21st century transformations and global challenges

Full Metal Kubrick

In the years following the Vietnam War, from 1979 -1989, many movies were created to depict this event from an American point-of-View. The genre of war movies, became inundated with new films based on this violent conflict. The purpose of this essay is to explore Stanley Kubrick's movie Full Metal Jacket as it relates to film media and how it represents this particular era in both history and art. This essay will discuss how this film played an impact on American culture and film in general.

Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick is often noted as one of the best film makers who has ever picked up a camera. His legend is based upon his intellectual capacity and his daring and innovative styles of film that never seem to become outdated and remain fresh and current despite them being decades old. Kubrick had great success as film maker in the years prior to making Full Metal Jacket as he fully explored other genres of film quite successfully.

2001 A Space Odyssey was a stunning science fiction story, The Shining was a terrorizing horror film, Spartacus was made as an epic classic historic tale, A Clockwork Orange could be classified as a psychological thriller; all masterpieces by Kubrick according to many film critics. " For Kubrick, photography and film existed to interrogate and analyze in an active and dynamic way the contingencies of the modern world. Kubrick absorbed the legacy and the lessons of German Expressionist filmmaking, a tradition that emphasized the depiction of subjective states through setting and acting, " (Cocks et al., 2006, p.9).

Kubrick is a brand of film that hits hard to the viewer all around the world. This filmmaker had a strong impact on every film maker that exists today as his films have gained incredible status throughout the world. Stanley Kubrick's films affect all genres of film due to his influence on the medium itself.

Full Metal Jacket

Other Vietnam War movies of the 1980's such as Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam, Hamburger Hill and Platoon Leader, place a value on the events that took place during the war in Vietnam. Kubrick decided to create his film in two parts; the first part of the movie depicts the basic training that is required to prepare for war. Kubrick used this technique to set up the second half of the film that explored the chaotic and disturbing landscape of total war and destruction.

The film was primarily centered around one soldier named "Joker," as his time during basic training was shown as a culture shock were good and bad are relative terms. The abusive nature of the Marine basic training, was exploited to demonstrate how war killers are made. Kubrick's depiction of this transformation was very realistic and showed how mercy, compassion and kindness are not welcomed in the game of international warfare.

White (1988) suggested that "Both parts feature a time-worn combat film formula -- the adaptation of the individual to the demands of a ritualistic male group.' In both cases that adaptation fails spectacularly, though for radically different reasons. In the first instance this failure stems from what is termed, pace 200 i's Hal computer, a "major malfunction" in the brain of Private Leonard Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio), otherwise known as Private PyIe (as in "Gomer PyIe, U.S. Marine Corps"), who becomes a suicidal maniac at the end of his humiliating bootcamp experience." Despite this opinion of the work, the film itself is violent and intended to ignore the feminine aspect of humanity, as is the course of armed conflict and genocide.

Impact of the Film