe.

            As the training camp scenes move forward, we repeatedly see the failure of Leonard, now nicknamed Gomer Pyle, and notice how incapable he is at even the most minute tasks. He needs help knowing left from right, lacing shoes, dressing appropriately, climbing obstacles, and running. No matter how hard Sergeant Hartman yells at him, he never seems to get better. The only thing Private Pyle takes pride in is his rifle, but I’ll discuss that later. Private Joker is assigned to help out Private Pyle. Joker’s techniques of encouragement help Pyle accomplish many different things. Their relationship as fellow marines grows in their montage. Through their relationship, Pyle starts to become less of an individual, just what the marines want. He doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb anymore; he gets the idea of the big picture until one tragic event. Things take a turn for the worse when the donut is found in his footlocker.

            This event is his downfall because now, instead of being punished for his own actions, Pyle’s fellow soldiers must take the punishment for Pyle’s actions. The relationships Pyle has made tear as more and more screw-ups cost the group more punishment. One night the platoon holds down Pyle as they beat him with soap and the next scene is where we see the changed Private Pyle. He does not participate in the responses to Sergeant Hartman’s questions; instead, he only stares off into space. He prefers not to be part of the group and refuses to shout the responses. Alone, a misunderstood, individual again, this scene is the beginning of the end.

            We next learn about the marine who killed twelve people in Texas (Charles Whitman), and Lee Harvey Oswald, the marine who killed President Kennedy. These killers learned how to shoot in the marines and show ‘what one motivated marine and his rifle can do.’ The end of this scene shows a distant Pyle staring off again, this time we get the feeling - not of sympathy for Pyle - but the feeling of terror when looking at him. He takes to heart Hartman’s final words in the scene, “and before you ladies leave my island, you will all be able to do the same thing.”

            We see in the final scene with Private Pyle how all this has affected him. He is a crazed gunman by his own sergeant’s design. Pyle succeeds greatly with his rifle. He even talks to his rifle. Joker doesn’t think Leonard can carry on with much more of this. Claiming he is a ‘section 8’ he is referring to a soldier being mentally unfit to serve. I think it is interesting that the viewers already know what that means before having to look up the term. We are all aware that Pyle is starting to lose it. Back to Leonard’s rifle skills though, Sergeant Hartman tells him, “I think we’ve finally found something that you do well.” And tells him later that he his ‘born again hard.’

Like we talked about in class recently, one of Kubrick’s signature shots in many of his films is the close up of a character staring. He does this often so we can get into the minds of the characters, without being told what they are thinking. In this film, the stares of Private Pyle make us think psychopath, animal, killer. We see his stare a few more times before he commits suicide. One comes when we find out he graduates. This stare is an evil one but doesn’t even compare to his final stares in the bathroom. We see him go from bad to worse.

Private Pyle changes many times throughout the film. He starts as young, naive boy, turns into a disciplined soldier, and finally a psychopathic killer. To say Pyle’s character is dynamic is an understatement. I’m glad Mr. Kubrick lets us track Pyle’s changes by facial expressions and stares, along with his actions in frame. 

Full Metal Jacket: The edits

In Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, editing is used quite often to move time along, and he uses montages to tie events together. His use of continuity editing stays constant throughout the film. Kubrick also uses many long takes in order to portray realism. Editing plays an important role in this film, as it helps us intensify events and connect with certain characters.

First, lets talk about the montages Kubrick uses in his film. Two specific scenes come to mind. The first is when we see Leonard Lawrence, or Private Pyle, continuously fail obstacles on the training course. It starts out as a montage showing the tasks the soldiers have to complete, but then it starts to focus on Private Pyle’s failure. From climbing, to pull-ups, Pyle can’t seem to do anything right. This montage helps us to understand how much Pyle is separated from the rest of the platoon. This series of shots starts to get us to feel kind of bad for Private Pyle. But the second montage is one that connects two characters, Pyle and Joker. This montage is shorter but it is very effective in getting the viewer to make connections between Joker and Pyle. We also see Pyle start succeeding and overcoming obstacles. (Literally and figuratively.) Through this montage, we see Private Pyle accomplish things we never thought possible and we see Joker’s leadership abilities. He is able to reach Pyle like no others could. We even see Pyle smile multiple times in the montage – something quite different from what we see in the earlier montage.

