Full Metal Jacket...Acting

Full Metal Jacket is a great movie and most of the actors are amazing. Even more, this movie covers all the bases of acting. Why do I say this? Well, I’ll explain. When studying Chapter 5, we were introduced to the different types of actors that can appear in a movie: the chameleon actors, personality actors (that either take their personas from role to role or play against it) and non-professional actors. If we take Sergeant Hartman’s character, played by R. Lee Ermey a real life sergeant, we can see a non-professional actor at work. This character brings a feeling of realism, because we are in the presence of an actual army sergeant. The way he expresses himself and acts around the recruits, with such control, arrogance and strength gives total accuracy. It even gives this feeling of being there, being screamed at. And that is the purpose of using a professional from another field, to give realism and accuracy to the role.
In the other hand, we see a performance by Vincent D'Onofrio, Private Pyle, who is known as “the human chameleon”, for the wide variety of roles he has played and for the quality of his work. This is proven when watching the development of his role in Full Metal Jacket. Throughout the movie, we can see Private Pyle evolve from a dumb, slow, even retarded cadet to a mad, angry, crazy marine. The transformations and the intensity given to this character can be seeing as two different roles in the same performance. What do I mean by this? It’s easy, if we watch Private Pyle at the beginning of the film and then compare it to the Private Pyle in the middle of the film, they are totally different. They can be alienated. Vincent D’Onofrio gave us a taste of his capability. There is no need to see other performances by D’Onofrio since here we can see how he can transform, not even from role to role but from moment to moment.

Finally yet importantly, we can see Matthew Modine playing Private Joker. In this case, we know that M. Modine has played a few roles as a veteran, not exactly the same role but they are alike in certain ways. However, he is known for working against his persona, even though his personality can show a bit in all his roles. It has been said by his co-star actress Kelli Williams, “He's so good, you never actually see him acting, He can disappear into different roles, and you never know what to expect. He's a rarity.". In the other hand actor Eric Stoltz says, Modine’s acting comes from his personality. So by this, several other comments and his performance in Kubrick’s film we can assume he is a personality actor. But it most be distinguished that he fits in both styles of actors: the personality and the chameleon actor. In this case, it’s a matter of point of view and most be open to interpretation

A Clockwork Orange...Sound to the Tenth Degree

Let us start with the basics. First of all, “A Clockwork Orange” is a piece of art, just magnificent. From the camera angles to the light, followed by the amazing sounds that complement every shot perfectly, it was easy to tell that it was Kubrick behind every single detail. To be totally honest, it was hard for me to watch all the violent scenes, specially all the rape scenes. I couldn’t stop thinking that could be me or my sister, and worst of all my mom. It was a very straightforward movie. However, it was executed perfectly.
Now, let us focus on the sound itself. From the very start, with the credits, the music conveys a feeling of madness and terror. And right away we can perceive the dynamic of the movie with classical music. The scene that was taken to the next level by the sound was definitely the encounter between Alex and his “droogs” with another gang, conformed of five guys. Every hit, punch, kick and jump was emphasized by Beethoven’s composition. The intensity of the music changes with every movement and every cut. The piece used was very strong, powerful, passionate and profound. When something extreme took place, like crashing a chair into someone’s head, the music intensity grew. Then the grand finale, of the scene, was near and Alex’s gang stop and the music was turned down. Then we see the music used as a bridge to the next scene. But enough of this scene. Later on, Alex has a threesome with two young women on his room. The sound in this scene was very different from the fight scene. Here the music is classical but fast, just like the scene, which was presented in fast-forward. This gave an unusual feeling of having fun. The music was fast and corky.
Through out the movie there are patterns. Every time some thing malicious and violent was going to take place, the music would be dark and passionate. Unlike, let’s say, the threesome the music would still be classical but happier

Editing on 2001 Space Odyssey

It is fair to say that the movie has a quite interesting concept. I, in the other hand, will admit I was not fond of it. The movie is too slow and has almost no dialogue, which is a big turn-off for me. Although I will confess, that the combination of sounds and images in some parts of the movie are amazing. My analysis is going to be focus on one of these specific combinations.

The combination I choose starts with the scene where the monkey picks up a bone from a pile of bones from a dead animal. Then he starts banging it and a triumphant music starts playing on the background. Then other images start to appear: the monkey hitting the bones, the black rectangle with the sun and the moon, the monkeys arm in the air, again the monkey hitting the bones, a mandrel falls, everything is repeated one more time and finally a monkey appears on a mountain eating a piece of meet. All these images cut and assembled for the only purpose of letting the viewer understand that the monkey is evolving, becoming more humanlike.

If we watch this segment of the movie, it is only fair to say that is amazing. The combination helps you understand the director’s idea without any guide; here the dialogue is not necessary. By cutting and repeating images, the editor and director stimulated us, the viewers, to understand everything it happened even off-screen.