Masculinity In Full Metal Jacket

The film “Full Metal Jacket” directed by Stanley Kubrick is an excellent example of the rites/crisis of masculinity. The rites or crisis of masculinity has been shaped by society and our definition of what it means to be masculine. The film “Full Metal Jacket” is set during the time of the Vietnam war. The movie examines the lives of marines during this time. The first half of the movie shows the lives of the soldiers throughout training camp until they graduate. The second half of the movie follows Joker as he works as a military journalist.

The film begins with the sergeant drilling the soldiers. Joker stands up the drill sergeant and becomes the platoon leader for his bravery. Pyle is assigned to follow the joker and learn everything from

him. Pyle begins to improve somewhat. At one point when the sergeant is inspecting the soldiers’ hands and feet he finds a jelly donut in Pyle’s footlocker. As punishment Pyle must eat the donut and his fellow soldiers must now do pushups every time he makes a mistake or messes up. Pyle continues to mess up, causing the soldiers to do extra work continuously. Because of Pyle’s constant mistakes, his fellow soldiers band together in the middle of the night to beat him soap bars wrapped in towels. Joker is hesitant to participate, but still joins in.
After this traumatic even Pyle begins to change.

You begin to notice that there is a particularly crazy look in his eyes. Joker notices that Pyle begins to talk to his weapon. Joker believes that Pyle might be in the beginning stages of losing it. Pyle becomes good a shooting and earns a small amount of respect for the sergeant. Pyle grows to really dislike the drill sergeant. Soon thereafter the men graduate and are given their assignments. Pyle is assigned to go to war while Joker is assigned to be a military journalist. The last night at the training camp, Joker is assigned to keep watch, during this time he finds Pyle alone in the bathroom with his gun. The term for Pyle’s gun is a “full metal jacket,” hence the name of the movie. Pyle begins to talk crazy and soon the sergeant walks in on the two men and tries to diffuse the situation, but to no avail. Pyle shoots the sergeant then himself. After this scene the movie changes pace and follows Joker as a military journalist. At one point he is out on the

battlefield.
One of the beginning scenes introduces the soldiers and the drill sergeant. He begins by telling the men who he is. He drills them very hard. He calls them all kind of degrading, and emasculating names. He makes it known that they are nothing. He tells them they will become weapons, and they are not even human being. He makes racist and homophobic remarks. He also mentions that he treats everyone the same and is a hard but fair man. He orders them to speak only when spoken to. Joker makes a joking remark, and the sergeant punches him in the stomach, hence from then on he is called Joker. The sergeant interrogates him and tells him to work on his war face. During this scene he names a few other people. He names one of the men cowboy and another Pyle. He tells them they will end up hating him and that they are nothing. When he gets to private Pyle he tells him he doesn’t like his name and that his name is for sailors and fagots. While the sergeant is speaking with Pyle he has a smirk on his face. The sergeant doesn’t like this and tells him to get on his knees and choke himself. This is very demeaning.
The lighting in the scene is bright and also to seems to be natural daylight.

When the sergeant is looking down on Joker the camera zooms in on his face which shows his power, and helps to depict him as a villain. The camera goes back and forth onto the face of the sergeant and the man he is talking to. This scene has a lot of yelling. The sergeant yell insults, commands, and questions at the men and they yell back. There is no music playing in the background, all you hear is the sergeant and the men yelling. The men never make eye contact with the sergeant but he stares them straight in the eyes. There is a moment of silence before Joker makes a joke. He uses a different voice than his regular voice. Most of the camera angles only allow you to see both the sergeant and the soldiers from the side of their face. It isn’t until the sergeant first makes contact with Joker and punches him do we see Joker’s full face along with the sergeant. We also get to see Pyle’s full face when the sergeant interacts with him. In his interaction with both of these men, there is point when they are on the ground kneeling in pain, and the sergeant is standing over them yelling. There is a close up of his face and the way the light is cast on his face makes him look intimidating, powerful, and devilish. The film is monotone in color, many greens, greys, and browns. The film is not very colorful; it isn’t until the second half we see more color. Also he only really makes contact with Cowboy,

Joker and Pyle which end up being the main characters in the film.
The director is trying to convey the theme of masculinity. Men are supposed to take being yelled at, verbally and physically abused; it will make them even stronger. The director also wants to convey how things were for soldiers during this time and what they had to deal with. All the men are lined up on either side next to their bunk. The sergeant walks in with authority and is able to speak and move about freely without being questioned for his actions. In this scene Pyle seems to be very cynical, he doesn’t seem to take the fact that he is in the marines seriously, along with Joker. Later on in the film we see a change in these two characters. Pyle is affected by the whole marine training experience and becomes mentally disturbed while Joker becomes stronger.
This film makes you not want to join the marines. This scene specifically sheds light on how the goal of the army is to dehumanize you, and rid you of feelings. All the insults and yelling would break anyone, but these are men; they are strong. This film depicts that men are strong and can take anything, and can do anything. The crisis of masculinity in this scene is that some men are stronger than others and that not all men can handle the constant tug at their mental being. War affects you not only physically, but also mentally.