Another editing technique we see in Full Metal Jacket is the long take. Multiple times we have shots that last over 30 second without a single edit. We first have the introduction shot in the barracks, but one of my favorite long takes is the shot where Private Pyle climbs the obstacle and climbs back down. In all of the long takes, the viewer gets the feel of realism. If we were actually there, we would only have one angle of the scene, so I believe that is why Kubrick uses the long take. He wants us to feel like we are at camp too.

One particular way Kubrick edits in the film is the use of the fade. Scene to scene Kubrick uses the fade to move from one to the other. Sometimes he even fades to black. But I believe that the use of the fade also helps Kubrick achieve a sense of continuity editing. The shots and fades do not over intensify scenes, and there aren’t hardly any jump cuts in the whole movie. We stay with one action and we move chronologically to the next. Sure, we may skip events in between, but the order of the film is never too complex. Complexity editing is not really used in this film as much as continuity editing is.  In my field production class, we discussed what the differences between the two types of editing are. In class, we defined continuity editing as, “Used for the clarification of an event. Works to develop a clear and understandable mental map…Situated in the realm of realism.” So by using this definition, we can see why Kubrick would use continuity editing in order to make his film more realistic. Complexity editing was defined as, “ Used to intensify an event and reveal its complexity…probing the depth of an event…situated in the realm of expressionism. Arguably, the sniper scene is one that does use some complexity editing techniques.

First, we take on multiple perspectives in the scene. We take the perspective of the sniper in the building looking down at Eight Ball. Time even slows down as the shots hit Eight Ball. We then go to the American soldiers hiding out. Then, once again, we take the perspective of the sniper. We even zoom in the sights and take out another soldier trying to help Eight Ball. And then slow motion again as the bullet hits. The use of this complexity editing here probes the depth of this event, and helps us connect to the situation better. It is used to intensify the event.

Editing plays an important role in this film, as it helps us intensify events and connect with certain characters.

Graycon, David. CMN 2575. Lecture September 12, 2011. 

Full Metal Jacket: Mise-en-scene

            What’s in a scene? How does the scene tell its own story?  These are questions we ask when dealing with mise-en-scene. I like to think of it as a way for viewers to make extra connections to characters and the plot. In class, we discussed how mise-en-scene shows casual relationships; it creates parallels, manipulates story and plot, and sustains the narrative’s flow of information. In Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, there are many elements in his scenes that give us insight into the narrative further than just the action in frame. Through this, I believe we get a good feel for characters’ relationships with other characters.

            Kubrick brings his creative shots and styling into his film, and he also creates meaning within every scene. From the first scene we can infer a lot about the time and setting this film will be taking place in.  

The music, saying ‘Goodbye Sweat-heart, Hello Vietnam’ gives us an obvious sense of the time period. But the longhaired soldiers also give us clues into the time period. It also clues us into what types of soldiers the army was getting. Young kids with long hair, in my opinion, seem to be ‘hipsters’ in the 1970’s and maybe we can relate this to characters’ attitudes before going through camp. If we relate it to their hair, the soldiers are free and whimsical before, and once their hair is buzzed, they are regimented and rough.

            Another scene we can look at is the scene where Private Pyle is eating a donut in the center of the frame while all of the soldiers do push-ups around him. 

Many interpretations are taken from what we can see in the frame. First, we can look at how orderly and uniform the barracks are behind and around him. Everything is in perfect order, the bunks, the trunks on the floor, the soldiers evenly spaced between them, the pillars in frame, the clothing, etc. Perfect symmetry is a way to describe the scene. The only unregimented thing in the scene is Private Pyle himself and the contents of his footlocker spilled on the floor. Zane Phipps, author of an article called ‘Questioning Reality in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket,’ relates the scene to how the marines view individualism. “Pyle is set apart from his platoon in an absurd and suggestive manner, indicating that individuality is undesirable in the Marine Corps.” In many of my posts, I have stated that individualism is looked down upon in the military, and this scene demonstrates it. Pyle is singled out and chastised in front of his whole platoon. Placed dead center of the frame, we focus on him like the soldiers do in their minds. Now, if he fails, they all fail. He is the main reason they fail, which is why he is in the center of the frame. The way we feel after seeing the others punished for what Pyle does makes us feel sad for him. We know that it’s hard for Private Pyle and the challenges he fails begin to stack up. So when we see him disappoint again, we sympathize with him. And we also feel bad for the others having to the push-ups because in our minds, they didn’t deserve it. We start to imagine tension now between Pyle and the other soldiers. Even though we don’t see confrontation in the scene, we feel the tension now because of where we are. The low angle shot gives me the feeling of being on the ground. We are eye level until the command ‘exercise’ is given, making us take on a role as a soldier.

