Screening Stanly Kubrick and Full

¶ … Screening

Stanly Kubrick and Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick was one of the foremost and most respected directors in the modern film world. His films cover a wide range of issues and subjects, from the search for the meaning of human life and the universe in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) to the exploration of modern society and that way that violence and inhumanity and ingrained into the youth in Full Metal Jacket (1987).

In essence we could say that, from a philosophical standpoint, that the films of Stanley Kubrick are existential in nature in that they attempt to reveal the meaning and reality of being human in a world that is often complex and inexplicable. At the edge of every Kubrick film we sense the intuition of a larger universe and a vision of reality that goes beyond the everyday and the mundane. In other words, his films explore at a deep level the meaning of human reality and even the very meaning of reality itself.

This paper discusses Kubrick's works by focusing on an analysis of Full Metal Jacket. This film will also be briefly compared with other films that he directed. Reference will also be made to films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is seemingly very different to Full Metal Jacket. However, as will be shown in the following discussion of Full Metal Jacket, there is central themes and an underlying philosophy that links the various works.

2. An analysis of Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal Jacket does not have a narrative style as we find, for example, in a film like Raging Bull, which is more concerned with a biographical story line. In Full Metal Jacket the emphasis is largely on the creation of mood and atmosphere. This means that the music, background and set, as well as the structure of the film are essential aspects that the director uses to give the film its 'meaning'. In other words, through the use of various cinematic elements and techniques Kubrick creates a certain mood that allows him to explore existential and philosophical questions and issues.

Stanley Kubrick directed this film in 1987 and it was adapted from Gustav Hasford's Short-Timers and co-written by Hasford, Kubrick and Michael Herr. In terms of the film structure, it is divided into two separate sections which are linked both thematically and philosophically. The first section deals with the period of training of the new marine recruits prior to their period of active duty in Vietnam. This is known as boot camp. The second section of the film follows the experiences of one marine and his friends in Vietnam.

What Kubrick attempts to do in this film is to question the nature of our humanity and how this sense of humanity is affected by war and the indoctrination of young men in the service of the military. The first section of the film is extremely important as it explores the way that ordinary human beings are trained to become 'killing machines'.

In all of his films Kubrick deals with issues such as the nature of humanity and reality and the meaning of life and existence. In a film like 2001: A Space Odyssey he uses cinematic techniques to pose questions about the very nature of human existence and the meaning of the universe. While Full Metal Jacket is a very different film in many respects and in terms of subject matter and setting, it also suggests important questions about the nature of human being and existence; for examples, what does it mean to be human and how is it possible that we could lose our sense of humanity and compassion towards others?

In the first section of the film we encounter the daunting figure of the marine drill instructor, Gny. Sergeant Hartman. In order to establish his authority and to manipulate and indoctrinate the raw recruits into becoming unfeeling fighting soldiers he picks on one individual, Private Pyle, who is a rather inept recruit. The cruel treatment that is meted out to Pyle results in his suicide, after he kills Sergeant Hartman.

However, the important aspect to consider is not the narrative but rather the mood and atmosphere that the director creates to suggest the inhumanity and loss of care and compassion for others that is an intrinsic part of the training process for these young recruits. The dehumanization of the young men is evidently considered to be a necessary part of their preparation fro combat. However this raises the important question as to why society needs to create 'killing machines' out of ordinary young men, who are constructed to become individuals who have no feeling or respect for life. The obvious question that also can be related to the film is what does this process of dehumanization mean for the future of society if we are willingly creating a generation of young people who have become essentially dehumanized and unable to be compassionate?

The first section and the training in boot camp also deal with another important contemporary philosophical issue -- namely, personal human identity. The obvious purpose of the marine training process is to reduce or even remove any sense of personal identity to make the individual into a machine-like part of the corps. This relates to the perennial philosophical question of whom and what we are. The raw recruits are put through a process which attempt to make them into military automatons. The results of this process can be seen in the second section of the film.

