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Re: Thanks, (more analysis - long. . . .)

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***You know, it is interesting, I see a lot of criticism of Kubrick's films that I just don't really understand - case in point, people who give the backhanded compliment to Full Metal Jacket when they say how great and intense the first half of the film is and what a let down the 2nd half of the film is.

I said something close to that, but not that it was a let down, just that it lost some of its drive and passion.

***I, however, thought the 2nd half was just as riveting as the 1st half, just slower paced. I always thought the movie was really about that point where normal men become "inhuman" and able to kill basically without conscience.

Well, here, again, you are talking about the story. I could not care less about the story in any of Kubrick's films. They are all pretty lame to mediocre (Barry is the only exception, perhaps, but here too the story only helped, not dominated). His method, on the other hand, is anything but weak.


***I also thought it was brilliant to contrast the very structured, very demanding boot camp sequence with the boredom punctured by random voilence in the 2nd half.

Now you ARE talking about something other than story, and I agree.


***The soldiers go from a highly structured environment to one almost without any structure at all. I really like how he juxtaposed the 2, but all I hear from most people is how great the 1st part was, meaning of course that they thought the movie was halfway good. I think it was all good. But that is off topic.

Yes.

***Addressing the EWS phenom, I think that it is actually a rather virulent attack on a lot of underlying values that many people just sort of absorb from the American culture (or should I say Western culture?).

It is about the story again. How about art?

Sorry, the story is beyond boring. But that doesn't matter. It could have been turned into a masterwork. It just wasn't.

If you want to see how it CAN be done, look at the Adrien Van Ostade's "The Fishwife", or, getting closer to the EWS - Gerard ter Borch's "Soldier Offering a Young Woman Coins" - there is more sex in there than in the whole "orgy" (the palest one on screen).

That is how art is supposed to take any insignificant subject and raise it. EWS did the opposite.


***But like I said before, I don't think people "not getting it" is a result stupidity - far from it, some of the most intelligent people I know "don't get it". I think to "get it" you must be comfortable with a certain ammount of introspection, and perhaps lived a bit outside of mainstream culture, or at the very least be acutely aware to what extent the dominant culture has influenced you and your life decisions. I think that for many intelligent people the movie was to savage & would hit too close to home for them to really open themselves up to it. Of course, I also know some not very bright people that saw the film & hated it too. In fact, my wife and I are the only people I know that really really liked this film.

Hated is perhaps too strong a word. It was disappointing, like a former star athlete losing by 100 points.

***BTW, I loved the orgy scene - incredible. Did you notice that the people having sex made no sound? Just the sound of flesh slapping together?

Well, maybe we should stay away from that one. I thought that was the weakest point in the film. The most boring.

Again, if you are looking for strong philosophy, then EWS is not the right place, all those htings have been described far better before.

***Anyway, that is how I see it anyway - I would love to hear other people's serious interpretation of the movie (and not why it sucked).

You want to hear only how good it was? Sorry.

Again, unforutnately all your interpretations are of the story, not the film.

As I stated before, any insignificant story can be made into a great film, so I have nothing against the story per se (I have not read it, but it seems pretty mediocre by all I know about it).

After the movie came out, I spent some time in the Kubrick news group. That was one of the most boring groups. People were fixated on the story elements, was she the same or wasn't she, who was that girl, stuff like that. It seems that every discussion of the EWS is still dominated by the story analysis.

But I think we are already repeating ourselves.




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