Stanley Kubrick’s Movie ”Full Metal Jacket” Analysis

Stanley Kubrick’s Movie †Full Metal Jacket† Analysis Table of Contents Section 1: Introduction Section 2: Background Section 3: Main Section 4: Conclusion Section 4: Bibliography Section 1: Introduction There were always a lot of different wars going on and even more war stories written down. These stories are usually very complicated and involve many characters, feelings and struggles. They show the war from different sides, describing the moments of intense battle as much as moments of soldiers’ soul torments. War stories mostly include different combats, a dramatic plot, sometimes a love line, and almost always an emotional finale. Some of these stories are quite positive and have happy endings; others try to show the real war. The director Stanley Kubrick also made a war story and named it â€Å"Full Metal Jacket†. This story turned out to be very unconventional and unusual, because it follows the mental development of the soldiers and their emotions rather than concentrating on the war itself. Kubrick’s movie observes the marines’ motivations, relationships between each other and their attitude to the war. The motive for fighting is a very important part of any war story. People have very different reasons for a war, such as money, freedom, territory, power and so on. Mostly characters in war stories clearly define their goals in the battle, and the reasons for them to be there. They ask themselves why they fight, think about their life before they got where they are, and examine their feelings and motives for continuing, although â€Å"Full Metal Jacket† leaves motives of the soldiers uncertain. That brings the audience to the question: Are there any reasons for these soldiers to fight or the deaths of their friends were vain? Maybe the war was completely meaningless from very beginning? Section 2: Background The film â€Å"Full Metal Jacket† follows a Marine reporter nicknamed Joker through his initiation into Marine boot camp and his involvement in the Vietnam War which lasts from December 1956 up to 30 April 1975. Although the reasons for Vietnam War start appearing much earlier. The situation becomes tense in the time when Indochina is still a French Colony. Different nationalistic groups come together with communist Ho Chi Minh to overthrow the French rule and become independent. So they start First Indochina war, and in 1954 France suffers a major military defeat. Signed in 1954 Geneva Accords ends French rule and United Nations divide Indochina into Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, which was ruled by communists, and democratic South Vietnam. Nationalists’ forces want to unify Vietnam under the communist government and start the war which is now known as a Vietnam War. In the same time America tries to prevent the spread of communism through the world. They believed in domino theory which held that if a country goes communist the neighboring countries are likely to go communist also. So US feel that if they stop communism from taking South Vietnam it will also keep other countries from it. So they support South Vietnam in the war. On the time period from 1965 until 1972 the Vietnam War keeps escalating. US send to the war about a half a million of their troops. America is very close to victory, but North Vietnamese army succeeds in breaking the will of the American People. Their military does not know what are they fighting for anymore and does not want to sacrifice their lives. And as the war goes on, the cost in blood seems to be extreme and worthless, so in 1972 US signs valueless peace agreement with North Vietnam which allows the retreating of American forces. But the armed conflict in Vietnam continues and in a few years in 1975 the North Vietnam takes up South Vietnam. Defeat of South Vietnam causes a massive genocide in Southern Asia resulting in the death of millions, while America suffers major political loss.[1] The movie â€Å"Full Metal Jacket† is a war story about that part of history, about the Vietnam War. It was directed in 1987 and is based on Gustav Hasfords semi-autobiographical novel â€Å"The Short-Timers†. [2] The author of the book, Gustav Hasford, was a US Marine Corps veteran and went through a Vietnam War; his experience and his feelings on this war formed the basis of his book and therefore the movie.