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| "IT'S A HARD KNOOOOCK LIFE" |
The movie opens up with our characters in boot camp being yelled at by a man who I hope is happy he's now a meme. After a few minutes of this, we meet our.... Hero? Despite the fact that he is not necessarily the protagonist, the first act of the film focuses on the arc that private Pyle goes through. When the movie opens, we see him as a very goofy kid, full of joy, and not really good at anything, but by the end, he is cold and hardened, and is even driven to insanity. This change is a reflection on how America wanted people to perceive the war in a positive light, like Pyle in the beginning, but really the war was a horrible thing, as demonstrated by Pyle in the end. The filmmakers choices help to demonstrate the changes he goes through as well.
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| Hehe, you're funnnyy |
The above picture shows the scene where we first meet Pyle, the camera is looking up at him, there's a lot of bright light, and he has that goofy grin on his face. The audience can really see him as some kid who happened to get into the Marine Corp. by some stroke of fate. However, the change really occurs in him after the soap scene.
The scene is shot almost entirely in the dark, much like a horror film, and is meant to draw parallels to the horrors of the war. The bulk of the scene is from the above perspective, looking down at Pyle, making him seem horribly pathetic as he is bludgeoned with bars of soap relentlessly. Even Private Joker, who at first is reluctant to hit the poor guy eventually gives in and gives him some mighty blows to the chest, much like how in war people are forced to do horrible and immoral things even if they would never have done things like that before. After this scene, Pyle is shown in a completely different light.
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| "I AM in a PYLE of Shit!" Bravo Kubrick, Bravo. |
As the act draws to a close, we see Pyle in the dark and it's almost like he's looking down on the audience. We can't clearly see his face, and his eyes appear to be pupil-less due to the lighting, a directorial choice that makes him seem inhuman, just a killing machine, sculpted by the things he's gone through.
Then we come to act 2, where Kubrick demonstrates that he clearly has not seen enough Vietnam movies, because instead of playing Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival, he plays These Boots Were Made For Walking?
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| Pictured: America's REAL enemy. |
In this half of the film, we move to Vietnam, where Joker is stationed, and we follow his story from here to the end.
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| Pictured: Private Joker |
This is where the movie truly demonstrates its ideas about the realities of the war against the image the government wanted associated with it. In one scene, Joker shows up at the sight of a mass grave of 20 people, and while he interviews the man, his cohort takes pictures of him, and whenever his picture is taken, he turns toward the camera and smiles, so that when the story is published, he is shown in a positive light. In this same scene, a colonel approaches Joker and asks why he has both a peace symbol, and the words "Born To Kill" on his helmet, to which he responds that he is trying to show the duality of man.
After that, many other events happen in the film, but we're not gonna focus on those today. The film closes with our heroes walking off into the sunset singing the theme song to The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. So I guess I was wrong, this movie is like a musical!
Oh, and, I'm sure THIS SCENE is also very very important to the theme, it demonstrates... Peanuts.
Overall, I give this film 7.5/10 Dogbones, go watch it.
~CITATIONS~
Photos:
Private Pyle Grinning. Digital image. Wordpress. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://eljamberoo.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/private_pyle.jpg>.
Pyle Killing Himself. Digital image. TV Tropes. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sufull.jpg>.
Full Metal Jacket Soap Scene. Digital image. Complex. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://images.complex.com/complex/image/upload/t_article_image/x5qoayu0iijhkjvw22z3.jpg>.
Insane Pyle. Digital image. Best For Films. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://bestforfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/pyle015ij.jpg>.
Puss in Boots. Digital image. Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Pussboots.jpg>.
The Joker. Digital image. No Cookie. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090728143826/batman/images/b/b6/The_Joker_9.png>
Private Joker. Digital image. Imgur. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://i.imgur.com/0H7DH.jpg>.
Other:
Full Metal Jacket. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Prod. Stanley Kubrick. By Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford. Perf. Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Lee Ermey. Warner Bros., 1987.
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies: With Dvd & Wam3. S.l.: Ww Norton &, 2012. Print.
I’ll be very honest, Cameron, your review was exactly the comedic perspective I needed to hear after watching something as heavy as Full Metal Jacket. Your attention for the metaphoric, like Pyle’s clear immaturity and childlike state, was a great first course before heading into your more detailed and physical descriptions of the film, such as lighting choices in Pyle’s toilet set homicidal suicide. I would have liked to see a little less recapping of the film and more in depth ideas being worked out.
ReplyDeleteAs for your Gnitty Gritties, I’d say you did a pretty splendid job of crossing your t’s and dotting your I’s. I only saw a comma or two out of place, such as in your 5th paragraph when you state, “We can't clearly see his face, and…” There’s a needless comma there. I’ll give you a solid ⅘ on the Gnitty Gritties.
Formatting in this was exceptional. Your separation of ideas in paragraphs with nicely helpful images really made this review an easy read for me. 2/2 for Cameron on Formatting. Your Structure and Flow were similarly excellent, although near the end of your review there seemed to be the speedbumps of suddenly generalizing the end of the film in, “After that some people die, they shoot a lot of stuff, dramatic things happen…” As much as I’d like to attribute this to a criticism of Kubrick’s easy use of war cliches, I can’t; it hinders the end of your review. Therefore you get a ⅔.
Your sourcing is exemplary and very thorough. You cited each individual photo, the movie and text. For this, you get a 5/5. I felt your topic was spot on and interesting. You expounded on points that needed them and described ideas with good detail; 3/3. You met the word count and timeliness criteria; 3/3. Finally, can’t say my mind was blow BUT your review did give me a hearty laugh, therefore ¾.
- Forrest Dimond