An Analysis of Background Movement, Symmetry in Full Metal Jacket

There are two elements in the first half of Full Metal Jacket making it undeniably Kubrickian. One is the symmetrical background imagery and it's use through movement to create underlying meaning. The second is a fluid editing style that overlaps shots, using symbolic imagery and subtext to transition scenes.

These elements are used to emphasize the contrasting styles of training that a marine, Private Pyle, receives on Parris Island boot camp before the Vietnam War. The contrast is between a traditional militarism drilled in by the sadistic Sergeant Hartman and the other of patient humanism from the film's narrator/protagonist Private Joker.

An image of symmetry that coincides with the character development is the synchronized Marines marching or running in the background of scenes. On the surface these are just other marines training in the background as Pyle and Joker are seen in the foreground. Upon close inspection a pattern can be seen in how at certain moments the background marines are moving left to right and at others from right to left.

The left to right movement can be seen as the traditional way a character processes information. In the case of Full Metal Jacket it is the traditional way of military training that Drill Sergeant Hartman forces upon Private Pyle. The right to left movement is representative of the non-traditional way that Private Joker embraces to train Private Pyle. The left to right/right to left positions and movements of the characters are all in relation to how the viewer sees them on screen as Kubrick "puts his audience through its own training course"{Nelson, 241}.

Drill Sergeant Hartman makes this distinction literally when he slap Private Pyle's face. Pyle confuses which shoulder to place his gun on as Hartman orders out "Left shoulder," then proceeding to slap his left side then right demanding Pyle to distinguish which side is which. Prior to the slap, the squad, on the far left side of the screen does their first cadence march towards the camera as it tracks backward. We see from the left side of the frame another squad march from left to right behind them.

This is the first day of training and during the march we see Joker, but not Pyle marching in the front row. After Hartman slaps Pyle the squad marches from right to left and trailing behind with his pants around his ankles, sucking his thumb is Pyle. The shots with movement from left to right focus on Joker and polarize his character with Pyle where the movement is from right to left.

Hartman eventually gives up on the basic training of Pyle and assigns Joker as a squad leader to personally train him. In the shot that follows, Joker is seated on the bench with Pyle and the training marines walk by in the background from the right side of the frame to left. Joker is patiently explaining and showing how to load a rifle sitting on the right side facing Pyle. The rest of the squad in the background is a step ahead already learning to aim their rifles. This action, in addition to the right to left movement of the marines walking by compose a shot establishing that Joker will take on a non-traditional style of military training.

After progress is made in the non-traditional training, Joker is seen facing Pyle from the left side of the screen. The shot is of Joker showing Pyle how to hold his rifle and how to take basic commands. In the background we see the rest of the squad marching from the right to left and then reverse their movement. The background movement implies that Pyle is still a step behind, but Joker's training is progressing as his position in the frame moves from the right side to the left and the background movement reverses.

This reversal movement is seen again later in the first half in a scene that shows the squad lined up outside for inspection by Hartman. By now we see that Joker has created a monster by taking the time to train Pyle and his skills have surpassed Joker. By not remembering a general order Joker drops to give Hartman 25 pushups as opposed to Pyle who recalls it immediately. There is a squad in the background marching from right to left and as Hartman praises Pyle by saying he is "born again hard," they reverse their movement marching left to right. It is as if Joker and Pyle's roles have been reversed.

Joker is successful in training Pyle to "learn by the numbers," as Hartman says when they are introduced. The numbers motif is emphasized through an editing sequence that overlaps a shot of the squad marching and a shot of the number signs posted above the shooting range. Joker and Pyle are now in the front row of the squad and as they march the camera focuses on them as it does a sweeping left to right movement.

When we first see the squad marching in cadence, it is only Joker in the front row. Then during the sequence that overlaps the marching squad with the numbers, Joker's position is to the left of Pyle in the front row. The third sequence is another marching cadence where both Joker and Pyle are in the front row, but Pyle is now to the left of Joker. As the camera tracks backward, similar to the first marching cadence, two other squads move from the right to left in the background. In the first marching cadence the squads in the background move from left to right, signifying traditional style, as it was before Hartman's try at training Pyle. Now after Joker is, so far, successful in brining Pyle into the cadence, the squads in the background move from the right side to the left, signifying non-traditional style. This parallel between Pyle's training and the direction of movement in the background is continuous throughout the film's first half.

After an incident when Hartman finds a jelly donut stash in Pyle's unlocked footlocker it becomes apparent that even though Joker's training worked, Pyle is still insufficient for the Marine Core. The shot that follows the incident is composed to show Pyle has come full circle to the start of his training. Here we see Pyle again with his pants around his ankles and thumb in his mouth. This time he is sitting on the left side of the screen as opposed to when we first see him like this on the right side with the movement from right to left. As we see Pyle again, this time on the left side, the marines in the background run by from left to right. In the foreground the rest of the squad is made to do push ups as Pyle watches.

This full circle happens before Pyle is "born again hard," and becomes a certified killer in the Marine Core. In a shot where the squad is lined up on the left side of the frame, we see another squad in the background run from right to left. It is here that Pyle and the rest of his squad affirm their duty to be killers, and the background movement reminds the viewer that Pyle was trained in a non-traditional manner. This concept is emphasized as the camera moves in for an extreme close-up of a silent Pyle, as the squad yells "kill, kill, kill." In another editing sequence using overlapping shots, the close up of Pyle moves into a shot of the full squad sitting for a lesson on famous assassins. Connecting these two scenes by overlapping them is a symbolic representation of Pyle's training. Hartman and Joker have taken the time to train Pyle to be a killer as if it were a school lesson for assassins. This fluid editing style is used to mark a pivotal point of Pyle's development, just as the sequence with the numbers.

Kubrick had a fascination with character's seeking perfection through the use of technology by the numbers. For the squad in Full Metal Jacket it was reaching perfection with their rifles by the numbers. In The Killing, it was to reach the perfect plan by the numbers on the track and a gun. In A Clockwork Orange it was perfection through statistical numbers and technology as manipulation. These characters often reached a state of madness as seen with Commander Bowman in 2001, Alex in A Clockwork Orange, Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove and the focus herein Private Pyle. Through the "environment of hard, clean, symmetrical surfaces," Kubrick creates a world where Pyle seems destine for madness {Nelson, 240}.

The second half of the film is an eruption into the chaos of the Vietnam War after Pyle Puts a bullet in Hartman and in his own head. Joker, as a war correspondent, looks into the depths of darkness of the war and also himself. The strongest Kubrickian elements in the second half are the mock-u-mentary scenes interviewing the soldiers. Though the god-like voice over is missing, the placement of cameras and boom mics on screen add the effect. Critically the second part of the film was not as acclaimed as the first, and the director's hand not as evident in the imagery.

It is the boot camp sequence that is masterfully handled by a director who knows and captures exactly what he wants from every aspect of the scenes. Through the movement and positioning of characters in the foreground and background, Kubrick synchronized every moment to progress the narrative. As a result the film's plot driven inevitability has the characters trapped in a fate known as a Stanley Kubrick masterpiece.

Bibliography
{Nelson, page 240}
{Nelson, page 241}
Kubrick, Inside a Film Artist's Maze.
By, Thomas Allen Nelson
Indiana University Press, 2000