[3] Section 3: Main The story of the movie begins the United States Marine Corps Training Camp. A group of young recruits are having their heads shaved and being prepared for military basic training by their new senior drill instructor, brutal Gunnery Sergeant called Hartman, whose work is to weed out all non-hackers[4]. During the training the sergeant often degrades each recruit; he uses many different psychological attacks such as repeated chants in training or insulting their masculinity (calling them sweethearts or ladies). He also gives certain men a ridiculous nickname based on their actions or characters: the pragmatic man who talks behind his back got a name Joker[5], a man from Texas became a Cowboy[6] and finally, Leonard Lawrence, an over-weighed, tall, not intelligent recruit becomes Private Gomer Pyle[7]. Hartman focus his attention on him, because the corpulent recruit cannot keep up with the others in the grueling trainings. The viewer can observe a slow dehumanization of recruits that occurs during the training. American boys are humiliated and worked to death. Finally they become totally broken and reconstructed as the perfect marines; they are taught that they are nothing more than bald-headed weapons of mass destruction in uniforms. Some of them could not handle this and slowly go insane, what is perfectly shown on the example of Private Pyle. This training seriously dements Private Gomer Pyle up until he becomes demented, maniacal, and suicidal. The scene where he is talking to his gun[8] shows just how much some people can be dehumanized by the experience of basic training. Private Pyle takes so much glory in his rifle that it starts to bother everybody in the training camp. When he reaches the certain state, Pyle feels like he has to not only kill his sergeant, but to eliminate himself from this world as well, and commits a suicide, even his fellow recruit Joker cannot change his mind[9]. The second part of the movie takes place already on the war. Each recruit got a Military Occupational Specialty. Joker, which is the main character, now becomes a military journalist. In the first minutes of the second part, Private Rafterman grumbles to Joker, You know what really pisses me off about these people? We are supposed to be helping them and they shit all over us every chance they get. I just can’t feature that. Joker then replies, Dont take it too hard, Rafterman. Its just business.[10] The way he answers demonstrates to the viewer that marines honestly do not understand why Vietnamese people dislike them, even though Americans fight for their freedom and protect them from going communists. Next scene, Joker is on the newspaper staff meeting, and the superior officer looks through the offered articles to verify that all the material would create the desired effect on the readers. Joker and his fellow journalists are ordered to only write articles that show that United Stated are the winners in this war, even if it implies that they have to make up some details[11]. Before Joker realizes that this not faithful reporting isn’t a right decision, he agrees with it because the happy stories would keep the troops in a good mood. Afterwards Joker and Rafterman take a helicopter ride[12]. While flight, the helicopter’s door gunner starts to shoot Vietnamese villagers and soon Joker asks him, How can you shoot women and children?, and the soldier answers, Easy! You just dont lead ‘em so much! Aint war hell?[13] These men on the war are losing their morality; killing women and children became totally normal, the only difference is that you use fewer bullets on them. The marines in this movie have no idea what they are doing in Vietnam, they were told to kill Vietnamese people and that is what they do. Later, when Joker and Private Rafterman meet Cowboys platoon for the first time, Joker and the marine nicknamed Animal Mother have a dispute. In a second Private Eightball comes to Joker and says, Now you may not believe it, but under fire Animal Mother is one of the finest human beings in the world. All he needs is someone to throw hand grenades at him the rest of his life.[14] Sergeant Animal Mother appears to be an ideal soldier: a man who has become desensitized due to warfare. There is a memorable scene where members of the platoon are standing around their recently killed comrades[15]. The camera turns around, focusing on each of them one by one as they give a comment about their opinions on deaths. Some are confused, one marine wishes them to rest in peace, and the next one adds at least they died for a good cause. Someone asks What cause is that? and the soldier replies, Freedom. The important line comes when Animal Mother suddenly says You think we waste gooks for freedom? This is a slaughter. If I’m going to get my balls blown off for a word my word is poon-tang.