Full Metal Jacket

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Duration: 00:44:00 - 00:45:23 (1 min 23 seconds)

Scene Overview

This scene was set in bathroom at middle of the night where Gomer pyle do a suicide after kill his sergeant. It happened during the last night they on the island. Joker finds Pyle in the head with a loaded rifle when he has a night watch.

Mise-en-scene

Helmet, hat, rifle, flashlight, blood.

Colour: black, white, grey, yellow, red.

Not so many colour found in this scene. The main colour of the bathroom was white, light green and this scene was taken at the night time. So, we can’t see the light green instead of seeing grey colour. I think this entire scene looks black and white. The white colour means the cold of the night and loneliness that pyle felt. The black colour describe that the dark side start to take over his mind. You can see from the black shadow covering half of his face when he have conversation with joker.

Sound: Diegetic Sound and Non-Diegetic Sound

Non-Diegetic Sound that used on this scene was the background music that coming through the scene which makes the creepy atmosphere. The gunshots sound when pyle shots the sergeant is definitely was a fake one because we know the shooting was not real so as the sound. And the other one was after the sergeant get shoot, when he scream it sounds like evil. I believe they put that sound to tell us the evil that train the young man to be killing machine already vanished because he die.

Lighting: Natural light

This scene has a little light because use the natural light. As you can see there’s a moonlight come through the window. So, u can tell it was during the night time. The director use a low lighting to make people that watch it feel a little bit scary and they can tell something going to happen during this scene.

Actor performance:

Vincent D'Onofrio play as Leonard Lawrence or Gomer Pyle. A big stupid looking fat guy that cannot do anything. But in this scene he have to act different to show that pyle already change personality and realize that he lived in a world of shit and become a doll of war.

Character analysis

Character Relationships:

Between sergeant and pyle was soldier and gunnery sergeant.

Between joker and pyle they are close friend. That’s why pyle don’t kill Joker at that time.

Character movement:

Not much movement in the scene that I analyse. Pyle step back walk slowly after kill sergeant and sit on the toilet bowl and do his suicide action. This kind of movement (step back and walk slowly) means he already feel satisfied after kill the sergeant and no one would create killing machine anymore.

Editing

Transitions:

The transitions they used are regular jump-cuts. It because they having conversation so, to show us who talking and to show the character expressions that let us know something going to be happen.

Cinematography

Shot type:

In this scene I just saw Close-up and medium shot.

They use close-up to show pyle expression that he want to shoot his sergeant. Stanley Kubrick use medium shoot and slow motion in the same time when the sergeant got shot to make it more dramatic and people can feel it that his death was very painful. Usually the slow motion is use show something excessive in the movie.

Camera angle: None

Camera movement:

Tracking is used to shot pyle when step backward.

Deconstructed Meaning

The scene that I choose is the end of the first part of the movie when their training to be a soldier has end and now they ready to go to war as a weapon. Pyle the person we sympathise with his character that has a stupid looking face and he always fails a lot during boot camp training, and gets picked on by the Drill Sergeant for being fat. After they graduate from the boot camp pyle realize that they trained to be a weapon of war or killing machine and once they launched to the battle field they already be a victim of war. So, he taking an action that we never guess. He kills sergeant in the middle of the night on their last day at the island and he felt ashamed so he did commit suicide.