Full Metal Jacket

The first part is, of course, largely about the dehumanizing aspect of the military. The second part is a little more problematic in terms of sussing out what Kubrick meant to impart, or at least it is for me. I am always struck by how almost all the dialogue among the soldiers (with the exception of Joker and Pyle) is sarcastic, ironic--it's especially noticeable once the action shifts to Vietnam. In some ways, this makes the whole thing play like a big sardonic joke, and I'm still undecided on whether that that helps its impact or hurts it. If Kubrick meant to show that such humor was being used by the men as an insulator, I'm not sure it was entirely successful. Certainly the soldiers never really crack. Although maybe that's the point--the process illustrated in the film's first section worked.

I'm also struck every time I see it by the way Kubrick uses increasingly silly, even pre-verbal rock tunes on the soundtrack ("Woolly Bully," "Surfin' Bird"), as if to underline the jabbering insanity of war.

Revive, due to the Mystic River thread on ILE, and the Saving Private Ryan thread.

Is part of the reason Kubrick was treated coolly my some (many) critics because of his refusal to take a clear moral stance at times, especially with FMJ?

I'm thinking of Rosenbaum's criticism of Mystic River which (wrongheadedly IMO) concentrates on the morality of revenge/Eastwood's vision, and in the way SPR articulates, at different times, a clear moral message (war is awful, but ultimately a fine patriotic sacrifice, etc.)