[16] This shows viewers some kind of idea about the characters and their thoughts, but there is still no particular idea about what they are actually there for. One of the most important proofs that the soldiers do not know what they are fighting for appears when a news team interviews a platoon, and they share their experiences and opinion about the war[17]. The answers are uncertain and reduced to the fact that the soldiers are only here to kill â€Å"Vietnamese gooks†, as they were ordered. The marines speak very insecure with a lot of pauses unable to put the words right; they never thought about the reason to fight. In a few days, the troop goes out on another patrol, in the ruins next to the place where the US army believes enemy’s troops have hidden[18]. The sky on the background is foggy showing some kind of uncertainty in soldiers’ souls. While observing the place, the leader of the squad dies by stepping on a mine and Cowboy takes the leadership. Very soon their squad becomes lost in the ruins and the unseen sniper shoots one of the marines, private Eightball. The platoon argues if they should take risk and try to save him or leave the dying comrade. This scene shows who of them still have something humane and who already became a â€Å"killing machine† as they were taught to be. The viewer can see how these people cannot take the decision. Then one man decides to take the chance and goes there. After the second soldier being shot the third marine goes and sacrifice himself too. That is the cost of being humane on the war. Finally the viewer reaches the last minutes ofFull Metal Jacket, when the platoon finds the sniper and Joker faces death for the first time. As he looks down on the Vietnamese sniper, we understand that Joker has never really been on the battlefield, he has never needed to kill, but when he needed those were only darkened figures in the distance. For the Joker, war and death was something that happens somewhere at the distance to the other people. He never looked the enemy directly in the eye before pulling the trigger. Being shot and surrounded by the enemies the sniper starts to pray, and then she begs them to shoot her. The marines need to take a difficult decision: or they should leave her to die from a blood loss or save her from suffering by killing her. Animal Mother agrees on a mercy killing but only if Joker will do it[19]. Before that Joker asked the helicopter gunner â€Å"How can you shoot women and children?† Suddenly this question comes back to him as Joker stands next to an enemy sniper who is and woman, and a child. After some hesitation, Joker shoots her. His fellow marines sarcastically congratulate Joker with his first corpse while he stares into nothing, having finally gotten his own brutalized gaze. In this scene he looks very similar to the private Pyle in the end of the first part. All the military philosophy is shown in this one battle where a small marine troop is trying to win a Vietcong sniper to gain one tiny piece of land among the ruins by sacrificing their fellows. And this tiny piece of land is not even important for this war. â€Å"Full Metal Jacket†ends with Joker marching with other marines and singing the Mickey Mouse Club theme song and then Joker narrates, â€Å"I am so happy that I am alive, in one piece and short. I’m in a world of shit†¦ yes. But I am alive. And I am not afraid.†[20] He is called the Joker, and â€Å"Full Metal Jacket† is the story of his aging, the story of his transformation from an innocent child to the killing machine, real soldier. During this war, he finds nothing but madness and cruelness in everything around him, starting with his drill instructor, Sergeant Hartman, to the Vietnamese enemies and his fellows, so the film does not really take anybody’s side. It does not tell you who the antagonists and who the protagonists are. More than that, this movie has a lot of dualities: the helmet with the peace symbol on one side and â€Å"Born to Kill† written on the other, even Joker himself explained it as a duality of a man[21]. The tragic deaths at the end of each part of the movie. Joker’s own desires to â€Å"get into shit† and to avoid it as much as possible. Him, being a Leonard’s tutor and the one who beats Pyle the hardest in the same time. The music use in different situations. The music choice in the movie also says a lot about the meaningless of the war. For example taking a Mickey Mouse song in the end tells about the innocence of these soldiers many years ago, when there was no war going on. A period of time many years ago when they were all children, contrasted to fighting soldiers which they became now. Kubrick used music in a quite sarcastic, absurd and tragicomic way: The Mickey Mouse march, which is supposed to be entertaining and happy, becomes a dead march spreading above the land of destruction and death. The title of the movie â€Å"Full Metal Jacket† is also given to it for a purpose. The Full Metal jacket bullets are bullets designed not to expand at all, thus they are considered ‘humane’, because they are less likely to kill (although more likely to maim)[22]. That fits the movie in a sense of how the marines had a distorted notion about what is humane and what is not. They believed that they are being humane because they are killing Vietcong people, who are communist and therefore ‘the bad guys’, and no matter if those are innocent or not. They were told that it is the right way for everybody, while in the reality they were just as bad, cruel and ferocious as Vietcong. Section 4: Conclusion The inscription â€Å"Born to Kill† on Jokers helmet