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