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Full Metal Jacket Full Metal Jacket is a perfect example of an existential military drama. What does it mean? Kubrick is known for his manner to make the films according to his famous principle: thesis- antithesis, where the second half of the narration either refutes or questions the first one. Full Metal Jacket is no exception to the rule. This movie is a masterpiece yet another time reaffirming Kubrick's talent.
It is ranked as high as Platoon and Apocalypse Now. There is a great deal of truth in what Kubrick says: the war is madness without any logics. Kubrick shows the horrors of war so realistically that the viewer feels himself haunted by the jungles, flying helicopters, and smell of napalm. However, the plotting seems to be very simple: yet another Vietnam-war film.
It is based on Gustav Hasfords novel The Short-timers and was nominated for Oscar (not counting another five awards). It is difficult to compare the film with the similar motives that were repeated over and over again, because Kubrick's style has a charm of its own. His unsurpassable cinematographic style ignores all other cinema gurus, as far as Kubrick never takes lessons on contrary, the filmmakers may learn a lesson from him. Kubrick adheres to the same style peculiar to his previous films by showing the audience the things he wants to show and forces them to understand the things he considers to be of vital importance. Kubrick is beyond censorship and politics. He shows the truth.
What is truth, then? Probably, it is the story of Vietnam War with the twists and turns of marine life. Generally, it is the fight between the marines and the local residents. Yet, it is only in general, because this is the smaller part of the iceberg consisting of two parts. Drawing the parallel, the film is also divided into two parts. The first part of the film dwells on the brutal way of training where the Sergeant of the Marine Corps, U.
S. Hartman makes all efforts to turn the soldiers into killers with no mercy. Sergeant Hartman had the only objective in mind the merciless machines with no individuality, so he went through all sorts of hell to get this done. The second part of the film is dedicated to the war itself (FULL METAL JACKET Plot, 2007). The filmmaker masterly shows the conflicts between the marines and the enemies not far from Hue. Traps and snares, fights, surprise attacks from the ambushes, military marksmen who fired from cover at long ranges at American soldiers, booby traps, - all this is shown so realistically that the viewer can hardly understand that the war is displayed on the screen but not in reality.
Stanley Kubrick managed to reveal the secrets of the war, showing it from without. Kubrick shows the American soldiers as a cannon fodder, the men regarded as expendable because they were simply a part of a huge American army, the nameless army in the nameless land. It seems the marines themselves have no idea about the purpose of the war. They were simply obeying the order to kill the soldiers, who, to a certain extent, had a strong resemblance to themselves: the soldiers against the soldiers, fighting to the bitter end instead of living in peace. The film captivates with its inner aggression, and shows the viewers the boundaries of the evolution, degradation, and moral decay. It shows the audience what can happen under pressure of circumstances, where the nameless soldiers have to obey the orders, regardless of their purposefulness.
The story of Full Metal Jacket is the merciless war with no purpose. The filmmaker seems to be estranged in his effort to show the realistic war. Full Metal Jacket is the story about the beast in the humans clothing. The modern civilization conceals the human nature under the sugary touch of refined intellectuality.
However, when the fortune plays its dirty tricks and throws the person into extreme conditions, people immediately lose their glazing intellectuality and think of no etiquette and good manners. They are driven by the animal instinct alone: survive at all costs. What a thin social shell is the obstacle in their path to the fall! Similar to all his films, Kubrick explores the lurking facets of an empty human nature. For the lyrical digression, Stephen Kings The shining with the unsurpassed Jack Nicolsons play, and one of the last Kubrick's films Eyes Wide Shut seems to be a logical continuation of the gloomy history of the human decay. Yet, lets come back to the military-like film again.
Unlike pseudo historical and admass movies, such as Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Ridley Scotts Black Hawk Down created on the highest technological level, the events in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket develop in a slow and even somewhat a cavalier manner. This film hardly can boast with the special effects able to make an unforgettable impression on the audience. Neither can it tell the story of the heroes able to save the world, or the numerous stories glorifying the unknown soldiers. There are no patriotic slogans or rattle banners, - nothing special to win the attention of the most captious persons. Yet, who can dare to call this film an anti-war parody?
Full Metal Jacket is a military story of the senselessness deaths. It is the story of broken lives and broken hopes. This is the story about the war and, at the same time, the story of the personal wars, where the soldiers won their battle but lost their lives All their youth the soldiers were taught how to kill and so they did commanded by their generals. Yet, the crowd and pacifists jeered at them when the soldiers came back home, as the crowd knew nothing about the challenges the soldiers were forced to go through. Full Metal Jacket is a challenge. It puts everything into doubt, forces to rethink the past, and then deafens and stubs breathless.
One of the main characters of the film by name Joker wears pacifists symbols. However, the inscription on his helmet tells: Born to kill. He treats the war as a game. He is proud of his actions and he is too narrow-minded in his senseless bravado. He understands nothing. He has no explanation to the fact that he has to kill.
The militaries give command. He kills. Similar to the others Similar to the thousands of other marionette soldiers on the merciless war From the one hand, Kubrick's attempt to give the second life to the novel The Short-Timers is obviously necessary. From the other hand, the filmmaker prefers numerous digressions from the content. He reconstructs the battle scenes not in an Asian manner, but in a specially designed backdrop somewhere in England. Kubrick hardly pursued a whim, but pursued the aim to show the panoramic battles full of explosions.
Actually, he created his own interpretation of the Apocalypses on the Earth that is very different from that of shown in the Apocalypse Now. The film is rich in captivating, breath-taking scenes played by the well-known actors. It exposes the world full of violence, slaughter, misery and misfortune. No doubt, Kubrick managed to show it as nobody else. Just remember the scenes where the soldiers kill women and children just for fun. Nothing personal.
This is the tragedy of the war. This is real. It shocks. Unlike the other war-films, there is no main character.
The soldiers are the main characters, a group of people, a unified command united around a common goal, which was formed during the first part of the film and smashed into pieces during the second one. The plotting is not imaginary. It is not a fruit of imagination, because the U. S. army recruits have to complete eight weeks of training before they will qualify for going to a real military operation.
Therefore, every episode of the movie is penetrated by merciless reality. The U. S. Army corps is a beast with no humanity. No individuality exists.
Therefore, the main task of the Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Lee Ermey) is to erase everything the soldiers might have in mind before they became soldiers and teach them the art of killing. "The more you hate me, " Sergeant Hartman tells his men, "the more you will learn. I am hard, but I am fair... You are equally worthless. " (Full Metal Jacket [Warner Brothers], 2007). Worthlessness and all-permissiveness, the policy of everything goes - this is the second name of the film. It was a pleasure for Hartman to flout at recruits. Lets cite as an example the episode, when Sergeant Hartman forced an open-minded and simple-hearted young man Gomer Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) to be a killer.
This is another Kubrick's success: he shows the viewer that the army is able to change the people by making them the real monsters. The second part of the film is more predictable than the first one. However, the vast majority of Kubrick's fans like it because of its originality. The final episode, made in an exemplary-Kubrick's manner, may be described by the following words: No matter how compassionate your soul, war will desensitize you in the end. (Full Metal Jacket [Warner Brothers], 2007). Works Cited FULL METAL JACKET - Plot. 10 June 2007 < web >.
Full Metal Jacket [Warner Brothers]. 10 June 2007 < web >.
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