versus the Peace symbol perfectly summarizes this film. There were no answers to any questions in the Vietnam War, the brink of honor and justice was lost. The gallant soldier is mocking while shoots a machine gun at innocent women and children, and nobody can even understand what are they fighting and die for, although they know that killing is their responsibility and mission. There, in Vietnam, even a prostitute can turn up to be a Vietcong spy. There the difference, the advantage of women and children is that you use fewer bullets to kill them. There is no place for weak people or pacifists, and even if the soldier has a piece symbol on him, this is easily compensated with an inscription â€Å"Born to Kill† on the helmet, which is explained just by duality of a human nature. Everybody, who understood what a war is, tried to stay humane and alive at the same time, died and instead of the funeral, a funny song with terrible words sounded over their bodies. Full Metal Jacket is a movie of contrast, where each minute contradicts the previous and the main character himself. All his doubts and compassionate in the beginning replaced with coolness and confidence in his decisions at the end. And finally a Hartmans mission is completed. An army of demoralized people, who is only able to kill, will return back home, because it is too difficult to stay human on the war. The end of this transformation in the huge heartless machine is seen when Private Joker kills a sniper and destroy a pacifist in himself, symbolizing the final decay of the soul and the conversion into a monster. In any war, if you kill a person in front of you, you kill a person inside yourself. And Kubrick perfectly showed how meaningless is that war in his movie called Full Metal Jacket. Section 4: Bibliography Sanders, Vivienne, 2007, â€Å"The USA and VIETNAM 1945-1975† Kubrick, Stanley, 1987,â€Å"Full Metal Jacket† Wikipedia: Vietnam War Wikipedia: Full Metal Jacket Wikipedia: Gustav Hasford Wikipedia: The Short-Timers Wikipedia: Full Metal Jacket bullet [1] The information for these paragraphs is taken from: Sanders, Vivienne, 2007, â€Å"The USA and VIETNAM 1945-1975† and Wikipedia’s article about the Vietnam War. [2] Wikipedia: Full Metal Jacket [3] Wikipedia: Gustav Hasford [4] †Full Metal Jacket†: 00:02:35-00:02:37 [5] †Full Metal Jacket†: 00:03:42-00:03:49 [6] †Full Metal Jacket†: 00:05:16-00:05:24 [7] †Full Metal Jacket†: 00:06:10-00:06:15 [8] †Full Metal Jacket†: 00:32:00-00:34:38 [9] †Full Metal Jacket†: 00:44:11-00:45:15 [10] †Full Metal Jacket†: 00:48:21-00:48:35 [11] †Full Metal Jacket†: 00:49:05-00:52:20 [12] †Full Metal Jacket†: 00:58:40-01:01:05 [13] †Full Metal Jacket†: 01:00:30-01:00:40 [14] †Full Metal Jacket†: 01:07:30-01:08:44 [15] †Full Metal Jacket†: 01:17:49-01:19:46 [16] †Full Metal Jacket†: 01:18:33-01:19:03 [17] †Full Metal Jacket†: 01:19:55-01:22:56 [18] †Full Metal Jacket†: 01:25:35-01:51:05 [19] †Full Metal Jacket†: 01:48:00-01:49:27 [20] †Full Metal Jacket†: 01:51:05-01:52:53 [21] †Full Metal Jacket†: 01:04:32-01:05:12 [22] Wikipedia: Full Metal Jacket Bullets

Dysfunctional Relationships Between Sonny’s Blues and Shiloh

Jeremy Raymond Professor Gazzara ENG 102-109 April 6th, 2013 It Takes Two To Tango What makes a relationship dysfunctional? Is it the changes one sees in another whether they be physical, emotional, or financial? Is it a change in their own personality that is now changing their views on their family member or significant other? Tina B. Tessina defines a dysfunctional relationship as this:Dysfunctional Relationships are relationships that do not perform their appropriate function; that is, they do not emotionally support the participants, foster communication among them, appropriately challenge them, or prepare or fortify them for life in the larger world. (Tessina 1) In â€Å"Sonny's Blues† and â€Å"Shiloh†, we see two different types of dysfunctional relationships. In â€Å"Shiloh† we see a marriage relationship between Norma Jean and Leroy Moffit. In â€Å"Sonny's Blues†, we see a brotherhood relationship between Sonny and his brother.These relationshi ps are considered dysfunctional based on the actions and lack of actions based on those involved. In Mason's â€Å"Shiloh†, the relationship between Leroy and Norma Jean was off to a good start. They have been married sixteen years and had a kid named Randy. Randy passed away from sudden infant death syndrome at a very young age. We can infer through the text that both Norma Jean and Leroy were left traumatized by this. The death of a child can leave a person traumatized and shook-up for the rest of their lives. The couple's relationship takes a turn south due to numerous reasons.One reason being Norma Jeans newfound lifestyle. Ever since Leroy suffered his accident, She has morphed into the manly figure of the household. She's starting to lift weights to strengthen herself up. Leroy is now observing changes in Norma Jean he