The Balance of Order and Chaos in Full Metal Jacket

When Stanley Kubrick first met his co-writer for the screenplay Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick asked him if he was familiar with “the concept of Jung” and “the concept of the Shadow, of our hidden side” (Herr 6). This fascination with the Jungian archetypes of order and chaos permeates throughout the film Full Metal Jacket in the plot, mis-en-scene, and cinematography. Furthermore, Kubrick takes the archetypes of order and chaos to the extremes, both in the characters and settings that he uses in the film, to examine the human condition. In Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick suggests that order and chaos cannot exist independently; rather an acknowledgement and balance between the two archetypes must be found in order for an individual or a society to function properly. To examine this idea, the crucial scene of Private Leonard Pyle’s suicide can be deconstructed and analyzed. As well, the scene can be contextualized by the analyzing the film in its entirety to determine the film’s ideology.