Therefore, in contrast to 2001; A space odyssey, where the theme was focused on the exploration of the limits and potential of human being and spirit, in Full Metal Jacket Kubrick explores the issue of identity and meaning from a different perspective in this study of the way that we dehumanize others. As one critic states about the main intention of the film; "Full Metal Jacket's boot camp sequence caught the attention of the public eye, emphasizing its possible traumatic and harrowing effects upon the American soldier "(Plot summary/analysis of full metal jacket).

In order to emphasize his central theme of dehumanization and loss of identity, Kubrick makes expert use of decor and lighting. In the first section we encounter the brilliantly clean and almost antiseptic look of the barracks. This is contrasted with the way that the young men are reduced to war machines. For examples, against the eerie clean white of barracks we see a number of montage shots of the new recruits having their hair shaved, which symbolizes the loss of their personal identity. The lighting that the director uses is stark and intense, which emphasizes the clinical hardness of the new way of life that they are being introduced to but which also tends to emphasize the loss of humanity and feeling. As one commentator notes;

The Marine Corps training camp & #8230; looks more like a medical facility than a military one. The barracks are lit as brightly and evenly as an operating theater, the walls are a uniform white and every surface has been scrubbed to an antiseptic shine" (Rafferty).

From this point-of-view the director succeeds in creating a cinematic environment that supports and emphasizes his central thematic Intentions. Raffery succinctly summarizes this point-of-view and expands on the implications of the first section of the film.

…we realize that, in a sense, the Marines' heads have been shaved for surgery: basic training is an operation on their brains, a procedure that excises, with laserlike precision, all traces of humane and civilized impulses and implants in their place the hard instincts of killers

(Rafferty).

It is also important to note that Janet Maslin (1987), in her review of the fiilm remarks on the eyes of the young recruits who are being shaved and prepared for their indoctrination. She notes that, "In their eyes we see absolutely nothing: no apprehension, no bravado, not even blind obedience, only the emptiness of clay ready to be molded" ( Maslin). This indicates the loss of personal identity as well as the loss of meaning in their lives.

Probably the most shocking and symbolic event of the entire film is the suicide of Private Pyle. Pyle is literally driven mad by the conformity and the dehumanization of the military process. He kills the drill instructor in the toilet area and then turns the gun on himself. Once again Kubrick makes use of harsh lighting and the white, clinical environment of the toilet area to emphasize not only Pyle's madness but in fact the madness and insanity of the entire military process and, by implication, the society.

The first half of the film prepares the ground, as it were, and is an introduction to what follows. In the second section we experience what happens to some of the recruits, and to the main character Joker, when they enter the actual war zone of Vietnam. The use of background color and sound is continued in the second section of the film. This battle scene at the city of Hue is designed to create an atmosphere that increases the sense of dehumanization encountered in the first section with the barren and bleak industrial indifference of its setting. The colors used are also drab and grey-green dominates to evoke a sense of claustrophobic death and destruction.

Another aspect that evokes atmosphere in the film is the use of music. Kubrick chooses a soundtrack which is both empty and banal yet also succeeds in emphasizing the loss of meaning and vacuity in what the young recruits have become. The director makes use of popular songs such as "These Boots Are Made for Walking" and "Surfin' Bird." The very emptiness of the lyrics tends to ironically emphasize the dehumanization and loss of identity which pervades the film (Maslin).

The theme of dehumanization is followed through in the graphic events of the battle and we also see the "…collapse of the individual into the group" (Anderegg 11). For example, when Joker tries to express his individuality by wearing a peace symbol on his uniform, he is sternly rebuked by a marine officer and ordered to "join the program'. In effect the young recruits become almost robotic in their view of the reality of the war and are strangely dislocated from the events around them.

It is also clear that while Joker shows signs of personal identity and individually, this is overtaken by the group mentally that has become the reality that the young recruits now subscribe to. In one scene when Joker meets his old friends, one marine displays a dead body of the enemy as a joke. The extent of their dehumanization is also evident in the interview that the young recruits give to the press and in the warped views and attitudes expressed by Animal Mother. One critic remarks that, Private Joker "…melts into an "irrevocably infantalized" group...The creation of young killing machines, as Kubrick delineates the process, involves a form of male bonding…" (Anderegg 11)