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August 1993

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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Wed, 18 Aug 1993 16:04:55 EDT
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* I guess, had momentum and lost it. The two things I remember about
* _FMJ_ are the interior narrative of the Matthew Modine character--
* that was cool, an offbeat commentary on war--and the end, which, like
* the end of _2001_ (a much better film, in my view), went on
* forever--and further than that, to the extent that I felt Kubrick
* wanted me to know he was doing this deliberately, in case I felt
* it was just a wonderful bit of mise en scene. (He does do that a
* lot--deconstructs his set-pieces which otherwise would be 'mere'
* cinematic magic).
*
I think perhaps the ending appears to suffer because the development of the
squad at Parris Island is so brilliantly treated. There was certainly a fair
amount of what seemed to be stock bloodshed footage in the second sequence,
but if you believe Modine came to realize the whole situation was
so pointless that ending life was an acceptable resolution, it ties in nicely
with Private Pyle's similar reaction of the first sequence, and the copious
violence becomes a needed tool. Certainly the twist that a lone teenage girl
was responsible for it is something you don't expect, and if you stretch it,
that makes the squad's repeated encounters with hookers less
gratuitous--being in the war was all sex and death at the hands of children.
 
 
Of course, maybe Kubrick's just a perverted gorehound.
 
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