How Did Full Metal Jacket Create Laughter In War Film?

Within the war genre of film, Stanley Kubrick implemented a new approach to the conventional style of films. Generally, war is a harsh topic, as it has been a significant part of history and still continues on today. Although this is known about war, why did Full Metal Jacket create laughter from the audience? Even when this disheartening sentiment towards war is shared universally, still the question remains, now reworded – what is so funny about war? To answer this question, viewed from a humanistic approach, war is primarily not a subject that is incorporated with laughter or joy, but instead, the idea of war bodies a realism of humanities' flaws. However, Stanley Kubrick did something no other movie has, prior to its time, create laughter whilst on the topic of war. In other words, he broke the pattern that war films have followed. An exemplar, from lecture four during Professor Young’s showing of movies, include Suture and Saving Private Ryan. The beginning of Saving Private Ryan, for instance, follows the audience and film’s expectations of an older male in a cemetery crying and the scene changing to World War Two.

Although the subject within this part is guns, through sound, the act of killing is addressed. The scene starts with Hartman referring to the guns as a women’s vagina and this triggers a comical reaction from the audience. As the privates go to sleep, the words they recite are about the act of killing and the camera focuses on Joker, Cowboy and Pyle. The filmmaker is stressing once more on these characters as the prayer proceeds, the voices of the characters on the frame overpower the rest. Going back to Pyle, he is confident once more and back to his “normal” self. The problem is that as he recites words of killing, the smirk expression on his face seems evil or altered. Thus, indicating the change of the character and portraying early signs of identifying as a round