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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
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