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.