            We can also look at the two scenes where Private Pyle gets beaten and commits suicide. Both scenes are dark and blue, making the viewer connect with Pyle’s, and the others’ emotions. The darkness symbolizes the darkness that is inside humans and the blue, sad feelings of Private Pyle.

            Overall, the scenes in the first section of the film make us dislike Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, and we sympathize with the soldiers and especially with Private Pyle. We can see tension build not only through action in scene, but also in the composition of the scene. We notice many times how scenes portray a loss of identity for the soldiers at training camp. We are constantly seeing the order, uniformity, and blandness of training camp in the first section, which ties in with the loss of the individual. The beginning of the film, and considerably all of the film, deals heavily with mise-en-scene. These elements help the viewer make conclusion and move the story deeper into their minds, and further down the plot line.

Phipps, Zane. Questioning Reality in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Online http://mason.gmu.edu/~ zphipps/fmjpaper.html

Full Metal Jacket: View of the Vietnamese

FMJ Clips of Vietnamese

In the films about the Vietnam War, it is common for the Vietnamese to be portrayed in ways that only put them down. Not often do we see Vietnamese people do something good or something respectable, in fact most of the time, they are disrespected and often disrespected characters. The films that are about the Vietnam War never really dive into the problems the Vietnamese people had to go through. The only problem viewers see is the Vietnamese get shot at by soldiers. We also see, specifically in Full Metal Jacket, that there isn’t a lead character that is Vietnamese. Sure the female sniper in the final scene is important, but she’s just an enemy that is killed. Mike Felker of Jump Cut discusses the role of Vietnamese in films. “In U.S. films, the Vietnamese merely provide a backdrop to our soldiers' macho posturing and ethical questioning,” (Felker). The role of the Vietnamese in the films only made our American soldiers look better. The Vietnamese people we see in this film are thieves, prostitutes, and villains. None of those roles help the image of the Vietnamese.

These themes and motifs connected with the negative portrayal of the Vietnamese are connected to how people in America actually viewed them. First of all, the idea that all of the Vietnamese were a sneaky and evil people, stemmed from something seen through American eyes at the time, and most of the time, this view was fabricated to get a unified America against Vietnam. In my genre analysis paper for class, I talked about the way the news and media shifted the eyes of America in whatever way they pleased. And journalists sometimes went out of their way to make the Vietnamese seem worse than they actually were. A New York Times article from 1966 describes the people in the city of Saigon:

Saigon’s workers live, as they always have, in fetid slums on the city’s

outskirts ... Bars and bordellos, thousands of young Vietnamese women

degrading themselves as ... prostitutes, gangs of hoodlums and beggars

and children selling their older sisters and picking pockets have become

ubiquitous features of urban life.

(Sheehan qtd. in Chomsky qtd. in Williams p 217)

Chomsky reveals that this article was not accurate and was somewhat fabricated to make a statement, but this is not to say that the negative view of the Vietnamese was fabricated.

The soldiers fighting did have their opinions and they weren’t shy to tell the media what their opinions were. In Full Metal Jacket, there is a sequence where television and film journalists interview the soldiers addressing issues of the purpose and cause of the war. In the scene, there are quotes about fighting for people who don’t want to be fought for and shooting the wrong ‘gooks’. They were told the Viet Cong were the enemy, but if the soldiers in the war, and in the films didn’t know which Vietnamese were which, how was the American public expected to interpret them either? This is why the soldiers didn’t really have any problem killing random people like in the helicopter scene. They also did always respect the dead, Crazy Earl even takes a picture with a dead Vietnamese soldier who they are ‘throwing a party for.’

The Vietnamese people are much more than what we see in films. Obviously, not every Vietnamese person was a thief or a prostitute. Directors chose these portrayals to make viewers more comfortable with the issue at hand. Fighting a war against a people who aren’t necessarily good people is easy to justify and I believe that is why the Vietnamese people were made out to be bad people film and media. As Crazy Earl says, “After we rotate back to the world, we’re gunna miss not having anyone around that’s worth shooting.”

