Alignment is the process of identification with a character,
group or ideology when the spectator watches a film. Film makers try to
manipulate an audiences point of view with form and content, so the audience
can relate and identify with characters. Most films have this alignment happen
in the first few scenes and it helps shape the audiences understanding of the
story. However in Full Metal Jacket, alignment doesn’t happen with an
individual in the first scenes and it is a slow process.
In the opening scene of Full Metal Jacket, the troops are having their hair shaved before they join the corp. Each member of the group is shot for a couple of seconds in the same kind of mid-close up. With shaved heads they lose their identities and there’s no shot long enough to sense any emotion or to indicate a man character. As well as this, the music contrasts with the general idea of a war film, it is a country and western song and it throws the spectator’s assumptions about the film’s theme askew, there is no emotional connection with any characters or themes unlike the start of many other war films like Platoon or Saving Private Ryan, so the spectator is confused and unable to align with anyone.
Lack of alignment with an individual continues in the boot camp scenes. There is repetition of mise en scene and form, in regards to the marines; they wear the same uniform and are always shot in a wide shot together while the drill sergeant is opposite them. This is where the individuals begin to be shown as a unit and instead of alignment with one character, the spectator is encouraged to align with the group as a whole.
The drill sergeant helps encourage the audience to view the group as one entity and a team when he tells them they are “all equally worthless”. We now see them all as the same, they are dressed the same, act the same following orders and are treated the same.
Seeing the group as a whole begins to change slightly when we see them training and Private Pyle begins to fall behind. The drill sergeant grows more impatient with Pyle’s incompetence and he begins to be drawn away from the group. In the shots of Pyle he is usually isolated from the rest of the corp, indicating that he does not fit in. When they are marching, they are shown as a unit and then there is a short break and the camera shows Pyle trailing behind with his pants around his ankles. Both the form; the shot of him alone, away from the group and the content; the embarrassing position he’s in, encourage the spectator to see him as different from the rest of the marines.
Later in the film he is isolated even more when the sergeant punishes the group Pyle having a doughnut in his foot-locker. Here he is made to stand alone in between two lines of his group. The group are made to exercise while Pyle eats the doughnut. He’s shot in a way that isolates him and it feels uncomfortable, he is also now a threat to the group because they are being punished for his actions and he’s beginning to hold the whole unit back instead of just himself.
He also holds the group back in training scenes. When he can’t do his chin ups, the part of the group are in the background doing chin ups and moving onwards while the group in the queue behind Pyle are waiting around for him to do his chin ups so they can use the bar. When he eventually does move on to the climbing, he gets stuck and the other marines climb up and down around him in pairs, this again emphasises his isolation and shows how he isn’t capable of performing the same activities as the group, therefore destroying their unity.
Pyle then not only ruins his own place within the unity of the group, but he begins to threaten Joker’s place also. Joker is told to mentor Pyle and help him better himself but this doesn’t really work. Joker and Pyle are always shown away from the group and one step behind in whatever task they are performing. The spectator can now see that Pyle is holding the group back and he begins to become a threat as we slowly begin to align wih the groups point of view.
Joker is also slowly aligning with the group’s point of view as he begins to lose patience with Pyle. He tells him that he’s trying to help him and he sounds exasperated and tired and we are given the impression that he’s losing patience with him, much like the group are.
When Joker helps him with his running and he falls, he quite literally pulls the group down and this is a visual way of showing how he’s destroying the group.
By the time of the soap beating, the spectator is beginning to feel that Pyle does need “the proper motivation” as indicated by the sergeant. So when it comes they do not feel very much sympathy, they have aligned with the group and feel as though it was a well-deserved punishment. This alignment with the group is also shown through Joker because even though he hesitates in hurting Pyle, he eventually does it and it shows how he’s conformed to the group and given allegiance to them. The audience make a moral judgement of Joker here because earlier in the film, the sergeant praised him for always standing by his beliefs but now he is giving in to the acts of the group.
Joker’s alleigience to the corp is shown again when he talks to Cowboy in the bathroom. Cowboy has already been shown to hold resentment for Pyle and in their conversation they refer to him as “Leonard” which is his civilian name. They have stripped him of his marine identity and they also talk about him being a “Section 8” so they feel that he is mentally unfit to serve with them. This also poses him as a threat because it’s indicated that he’s mentally unstable and the audience have already seen him talking to his gun, as well as the shot-reverse-shot of Joker reacting negatively to this. There is a sinister feel surrounding Pyle at this point.
