295 of 1001 Movies: Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Full Metal Jacket is disturbingly intriguing and real, but that defines a Stanley Kubrick movie. Released a couple of decades after the Vietnam war, I'm sure it still resonated vivid for many, including R.Lee Ermey who played Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, and was also a real U.S. Marine Drill Instructor during Vietnam. This movie puts everyone on the same feelings while watching the movie. There are many points within in the movie, and within the points themselves, but ultimately this isn't a patriotic movie nor one anti-war, it's about being human.

Summary: During 1967 in the Vietnam War, new recruits are arriving at Parris Island for basic training. Upon arriving most the guys are young, and excited to explore. They haven't recognized what they got themselves into though. After several weeks of training together, and even graduating the first cracks in sanity are beginning to show among some of the men, and one, Joker, witnesses it firsthand. The rest of the movie conveys the men in Vietnam fighting for a cause even they seem confused about.

The first half of the movie involves the training. Most might note this as their favorite part. Hartman provides many memorable liners, though I would hope I would never hear any of them repeated around me. In keeping with the realism of it though, Ermey ad libbed many things he had said as an actual drill instructor. Kubrick directs well in conveying the breakdown of one character nicknamed, Gomer Pyle.

The scene building up to the break of Pyle could easily be noted as one of the most memorable. While it was intense and kept me on edge I couldn't help but think of earlier works like The Shining or A Clockwork Orange. It's always done well when he conveys the breaking of the psych, but also I felt there were more unique moments and realizations in the movie. I think the oncoming breakdown of Pyle is obvious, but what it does to Joker not so much, who witnesses it firsthand.

I don't think Pyle's scene where he breaks is as much as it is about what happens to Pyle as it is what happens to Joker when he sees firsthand what he is already signed on to do, and the effects it will have on those around him. He stands loyally by his friends, but he approaches the leadership with skepticism. He embodies many feelings people had about the war, and shows they were also rising in those fighting it.

Joker perhaps justified what he was doing with a light and protective attitude regarding his friends, but he never becomes inhumane. I think seeing what can happen early on keeps him the most levelheaded though he is damaged.

The range of other characters make for an interesting mix up to the story. You have some who seem to have justified their acts in various ways. None seem to be quite patriotic anymore.. Most are fighting back in revenge, because they believe the Vietnamese are unthankful, some who seem to enjoy killing, and others who are just trying to survive. Whatever the reason the whole thing is a bad situation, and in their own human ways everyone is trying to cope. It's not as much about the war as it is about the depths a human might plunder into without good reason to stay afloat.

281 of 1001 Movies: The Shining (1980)

Earlier this year I read The Shining for the first time. I have certain movies I won't watch, until I've read the book, and this was one of them. I also found it intriguing that Stephen King has such hate for the movie considering other adaptations, like, you know...Under the Dome. The Shining definitely differs in a lot of ways, and Kubrick adds all his own touches to the film. I can't say that so far I'm hugely sold on Kubrick, but his stylish yet minimal way of shooting is entrancing, and brings out the horror more than anything else could.

Summary: Jack Torrance finds an opportunity for good work at the Overlook hotel. Upon being hired for the job it comes with a warning. The last family that lived there alone for the winter turned into a tragedy of a story. Jack takes the job with no hesitance though, and moves into the hotel for the winter with his wife, Wendy, and son, Danny. At first the weeks begin peacefully until the horrors that have happened in the hotel in the past bring the hotel to life, and it consumes Jack and Danny in very different ways.

The Shining is a classic horror movie that anyone, horror fan and not alike, have heard of. There a couple of reasons the movie is a classic. One being the performance of Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, and the direction of Stanley Kubrick. This is one of the few movies that even a non-Kubrick fan can enjoy as for the first time he seems to drop a lot of the deeper and psychological analyzing in this movie, in lieu of just giving straight horror.

Jack Nicholson does a great job as the guy Jack Torrance, at least in making him look psycho. Movie wise there is no other guy you can imagine doing it. I don't know if this can be more attributed to the script, I would assume so, but the guy starts out crazy and ends crazy. Perhaps it's just me, or the fact I read the book, but I would have liked to see a guy who was more so a victim of his of his own weakness who was trying to be really just a good guy. Ultimately, that is one of the huge differences in the vibe between the book and movie. For Danny especially, he really wants to love his dad, and the moments his dad shows him love as a father, you have hope for Jack. Jack though battles with a lot of demons, most strongly alcohol. Without all those elements at play it makes the hotel taking him over look a little less scary, because they never had a guy to corrupt from the place he worked hard to recover from. Plus, the whole issue with Danny and The Shining, and what the shining even is seems a lot less prominent, and even not understandable in comparison to how the story could have played it.

As said, this is shocking considering Kubrick adapted the likes of, A Clockwork Orange. Maybe that is because I never cared for the writing of that book though, so the adaptation was clearer to me. It seems like he would be good at throwing us into the chaos of a troubled mind, particularly one that is naturally bad and you can't change no matter how much is tried. The huge different between the lead character in that one and Jack Torrance, is that Torrance was actually a guy the audience could try to hope changed because he wasn't hardened in the heart yet, but the movie makes it out that he is. The direction though is very sleek and Kubrick though. Everything from the scenes involving Redrum to the ending scenes in the garden capture the terror you imagine when choosing to watch a movie like this, and Kubrick still holds his own style in the middle of it all.

Overall,The Shining is a horror classic. For the time it was released it wasn't anything like the horror that was really driving the market of then, and it does have real terrifying moments. I hate to sound pretentious, but it's more so horror for the fan who doesn't want to openly like the genre of horror as a whole. By the way, I should bring up the only I didn't like about the movie because it was a distraction, and that was Shelley Duvall as Wendy. Why she was ever cast I don't know? Her role is just screaming, and running around in bewilderment. She doesn't contribute much, and isn't near as strong as the book version of her. Otherwise, I did enjoy the changes in the ending, was really terrified, and will drag the movie back out again for Halloween sometime.

212 of 1001 Movies: A Clockwork Orange (1971)

If A Clockwork Orange is Kubrick's work that isn't horror and it's as chilling as this then I fear seeing The Shining. Of the three I've seen though from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon, and now A Clockwork Orange it definitely is one of his stronger ones. The colors are popping in the movie and stand in stark contrast to the dark nature of Alex. The movie follows the book quite well, and still sticks with exploring the interesting topic of whether it's a good idea to try to force a person into being good rather than letting them make that choice.

Summary: Alex exists in future Britain using his charismatic charm to lure in unsuspecting victims to his violent crimes he commits with his friends at night. After a violent act goes wrong though, and his friends turn on him, he is left to the police and arrested. While in jail, Alex becomes desperate to get out, and he uses anyone that can make that happen. He volunteers for an aversion therapy conducted by the government in order to lower crime. Alex's confidence is shattered when the therapy goes as unplanned.