Felker, M. (1988). “Platoon. Full Metal Jacket. Back to Vietnam.” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media. From Jump Cut, no. 33, Feb. 1988 pp. 28-30. Retrieved from Web 03 Oct. 2011. http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC33folder/platoon-FmetJacket.html

Williams, P. (2003). “What A Bummer for the Gooks: representations of white American masculinity and the Vietnamese in the Vietnam War film genre 1977-87.” European Journal of American Culture Vol. 22 Issue 3, pp.215-234. Retreived from EBSCO web database 03 Oct. 2011

Full Metal Jacket: The Shot

Video Clip 1


Video Clip 2

            Auteur Stanley Kubrick is known for his stellar camera work and in Full Metal Jacket, he has many shots that really envelope what he is all about. In the film, he uses the long take many times, and uses many shots that follow characters throughout their landscape. Constantly moving, Kubrick’s camera captures action in frame and the following movement makes the film feel more realistic. A contributor to Time magazine, Richard Corliss describes the way Kubrick’s camera moves throughout the film. “Kubrick's majestic camera tracks across the barracks, it ascends obstacle courses, it glides past the soldiers, then abruptly cuts to close-ups, to study their pain head on.” The camera doesn’t move on its own without purpose, it follows characters as if we are watching them with our own eyes, and it helps us understand them too. 

            The first shot is a long take that lasts over a minute long. This scene moves with Sergeant Hartman as he circles the barracks, giving his welcome speech to the ‘maggots’ just arriving to boot camp. Kubrick’s shot stays with Hartman as he walks down one row, rounds a corner, and walks down another row of soldiers. Hartman doesn’t walk down the middle of the frame either; he is staged in the right third of the frame to balance the soldiers he passes that are staged to pass through the left third of the frame. Kubrick uses the ‘rule of thirds’ to balance the frame and make it appealing to the viewer. I think Kubrick uses the long take here to keep us focused on our drill instructor, to keep us from being distracted and focused as the soldiers were in the scene. Alison Nastasi, author of an online film journal, Framed, discusses the way Kubrick shoots the scenes during training camp. “It's a very deliberate decision on the director's part in that it highlights how formal and regimented the process of basic training is… Even the men themselves, all with the same shaved heads and white undergarments, make the point that there's no place here for the individual.” 

               Another scene that uses moving cameras is a scene where the squad is patrolling a warzone and we follow soldiers’ movement laterally throughout the scene. We pass through walls, or broken buildings to keep up with characters. The way Kubrick shoots it makes me think I was there, patrolling from a distance and watching my squad mates move throughout the landscape. The beginning of this scene moves faster than specific soldiers. This is to make us aware of the number of soldiers and put us in the patrol with them, as if we are scanning the area along with them. A fade to Joker ties us to his narration and then we are back to following one character. Crazy Earl (Kieron Jecchinis) is patrolling and we watch him move through a building and closer towards a stuffed animal on the ground. We first track his movements up close, keeping him central in the frame. Keeping continuity, we jump to a farther out long shot so we can see the environment he is in better. The camera, tracking laterally, moves outside of the building setting up the action in the scene. The camera is low, like a crouching soldier running. This becomes evident when we see a crouching soldier run to Earl’s aid. The camera even gives us the sense of running as it shakes up and down, with handheld motion. 

              The end of this scene is a masterfully crafted shot. The colors and composition in frame is exceptional and it’s a beauty to watch. First of all, I feel this way because of the way the characters are moved into frame. We follow the first two soldiers in, (the medic and Cowboy) and then Joker moves in from the right. The four bodies are positioned to take up most of the frame and their movements balance out the frame. Joker takes position dead center to fully balance the shot when he enters. The angle of Earl’s body makes room for the medic to block the other characters and also leaves room for him to be almost fully in frame. I really like the way this shot is set up with the balance of characters and the setting around them. Through the hole in the background, we see the bright orange flames contrasting the dark tones of the soldiers and the ground. And the lighting of this shot is impressive because the lighting really grasps the idea of fire lighting the characters. The glow of their skin against the darkness of the setting behind them sets them apart beautifully in my mind. 

                 In all of Kubrick’s films, shot composition is taken very seriously for every shot. Kubrick is known for thinking through every shot and making sure it is just the way he envisioned it. This is what makes Kubrick’s films so fun to analyze. The knowledge and meaning behind every shot is left for interpretation of the viewer. It keeps us involved in the film and makes me excited to see what kind of shots he will use next. 

Corliss, R. (1987). Welcome to Viet Nam, the Movie: II FULL METAL JACKET Directed by Stanley Kubrick Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. Time, 129(26), 66.

