I never saw a Stanley Kubrick film even though boasting
about my utter penchant for films goes in sheer vain. But I heard about them a
heck lot. The horror genre in Hollywood can surely be exemplified by Kubrick’s
‘The Shining’. He even had furnished his mastery when he gave the dream of
eye-popping sci-fi effects a refined shape in his ‘2001: A Space Odyssey ‘. But
I started by watching the first Kubrick film by giving his war film ‘Full Metal
Jacket’ a worthwhile try. Why Full Metal jacket? Maybe it is because war films
have a strong flavour of despair, horror and plethoric human drama and I love
it all.
Full Metal Jacket consists of two distinct parts. A soft
tone of ‘Kiss me goodbye and write me when I am gone’ marks the beginning the
movie where the group of grunts are sitting in saloon getting their heads
shaved off. That is the drill; the one to get them trained on Paris Island so
that they can find themselves capable to be recruited in Marine Corps. The
Island is a place where a straight poker face and nods to the senior drill
instructor’s commands becomes their only fate of life.
However, the drill
instructor sergeant Hartman is not the one worth belying with. He is arrogant,
aggressive, regards the privates as lowest form of life on the earth &
shows rapid impulses to petty mistakes by the privates. His favourite barb-target
is Private Gomer Pyle (so renamed from Leonard Lawrence by the instructor himself),
an obese klutz who is often taunted and contradicted for his obese body and his
utter inability to participate in workouts & is meant to be quite obtuse.
The rigorous physical training sessions, continuous streak
of taunts by the instructor & predestined antipathy which his associate
privates have for him puts Pyle’s innocence & endurance to a test; The test
which concludes with a Pyle transforming into an antagonist shooting up the
sergeant and himself.
The latter half in majority is based in Vietnam and
showcases war scenes and bloodbath. Private Joker (Mathew Modine), the one who
used to bunk with Pyle and the sheer witness of his antagonism is recruited as
a war correspondent in Stars and Stripes which publishes military newspaper in
Vietnam. Following incoming enemy attacks all over South Vietnam, Joker is
briefed and sent to Phu Bai along with his cameraman Rafterman to interview the
platoon and record their experiences regarding the war. He meets his Paris
Island associate Private Cowboy in Lusthog Squad as the entire party gradually
gets drawn into a booby trap.
Even though the film is pragmatic, it is completely shapeless and fails to deal within realms of realism. The second half invites a fruitful comparison to other war films like ‘Platoon’, ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’. As it progresses, culminates into a horrendous picture of war and horror.
It is comfortably understandable and has no easy catharsis.
Kubrick has enhanced the visuals quite fantastically by his daunting angles at
the scene of carnage. He manages to create a marvellous visual epiphany on the trembling
prisoner at the end. As compared to ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘Platoon’, Full Metal
Jacket appears naive but can hold a tight grip on the viewer’s attention for
the complete duration.
Cheers for Stanley Kubrick
8 on 10 stars
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