has never seen before. In addition to lifting weights at home, she is now attending a body building class which puzzles Leroy. Through Leroy's eyes, she is already a changed woman. Besides for Norma Jeans' newfound physical changes in herself, she is also attending night classes.Norma Jean is also developing sleep patterns that concern not only Leroy but also Mabel, her mother. Mabel in a conversation with Leroy states â€Å"She used to go to bed with the chickens. Now you say she's up all hours. † (73). The quote shows how both Leroy, her husband who's loved her for the past sixteen years and Mabel, her own mother are worried and confused by her new patterns in life. In addition to changes in Norma Jean, Leroy has undergone changes as well. Since he had his accident, he is unable to drive tractor trailers across the country anymore.He is now cooped up inside of the house because of his injury. He has developed a hobby for building crafts and has turned that into a plan with blueprints to build a full scale log cabin. The thought of the cabin disgusts Norma Jean, where in a conversation between Leroy, Norma Jean, and Mabel, L eroy states, â€Å"I'm aiming to build us a log house† (70). Norma Jean quickly responds to Leroy with â€Å"Like heck you are† (70). She clearly shows her disapproval with his plan. We as readers can interpret that Leroy is a man stuck in the past and Norma Jean has evolved into a new woman.We see an attempt at resolving the dysfunctional couples relationship when they take a trip to Shiloh. Leroy is trying to hold onto the love of his life while Norma Jean is trying to free herself and move on to bigger and better things in life. She has changed her life, physically and mentally and Leroy has done nothing with his life which is why she is leaving him. The attempt at reconciliation fails terribly and Norma Jean and Leroy split paths and go on with their separate lives. In â€Å"Sonny's Blues† we see another dysfunctional relationship, this time between brothers. The narrator of the story, is the brother of Sonny.A schoolteacher in Harlem, he has grown up around men and women who have suffered from alcoholism, drug addictions and many more problems. Similar to Leroy from â€Å"Shiloh†, he is a family man also reeling from the loss of their youngest child, Grace. The death of their child spurred the brother into writing to his troubled brother Sonny. Sonny was the younger brother of the two who has been through many difficult life lessons throughout his short life so far. Sonny has suffered from a heroin addiction which landed him in a local jail which further weakened the bond between the two brothers.Sonny's brother has lived in Harlem and has seen heroin addicts and victims of alcoholism and has showed no remorse for them. We see Sonny's brothers intolerance for the men around Harlem who suffer from an addiction when he is talking to an old friend of Sonny's after he leaves the school one day. â€Å"Look. Don’t tell me your sad story, if it was up to me, I'd give you one. † (294). This shows how Sonny's brother is in different regarding people who have suffered from a addiction. While Sonny was in jail, the relationship continued to dwindle. After Sonny's release from prison, their relationship began to heal.In addition to his drug addiction, Sonny's inability to decide on a career in life irritates his brother. Sonny's aspirations spread as far as India, a military job stationed throughout the world , and/or landing a job as a musician in his hometown of Harlem. This inconsistency of Sonny enrages his older brother, who has made a promise with their mother to look after him and make sure he grows up to be a proper man. In contrast to the relationship between Norma Jean and Leroy, Sonny and his brothers relationship is able to rebuild after a time of hardship between the two.Sonny is able to recover fully from his heroin addiction and begin to get his life back on track. In addition to cutting his heroin addiction, he makes a life decision regarding his future and chooses to become a musician in Harlem. The theme of dysfunctional relationships is present in both stories with very different endings. In â€Å"Shiloh†, we see a relationship between two married people end abruptly. Leroy, the man stuck in the past and holding on to what he knows and Norma Jean, the woman who has changed everything about herself.Opposites do not attract and the marriage ceased to continue after their visit to the Shiloh battlefield. In â€Å"Sonny's Blues†, the brotherhood relationship between Sonny and his brother is able to recover and progress due to the changes Sonny has made with himself. Works Cited Tessina, Tina. â€Å"What Is A Dysfunctional Relationship? †Ã‚  What Is A Dysfunctional Relationship? N. p. , n. d. Web. 09 Apr. 2013 Mason, Bobbie Ann. Shiloh. N. p. : Flamingo, 1988. Print. Baldwin, James. Sonny's Blues. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 1993. Print.