Nastasi, Alison. (2010). Framed: Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket: Meanings

Form and meaning is an important matter to discuss in reviewing and analyzing films. It is no surprise that we, as viewers, take away a lot of meaning after viewing films.  There are multiple ways we can do this. The most obvious meaning we take is the ‘bare bones’ plot summary, or what is also referred to as ‘referential meaning’ (Lecture). This includes the elements we see in the film. For example, in Full Metal Jacket, some referential meaning we take from the film is that the story first takes place at boot camp and follows a few main characters as they grow as soldiers until they are sent off to Vietnam.

Another form of meaning we take while viewing films is ‘explicit meaning.’ We learned in class that this is the significance of the film, expressed overtly usually in language in the beginning of the film (Lecture). Pretty much I understand it as the point of the film. In Jacket, I believe that the explicit meaning for the last section of the film is: the war in Vietnam was fought for questionable reasons, but the soldiers fought on for their country. We are supposed to see how the military shapes soldiers, and what war is like for those fighting. Another thing we don’t have to look deep into is the Vietnamese people. Kubrick portrays them as enemies, thieves, and prostitutes; never anything good or respectable is portrayed. We could, however, form our own opinions about the Vietnamese, and that would move us into our next type of meaning.

The idea of the viewer forming opinions and discovering meaning is a part of both implicit and symptomatic meaning. In implicit meaning, we reflect on the major themes of the film. In Jacket, we reflect on how boys turn to soldiers, how the military shapes the men of America, and how war can affect all types of people. Some things we analyze are the treatment of soldiers at boot camp, especially the treatment of Gomer Pyle. We see him get chastised for not being able to keep up with the rest of the group. We try to justify the drill sergeant’s actions. We also see the growth and shaping of Private Pyle, from an incompetent slob, to a mad man capable of more than we ever thought possible. Is this what happens to people when they go through boot camp, or see action in war? A question such as this demonstrates the idea of implicit meaning.

The fourth form of meaning is called ‘symptomatic meaning.’ As defined in class, this means the significance that a film divulges, often against its will, by virtue, or historical social context (Lecture). In Jacket, the next meaning we take starts to question whether or not the Vietnam was a war worth fighting. We are supposed to interpret the reasons for fighting the war, and form our own opinions. People bring in opinions of the Vietnam War before even seeing the film, so preconceived notions are brought in and effect how people read the film. Another thing people take symptomatically is the view of women in the film. Throughout the beginning of the film the men are referred to as ladies and they graduate to men. Is this saying something about the role of women in society? Another example is the female sniper at the end of the film. Is the fact that a woman brings down many members of the male platoon also saying something about society? Some critics think the film is all about eliminating women and how the marines are a prime example of eliminating feminine qualities. Author George F. Gilder states in his book, Sexual Suicide, “The good things are manly and collective; the despicable are feminine and individual…when you want to create a group of male killers, that is what you do, you kill the women in them,” (Gilder qtd. in Pursell, 221). I don’t necessarily believe Kubrick’s sole intention of the film was to promote the eradication of women, although I can certainly see where people may see that.

When looking at a film, there are many interpretations viewers make. From the obvious meanings to the ones meant to be found out on their own, readers of film always have something to take home after a film.

Pursell, M. (1988). Full Metal Jacket. Literature Film Quarterly, 16(4), 218.

Wilson-Brown, C. CMN 3530 Lecture, September 1, 2011. 

Analysis of the 'Bathroom Scene' in FMJ

            In my movie viewing experience thus far in my life, I have seen a good range of powerful scenes in a range of movies. But if there were one scene that grabs my attention more than any other, it would have to be the bathroom scene in Full Metal Jacket. It may simply be because of the tense actions in the scene, and the gore-filled conclusion to the scene that sticks in my brain, but there are other aspects to that scene that make it as powerful as it is. I suggest watching the clip now.

            Obviously, the end of the scene sticks with all viewers, as any blood-splattered wall would inevitably do. But I believe the analysis should start well before the scene actually starts. The analysis should begin with what we bring into the scene from previous elements of the film. Leonard Lawrence, or Gomer Pyle, as he is named, progressively turns into a mad man throughout his time at boot camp. The viewer brings this notion into the scene before we even see the outcome. We know that Private Pyle has been tormented and chastised by his fellow soldiers and drill sergeant.  Author Zivah Perel states in his article, that “Pyle clearly lacks the ability to process fully what Hartman teaches him, and his mimicry of Hartman at the time of his death makes this failure clear,” (Perel 226). We also know he is finds comfort in his rifle, he even talks to it calling its action, “beautiful.”  Perel goes on to say that it is ironic that the very thing helping Pyle to actually succeed in the military is his rifle, and it turns out to also be his end.

