Stanley Kubrick is one of the most influential directors of all time, having produced, written, and directed films like Paths of Glory, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lolita. Kubrick often sought inspiration from literature, and Full Metal Jacket, based on Gustav Hasford's book The Short-Timers, was no exception. Kubrick also collaborated with Michael Herr, author of the famous Vietnam memoir Dispatches, in adapting the screenplay.
Kubrick's clinical, deliberate approach to camerawork informs the way he frames many of the film's scenes. His meticulousness as a director allows him to capture that same quality in the Marines Corps, such as in the many scenes where he captures the men standing perfectly still in a line, or slowly tracks the movements of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Kubrick's direction emphasizes the way in which the men's bodies become interchangeable units of a larger body, whether they are running through an obstacle course, marching in close formation, or standing perfectly still. All the men resemble each other—heads shaved, following orders, and toeing the "line."
Kubrick also uses a number of different visual storytelling techniques to convey the film's various themes and motifs. For instance, he often uses cross-dissolves to poetically blend images together—when Pyle is silent as the recruits around him scream, "Kill, kill, kill!" Kubrick slowly dissolves the image of his face into an image of the entire platoon, suggesting that Pyle has deviated internally from in-group norms and behaviors. Kubrick also uses long tracking shots, such as when Hartman paces up and down the line, to emphasize the carefully controlled movement and orderliness of U.S. Marine Corps culture.
Kubrick also often violates the "180-degree rule"—a guideline for filming the spatial relationship between two or more characters or objects in a scene. According to the 180-degree rule, the camera should stay on one side of an imaginary axis so that the characters do not appear to switch places on-screen. Kubrick, on the other hand, often uses a "shot-reverse shot" pattern that places the camera at exactly opposite ends of a scene—for example, when Hartman does an about-face while pacing. Although the effect is disorienting the viewer, Kubrick's oppositional camera angles reflect the film's larger themes about the duality of man—"the Jungian thing," as Joker puts it.
The film also often breaks the fourth wall, filming its characters staring directly at the camera lens. Kubrick often films Hartman from this angle so that he seems to be directly addressing the viewer, making us feel the assault of his words. Kubrick also mimics documentary-style filmmaking in scenes where a news crew interviews various members of the Lusthog Squad, so that the characters do not merely seem to be speaking to the members of the news crew, but to the audience.
Finally, color is especially important in Full Metal Jacket, especially the contrast between blues and reds. Pyle's hazing is saturated entirely in blue, giving the entire scene an otherworldly, dream-like pallor that anticipates what Cowboy will tell Pyle ("Remember—it was all just a bad dream."). Red, on the other hand, functions in the film to symbolize the fiery destruction of war, becoming the dominant hue in the explosive battle scenes in the second half of the film.
