FMJ Personal Response

The marching scene

Pyle is disregarded as a marine from the beginning, and can be seen as an anti-protagonist.

Pyle deviates throughout the film by making mistakes, and when the conformity of the group is broken he is punishment. This is the beginning of a chain of events where the group is lead into conformity further and further until they conform with the perspective of Hartman, however Pyle is the only one who is unable to fully conform, as his uniqueness is something that you cannot change, which would make him unsuitable for the marines.

The way Pyle is as a person creates a personal response for some people, a spectator who has been bullied for being 'different', and being unable to conform with a group, would have a more empathetic view of Pyle whereas others may not feel any sympathy at all. Spectators who experience little or no sympathy are more likely to conform with the marines throughout the film due to the point of view of Hartman, whereas someone who feels empathy for Pyle may experience this sequence differently.

Personally, I felt that Pyle was becoming a victim of the marines for his individuality, and this provoked an empathetic response. When Hartman knock's Pyle's hat off by hitting him, we see him being visually disregarded as a marine from the beginning, it strips him of his personal identity and his marine identity. Due to the way he stands out from the group, as the other marines are shown in the shot behind him in perfect conformity, he becomes an anti-protagonist as his mistakes reflect negatively on their activities during the bootcamp.

He is the main focus of many of the scenes in the first half of the film, but the marines are the conforming majority, and we are forced to see Pyle as a failure. However, we do not get a response or any insight from Pyle. We do not learn about his character through his mistakes, we are only able to learn what Kubrick wants us to as he tries to make us conform with the other marines.

At the end of this sequence, Pyle is made to follow behind the marines as a way of humiliation, he is made to act like a child, with his trousers at his ankles and his gun is held upside down. This further enhances that he is not one of the marines, making the spectator view him as an outsider. Personally, this scene makes me feel uncomfortable as there is a sense of 'second-hand embarrassment' for Pyle, as someone who has been made to feel like the outsider, there have been moments when I felt like the embodiment of this humiliated version of Pyle. However, when watching it with a group it was noticeable that many people found this amusing and their reaction was to laugh at Pyle, which is what Hartman wants, he does not want us to feel sympathy for Pyle because he is the deviant, and those who cannot conform are not welcome in the marines.

I think that the way they make him look like a child emphasises my sympathy towards Pyle because he behaves in a childlike manner often, similar to the beginning when he was grinning whilst the other marines kept straight faces, his childlike qualities make me feel more sympathy towards him rather than making me feel amused by this behaviour. The idea that Pyle may have learning difficulties also adds to this as, personally, being someone who is close with people who have such difficulties can make me feel upset by his treatment.