16 year old Drivers

You just turned 16 and can’t wait to drive a car by yourself. Why should you have to wait even longer. You already have to take courses before you get your permit, and you have drive a year with a parent/guardian supervision before you can get your drivers licence. To persuade you that 16 year olds are mature enough to drive a car I will give you two reasons why. My first reason that 16 year old are mature enough to drive a car is you take courses to before you can start driving. This means that they will know the rules of the road before they start driving.This is good because they will know what signs mean and what to do on the road, and not what not to do on the road. You also have to take tests before you get your drivers licence and if you don't know the rules then you will properly fail the test. Teenagers will have to know the rules if they want to be able to drive. They will know the rules because they will take courses. My 2nd reason is that you have to drive with a p arent or guardian for a year before you get your drivers licenses. In the state of Colorado you must drive with a parent or guardian one whole year before you can get your drivers license.You also have a year with a parent or guardian helping and guiding you how to succeed parent or guardian can help them to understand the rules of the road, so they will know how to use the rules of the road in a good way. It is safer because the parent or guardian can tell them don't to blast loud music because you will be more focused on the road when there isn't blasting loud music. They can tell them to focus on the road and can tell them to keep there eyes on the road when they get a text or a phone call. The abusing reason is dangers of teenage drivers, teenage drivers are more luckily to text while driving.So if they wait a little longer to start driving then they will be more mature and might not text while driving. If teenagers have friends in the car they might be more distracted at wheel. This might cause car accidents to teenage drivers. To conclude my paper 16 year old are mature enough to drive a car. They have to take courses before they can get there drivers license. You also have to drive with a parent or guardian for a year before you can get your drivers licenses . This is why 16 year olds are mature enough to drive. I hope you agree that 16 year olds are mature enough to drive a car.

A Summary of Keynes’ and Hayek’s Views on Economics Essay

In 1929, the stock market crashed. The values of production gone down, work force lost their jobs, millions of families lost their homes as well as millions of saving accounts were lost because banks closed for good. Those events resulted in the Great Depression. As a result, the world was plunged into economic turmoil. However, two prominent economists emerged with competing claims and sharply contrasting approaches on how a capitalist economy works and how to revive it when depressed. John Maynard Keynes an English economist believed that government has responsibility to intervene in an economical crisis whereas, Friedrich Hayek an Austrian-born economist and philosopher believed that the government intervention is worthless and†¦show more content†¦Unlike Keynes, Hayek, in his book The Road to Serfdom, points out that any form of government intervention is dangerous and leads to serfdom. He argued that central government planning leads to serfdom or servitude which destr oys personal freedom. Society has tried to ensure continuous prosperity by centralized planning which leads to totalitarianism. For example, socialism was supposed to be a means of assuring equality through restrain and servitude whereas democracy seeks equality in liberty-personal freedom and economical freedom. On the other hand, planning which is coercive is the least method of regulation where as cooperation of free market is superior because it is the only method that can adjust our activities with each other without the intervention of the authority. Furthermore, he argued that central planning is undemocratic because it imposes the will of the minority upon the majority. In pursuing their centralized goals, they take money or properties of the majority thus, destroying individual freedom. In addition, centralized planning reduces the individual to merely a means to be used by the authority as well as, giving away individual’s economic liberty. Unlike centralized planni ng, an open society offers more personal and economical freedom even to the very poor. He concluded by saying â€Å"The guiding principle that a policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy remains as true today as itShow MoreRelatedKeynes Vs Hayek Essay804 Words   |  4 PagesKeynes Versus Hayek The relationship between economists John M. Keynes and Friedrich A. Hayek is quite complex. Both had influential roles in economic studies, emerging after World War II and during the Great Depression era (BBC). It’s important to note that both of these economists had opposing views when it came to economic theories and policies. Briefly summed up, Keynes theories were in support for government involvement in the economy (EconedLink). In contrast, Hayek argued that the governmentRead MoreKeynesian Theory And Aggregate Demand1499 Words   |  6 PagesThe great depression in the 1930’s devastated the economic market, but also produced two of the greatest economists to ever live, John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich August Hayek. Why did the economist John Maynard Keynes advocate for the government to have an active role with influencing the level of economic activity. This is because Keynes believes that this will stimulate the economic activity and bring the country out of economic drought. Keynes’ theory leads to the government influencing the level