The feeling the audience has that Pyle is a threat all comes to a head in his final scene when form and content is again repeated through music and shots to show how Pyle is dangerous. He is again shown as being isolated when the shot of him between the toilets reflects that of the doughnut scene. However, by this point the spectator has aligned with the troops and feels very little sympathy for Pyle and what becomes of him.
In the opening scene of Full Metal Jacket, the troops are having their hair shaved before they join the corp. Each member of the group is shot for a couple of seconds in the same kind of mid-close up. With shaved heads they lose their identities and there’s no shot long enough to sense any emotion or to indicate a man character. As well as this, the music contrasts with the general idea of a war film, it is a country and western song and it throws the spectator’s assumptions about the film’s theme askew, there is no emotional connection with any characters or themes unlike the start of many other war films like Platoon or Saving Private Ryan, so the spectator is confused and unable to align with anyone.
Lack of alignment with an individual continues in the boot camp scenes. There is repetition of mise en scene and form, in regards to the marines; they wear the same uniform and are always shot in a wide shot together while the drill sergeant is opposite them. This is where the individuals begin to be shown as a unit and instead of alignment with one character, the spectator is encouraged to align with the group as a whole.
The drill sergeant helps encourage the audience to view the group as one entity and a team when he tells them they are “all equally worthless”. We now see them all as the same, they are dressed the same, act the same following orders and are treated the same.
Seeing the group as a whole begins to change slightly when we see them training and Private Pyle begins to fall behind. The drill sergeant grows more impatient with Pyle’s incompetence and he begins to be drawn away from the group. In the shots of Pyle he is usually isolated from the rest of the corp, indicating that he does not fit in. When they are marching, they are shown as a unit and then there is a short break and the camera shows Pyle trailing behind with his pants around his ankles. Both the form; the shot of him alone, away from the group and the content; the embarrassing position he’s in, encourage the spectator to see him as different from the rest of the marines.
Later in the film he is isolated even more when the sergeant punishes the group Pyle having a doughnut in his foot-locker. Here he is made to stand alone in between two lines of his group. The group are made to exercise while Pyle eats the doughnut. He’s shot in a way that isolates him and it feels uncomfortable, he is also now a threat to the group because they are being punished for his actions and he’s beginning to hold the whole unit back instead of just himself.
He also holds the group back in training scenes. When he can’t do his chin ups, the part of the group are in the background doing chin ups and moving onwards while the group in the queue behind Pyle are waiting around for him to do his chin ups so they can use the bar. When he eventually does move on to the climbing, he gets stuck and the other marines climb up and down around him in pairs, this again emphasises his isolation and shows how he isn’t capable of performing the same activities as the group, therefore destroying their unity.
Pyle then not only ruins his own place within the unity of the group, but he begins to threaten Joker’s place also. Joker is told to mentor Pyle and help him better himself but this doesn’t really work. Joker and Pyle are always shown away from the group and one step behind in whatever task they are performing. The spectator can now see that Pyle is holding the group back and he begins to become a threat as we slowly begin to align wih the groups point of view.
Joker is also slowly aligning with the group’s point of view as he begins to lose patience with Pyle. He tells him that he’s trying to help him and he sounds exasperated and tired and we are given the impression that he’s losing patience with him, much like the group are.
When Joker helps him with his running and he falls, he quite literally pulls the group down and this is a visual way of showing how he’s destroying the group.
By the time of the soap beating, the spectator is beginning to feel that Pyle does need “the proper motivation” as indicated by the sergeant. So when it comes they do not feel very much sympathy, they have aligned with the group and feel as though it was a well-deserved punishment. This alignment with the group is also shown through Joker because even though he hesitates in hurting Pyle, he eventually does it and it shows how he’s conformed to the group and given allegiance to them. The audience make a moral judgement of Joker here because earlier in the film, the sergeant praised him for always standing by his beliefs but now he is giving in to the acts of the group.
Joker’s alleigience to the corp is shown again when he talks to Cowboy in the bathroom. Cowboy has already been shown to hold resentment for Pyle and in their conversation they refer to him as “Leonard” which is his civilian name. They have stripped him of his marine identity and they also talk about him being a “Section 8” so they feel that he is mentally unfit to serve with them. This also poses him as a threat because it’s indicated that he’s mentally unstable and the audience have already seen him talking to his gun, as well as the shot-reverse-shot of Joker reacting negatively to this. There is a sinister feel surrounding Pyle at this point.
The feeling the audience has that Pyle is a threat all comes to a head in his final scene when form and content is again repeated through music and shots to show how Pyle is dangerous. He is again shown as being isolated when the shot of him between the toilets reflects that of the doughnut scene. However, by this point the spectator has aligned with the troops and feels very little sympathy for Pyle and what becomes of him.
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