            When the scene begins, we hear silence, and what seems to be pins dropping. This use of sound brings suspense into the scene before we know what happens. Last time this sound combination was used was in the scene where the soldiers beat Private Pyle with the bars of soap. This element is something else we bring into it, wondering: what will happen this time?

            Next, we see that it is Private Joker to be the one ‘pulling fire watch.’ We know that Joker was the one to help out Private Pyle when he was struggling. Joker was the one who was told to take Leonard under his wing and teach him. We see a small bonding between the two but then in the scene where they beat Private Pyle, Joker hesitates but follows through, beating him mercilessly. Their relationship is questionable at this point in time, not knowing where exactly they stand with each other, and that tension is what we carry with us to this final scene.

            Once we get into the bathroom, we see Private Pyle sitting alone holding a rifle’s magazine with his rifle propped against the toilet. He slowly looks up to face the camera and his solemn look turns to a crazed smile. Breathing heavily, he says, “Hi Joker.” The way he says this is like a child. He speaks slow and with a certain cadence, adding more elements of terror as the scene progresses. The only light in the room comes from the windows above the toilets, and Joker’s flashlight. The blue hues of the lighting also add to the eerie elements of the scene. The light here almost seems like a film noir because lines of light hit specifically in places, and illuminating Joker’s face during close ups. Author Claude J. Smith Jr. relates the lighting in this scene to Kubrick’s other film, Clockwork Orange. “The lighting in this scene recalls the lighting during the first attack of ultra-violence in Clockwork where Alex and his droogs analogously truncheoned the “dirty, filthy old drunkie” in cold, sadistic joy,” (Smith Jr. 227). When Pyle slowly adds rounds to the magazine, the tension builds more. We learn they are live rounds and the danger of the scene escalates in our minds. “Seven. Six. Two. Millimeter.” Another rhythmic statement by Pyle, “Full. Metal. Jacket.” The spaces between his words add dramatics to each word following it. The way Pyle says his lines in this scene is an important part as to why the drama builds, as if we are hanging on to each and every word he has to say.

            The most brilliant part of this scene is when Private Pyle stands up and goes through his attention commands. Calling out left shoulder, right shoulder, and carrying out his orders with amazing accuracy and splendor to them. His routine is almost flawless, which only leads us to believe that he was capable of much more than we ever saw out of him. His declaring of the rifleman’s creed is moving, putting emphasis on every syllable of every word. Again, we listen to everything he has to say, because he has all the power in the scene. Even when Sergeant Hartman enters the scene, we are focused on the matter at hand just like Joker. Hartman’s speech is awkwardly long, making the viewer uncomfortable because of how serious the matter is.

            The close up of Private Pyle is a scary one. His face deformed by a shadow across his eye, and his smile is menacing. The elements of lighting here make him look exactly like what he has become: a monster. Lighting also plays a role in Hartman’s orders to Pyle. The drill instructor moves through shadows and back into light while giving his orders. Pyle’s gasping breaths are remarkably eerie, as any normal human being wouldn’t breathe like that. He takes one last gasp and aims.

            I always think Sergeant Hartman went about it wrong, I mean the way he spoke to Pyle right before he died. I think I would have chosen something like, “Easy Leonard” like Joker did, rather than calling him ‘numb nuts.’ But I also don’t think it would have mattered. He would’ve pulled the trigger anyway.

            Covered in blood, the drill instructor lies dead on the floor, leaving a final stand off between Joker and Pyle. This is where we reference their relationship from earlier in our minds. Will Jokers helpful actions help him more than his hurtful actions? Leonard lowers his weapon, and the hand-held camera work follows him as he sits down. I always find hand-held work to make films more personal, as if I was there. We see the cultivation of their relationship. To me, Pyle realizes Joker’s negative treatment toward him was never personal and he lowers the weapon.

            I never am quite sure why Kubrick shows the suicide. Maybe he does it to show the ‘realness’ of war and how it takes its toll on people. Perhaps he thought he owed the viewer some type of climax after watching the first half of the film. I’m not sure how I would’ve done it if it were myself directing. I’m just glad Kubrick didn’t cut to black with the sound of a gunshot ringing over a black screen.

