Full Metal Jacket

Reception Theory

- Was this film provocative, throwaway or intellectually demanding?

The film is both provocative and intellectually demanding. The provocative aspects of the film consist of the horrible activities the soldiers do. The soldiers are racist to each other, the helicopter gunner shoots at innocent vietnamese women and children and says 'Ain't war hell!'' ironically, the solider's pay for a prostitute and take turns having sex with her, and the final scene shows that the solider's want the young girl sniper to die slowly in agony before Joker puts her out of her misery. The content here is intended to disgust us and is showing us that just because America is in Vietnam does not mean that they are the "good guys". The film is also intellectually demanding because it deals with subject matter like war, death and dehumanisation. It also provides morally ambiguous characters as the protagonists, it is very hard to actually like any of the characters in the film, except for Joker (possibly). This moral ambiguity means that it is up to the spectator to distinguish who is a good character or not. There are no character types in the film, instead it is a realistic portrayal of war where all the characters are killing machines.

- What is the preferred reading of the film?

The preferred reading of the film is for the spectator to dislike the characters in the film. Very few of them get our sympathy, such as Pyle. However Pyle does lose that sympathy when he kills the sergeant. Throughout the film, the protagonist and narrator, Joker is possibly the only positive character that most of the audience can sympathise for.  The audience may also associate with Cowboy, who is the leader of the platoon Joker and Rafterman join and seems to be capable of rational thought and decisions, like when he wants to retreat after the sniper kills two soldiers. By disliking the characters and showing their love for killing and war, these aspects make the film an anti-war film.

Central Imagining

- Scene 1

An example for Central imagining is when Private Pyle is insulted in front of the batch. The sergeant makes Pyle strangle himself in front of the whole batch. Kubrick has deliberately made the audience feel connected with Pyle, through cinematography. When Pyle kneels down to get himself strangled by the sergeant, the camera level goes down along with him. Therefore the audience feel like they are at the same level as Pyle, while the sergeant is stood up. This makes the audience feel for Pyle, especially they've  experienced something like humiliation or bullying, themselves. Those particular people will feel aligned with Pyle. Like this scene, any other scene with Pyle being humiliated or bullied, does make the audience feel sorry for him. As he makes a mistake and then gets punished by being humiliated. A lot of the audience including myself would feel similar or the same way because a thing like this has happened in the past.

- Scene 2

In this scene, Kubrick creates a central imagined response through the use of MICRO. The use of mis-en-scene is the blue room which is because it is dark. This darkness is reflective of the content in the scene. The props in the clip are soaps in pillowcase which are used as makeshift weapons to assault Pyle. These weapons show how cruel they are and reflect their want to punish Pyle. The sound in the scene consists of diagetic muffled screams of Pyle and him sobbing in pain. This makes the audience sympathise. The use of the non-diagetic electronic score makes the scene creepy and leaves the audience in suspense in what they are going to do to Pyle. The editing utilizes a long take and symbolises how Pyles pain is extended, the audience is there to watch every hit. The lighting uses moonlight to make the room look intimidating. The moonlight illuminates Pyle's bed symbolising that he is in the spotlight and separate from the rest of them. The camera has an high angle shot which looks down upon the scene.

A-Central Imagining

- Scene 1

Kubrick creates a central imagined response through the use of MICRO. The scene is of the sniper shooting Doc Jay and 8 Ball. The mis-en-scene in the scene represents pain through the blood and the look of agony on their faces while they are shot. The editing in the scene lingers on every bullet impact they suffer, elongating their pain in slow motion. Time slows down for Doc Jay and 8 Ball as they are dying. The sound is a diagetic loud scream of pain that is distorted and slowed down when they are shot. It is important that the sound is diagetic because we can see why are they screaming and it adds to the central imagining. There is only natural lighting in this scene, since they are outside in the day. It also creates the feeling of war, makes it look more realistic. This emphasises that the two of them are completely open and exposed, particularly combined with the camera's use of wide shots.

- Scene 2

This scene shows Animal Mother confronting Joker and having 

animosity towards each other. Its quite clear that from the start

Animal Mother dislikes Joker and threatens to beat him up.

This scene could be quite reminiscent for the audience including me.

Alignment

- Which two characters did you align with most? How did the director make you feel this way?

Kubrick makes the audience align with Pyle and Joker. For the first half of the movie, we align with Pyle and Joker, we sympathise with Pyle because he is portrayed as a character who is tormented and bullied. The first part of the film is a construct of the alienation and separation Pyle feels, the different scenes show Pyle being ostracized for the mistakes he makes, his weight, his lack of discipline and all these flaws are punished by the aggressive shouting and harassment of Hartman. The sympathetic view of the character comes from the extra-textual experiences the spectator may have experienced of bullying. The audience feel aligned to Joker because he tries to help Pyle at boot camp even though in order for him to fit in, contributes to Pyle's beating, it is shown that he is obviously reluctant to do so,

Joker is the narrator of the film and we see the second part of the film, in Vietnam through his eyes. Joker is the only member of the platoon who shows any type of compassion or sympathy for the Vietcong and the innocent people killed in the warfare. The other soldiers are just hyper masculine dehumanized monsters whose main satisfaction in the film is to kill, Joker is a figure which we can rely on because he is the character the audience can associate with the best.

- Name all the characters you felt allegiance to. What extra textual features made you feel this way?

I felt a bit allegiance with Pyle, this is because I've experienced bulling in the past. Although Pyle's bullying is maybe more extreme compared to mine, I still felt sympathised towards  him, and sorry for him. Pyle is unlike the other soldiers in Full Metal Jacket, as he is physically unfit. He does seem to be like an anti war character. This is because, he is more like a day dreamer than the one who concentrates and listens. For example, he accidentally put the riffle on the wrong shoulder, possibly due to the lack of concentration. To make all of that worse is obviously all the humiliation and bullying that he has to suffer. Which is why he ends up committing suicide, which I think is cowardice and wrong to do. That would be the only scene when I don't feel aligned with Pyle because he wrong. However, I understand the suffering he had to go through, which makes me feel a little sad for him, but that does not make me align with him, as I take those actions of his wrong.