Full Metal Jacket

Full Metal jacket opens with a head shaving sequence in which is usually the opening of the film is for recognition usually to establish things like genre, character types and usually a protagonist but with full metal jacket the sequence starts on close up's of 4 seconds focus on each individual to show that all the characters are the same and there is no differentiating from them and this is further reinforced through the shaving of the heads which shows a loss of identity so this does not give us a chance to identify with a particular character or individual.

The introduction to the characters after the head shaving scene are all shot in unison in the way they dress and the way they look so the idea of conformity is reinforced as Hartman say's "You are all equally worthless". Any form of dissent is physically beaten out of the marines for example when joker makes a joke that earns him is name, which is a way unison and conformity is reinforced, he is punished until he conforms and Private Pyle is strangled and hurt the worst but the violence is disarmed by Hartman's humor and it positions Pyle as someone to ridicule and these first scenes are seen in a way of making us recognise or identify with a particular character but it is hard with full metal jacket.

As the movie progresses Pyle is constantly split from the group literally when Pyle is conforming and these is shots when he and the group is alone on screen until he conforms and he get's ignored but when Pyle is not conforming their are shot's of marine conforming so it shows a juxtaposition, Constant differences between Pyle and the "core" are highlighted for example physical appearances, their is shot of Pyle falling shows this as when he is falling on the obstacles it switches to handheld to show more realism as almost to position us their with the core.