Perel, Z. (2008). Pyle and Joker's Dual Narratives: Individuality and Group Identity in Stanley Kubrick's Marine Corps. Literature Film Quarterly, 36(3), 223-232.

Smith Jr., C. J. (1988). Full Metal Jacket and the Beast Within. Literature Film Quarterly, 16(4), 226

Private Joker and the Duality of Man

Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket is a film where many aspects of film run together to create this work of art. I believe that his characters are well developed and are a crucial part of the mastery of this film. In this post I plan to discuss a main character Kubrick enhances in his film. 

Private Joker, played by Matthew Modine, is a main character in the film as he stays with us throughout the duration of the film. We see him developed as a soldier and as a human being over the course of the film. We start at the first scene, where the soldiers stand at the foot of their bunks, getting an earful from Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey). None of the characters really stand out hear because it is the start of the film so no relationships have been made between the viewer and the soldiers. I also believe that this scene was intended for viewers to see that all the soldiers were the same and Ermey’s character was above them. He even says, “…You are all equally worthless.” But we do get a sense of why Private Joker gets his nickname. A sly remark by Joker and the drill sergeant tears him a new one.

As the narrator in the first section of the film, we get an initial hint at Joker’s role in the war as a Journalist, (Gruben). His insights as a narrator aren’t very deep, as he doesn’t have many lines as a narrator. We can see Joker’s growth in his time at camp. He separates himself from the others to help Private Pyle, at first on his own and then he is made squad leader and personal assistant to Pyle. He demonstrates his leadership abilities to the sergeant when asked if he believes in the Virgin Mary, repeatedly saying no while being beaten by the drill instructor. Joker explains why he doesn’t reverse his answer and is rewarded the position of squad leader. This shows that Joker is intelligent, and that he sticks up for what he thinks is right. He is intelligent because he knows that if he change his answer, he will be chastised more, and he honors himself by doing what he believes is right. The next sequence in the film is when we see Joker helping Pyle through obstacles. At this point, we know how much of a struggle it is to get Private Pyle to do anything right, but Joker seems to be succeeding more than anyone thought. But after a series of slip-ups by Pyle, the group starts taking their anger out on him by holding him down and beating him with bars of soap. All the platoon members take a whack at him but Joker hesitates. Something in Joker’s human nature was telling him not to beat up poor Private Pyle. I think it was because Joker had helped Pyle grow and get better at a lot of things, and he realized he is just a slow learner. But then he realizes that it is Pyle’s wrongdoings that punishes the squad, and to get back at Pyle for it, Joker hits him repeatedly, more than any other platoon member. This scene is very important in the analysis of Private Joker because we start to see the duality of this man arise. He can be helpful and kind, but also violent and mean. This duality of Joker also is represented later on in the film when he wears the peace pin and a helmet that says “born to kill” on it. He even responds to being asked about it, “I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir.”

When it comes time for graduation, Sergeant Hartman reads off each soldier’s assignment. When he gets to Joker, he reads that Joker is assigned to Basic Journalism. And responds with, “you’re not a writer, you’re a killer.” This is another example of Joker’s duality. He comes to camp and claims he is a killer, yet he requests to be a writer for the Marines. We cannot be too sure of why Private Joker wants to be in the war, and it seems to us that even he doesn’t know. It almost seems like the war is just a place for him to be and not a battle for him to be apart of. When interviewed about being in Vietnam, the soldiers question reasons for being in Vietnam and if they are killing the right people. Joker’s response is a sarcastic one stating the reason he came was to, “…see the exotic Vietnam. The jewel of Southeast Asia. I wanted to meet interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture and kill them.” However, when Joker is in prime position to kill, his gun jams, suggesting Joker was never actually ready to kill, as if he wouldn’t be able to do it. And when the lone sniper is shot down, the soldiers want her to ‘rot’ and be left for dead. Joker, however, says they can’t leave her like this because as we have seen before in the film, Joker has a sense of what is right and wrong, and his morals often lead him to do the right thing. After a moral struggle, Joker then puts the girl out of her misery and does exactly what she asks for; he shoots her.

Joker is a character we see grow throughout the movie. We see him develop as a soldier of war, but also as a human being. Joker’s so called duality defines him. The two sides of him we see reflect in us too. I believe Kubrick is trying to suggest something about the duality of man through the character Joker. “Joker can be studied thematically as a mouthpiece for Kubrick's own political ideology, a means for expressing his opinions on war and the dynamics of human behavior,” (Gruben 271).

Gruben, P. (2005). Practical joker: The Invention of a Protagonist in Full Metal Jacket. Literature Film Quarterly, 33(4), 270-279.

Vietnam War Film: A Genre of Its Own

The Vietnam War seemed to take all aspects of the war film and make America rethink how war films were made. Before, war films tended to be about the heroics of war, glamorizing aspects for entertainment purposes, and giving the overall feel of the film a positive outlook on war. But during the Vietnam War, the style of war films was drastically changed from the happy heroics, to tragic realism. Some reasoning to this is directly related to the war itself. America’s involvement was a key factor in why Vietnam films were made the way they were. Because of this, both anti-war films and pro-war films were created about the war. Ever since the Vietnam War, films have begun to grow away from portraying wars as heroic, adventurous tales, to now more realistic and somewhat lacking the glam and romanticism in wars. Less gloss, fewer heroes, and more horror, death, and guts.

             Themes and motifs are present throughout every genre, and this idea is extremely evident in the war film. There are certain images and meanings that take place in multiple or all films in a specific genre. Of course guns, soldiers, ruined buildings, smoke, and flames make up instant imagery of a war film. These things all come to mind when one thinks of what is seen in a war film, specifically the warzone. But sub-genres of war films also house their own themes and motifs. The Vietnam War film has many themes that are present in films specific to that genre. A commonality between Vietnam films is the portrayal of the Vietnamese people. In Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, the Vietnamese in the film are hardly characters at all. In the film they are prostitutes, a thieves, and Guerilla fighters. The categorization of the Vietnamese as a group of thieves and prostitutes seems to be what Kubrick accomplishes in his film by his depth of character formation. With the lack of development of the Vietnamese, we can connect with the soldiers who never really asked questions before they shot.  Mike Felker of Jump Cut connects the two by telling us that, “…soldiers tragically blurred Vietnamese civilians and ‘the enemy.’” The scene in Full Metal Jacket that I have included in this post, expresses this point is when the main character, Joker, is in a helicopter and a soldier mounted on the turret shoots everything in sight. He says, “Anyone who runs is a V.C. [Viet Cong], anyone who stands still is a well disciplined V.C.” and in response to shooting women and children, he says, “you just don’t lead ‘em so much.” 

In multiple films of this genre, the idea of the American soldier growing in masculinity, both physically and emotionally, is present almost undoubtedly. A perfect example of this is evident in Oliver Stone’s Platoon, when Charlie Sheen’s character ‘Taylor’ changes throughout the film. “The narrative traces Taylor's metamorphosis from a naive, callow volunteer into a brutal, yet seemingly still "honorable," soldier with some shreds of his sanity and humanity intact,” (Felker). And just as this character construction and development occurs in Platoon, it occurs throughout Kubrick’s film. Following soldiers from boot camp to battle zone is the whole idea of Full Metal Jacket. Along with the viewing of a soldier’s transformation, we see the toughness and issues that the soldiers deal with and how it affects them. Commonly, characters in these films have and over-the-top, ‘macho-man,’ side to them, along with an emotional, childish side to them.  There also seems to be a lack of masculinity that brings the characters down. Full Metal Jacket shows this masculinity declining when the squad encounters an enemy sniper that takes out many members the squad. When the sniper is found, they see that it was a female sniper cutting down their squad mates. “…What makes the sniper’s sex so shocking to the men who find her; they never imagined the sniper, the person with the most power/masculinity in this situation, as being female,” (Boyle 154).

Through images of everyday soldiers becoming men, and the mystery of the Vietnamese people, Vietnam War films produce a genre of their own apart for the war film. The films get Americans to think about what happened and why it happened by connecting viewers to the war, and to the soldiers themselves. The guts and glory seen in many war films is somewhat lost in this genre, and filmmakers strive for a realistic portrayal of the events occurring in Southeast Asia.

Works Cited

Boyle, B.M (2011). “Rescuing Masculinity: Captivity, Rescue and Gender in American War Narratives.” Journal of American Culture Vol. 34 issue 2. Pp 149-160. Retrieved from EBSCO web Database 04 Oct. 2011

Felker, M. (1988). “Platoon. Full Metal Jacket. Back to Vietnam.” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media. From Jump Cut, no. 33, Feb. 1988 pp. 28-30. Retrieved from Web 03 Oct. 2011. http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC33folder/platoon-FmetJacket.html