Themes Of Full Metal Jacket essays

Themes Of Full Metal Jacket essays Film Review: Full Metal Jacket -Warner Bros. 1987 Based on the novel by Gustav Hasford The hardships of boot camp and the vigour of the battlefield, "Full Metal Jacket" follows one man through basic training and into the jungles of Vietnam to fight a war against the very people that they must also protect. The title is part of the technical description of a bullet, underlining the films focus on dehumanisation. "Full Metal Jacket" opens on a group of military trainees who've either volunteered or been drafted into serving in the United States Army. There we meet a parade of characters that range from an anti-establishment rebel, Private 'Joker' (Matthew Modine), and an overweight slob, Private 'Gomer' (Vincent D'Onofrio), to a wisecracking adrenaline junkie, Private 'Cowboy' (Arliss Howard). This part of the film is breakdown of personalities and shows the indoctrination in the ideology of the US Marine Corps. This shows to be a brutal and depressing experience inflicted by the sadistic drill sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (Lee Ermey), who was a real drill sergeant for the Marine Corps, drafted in by Kubrick. This gives the visual experience a real sense of fear and tension. One recruit is not suited psychologically or physically for the rigorous Marine training and is driven crazy. Here, Stanley Kubrick is outlining and attacking the pointlessness and the dehumanisation of military discipline. Kubrick, who has a great reputation for authenticity, claimed that there was no distortion of the truth in what he showed, and that even the abominable bad language was genuine, much of it ad-libbed by Ermey himself. Two scenes were eliminated which would have made the drill instructor a monster: one where he nearly drowns Pyle in a bowl of urine, and one where he orders a recruit who has cut his wrists to clean up the mess hes made before reporting to the doctor. Instead, due in no small part to Lee Ermeys mesme ...

Why They Play Pranks on Dec. 28 in Spain, Latin America

Why They Play Pranks on Dec. 28 in Spain, Latin America If you should be in a Spanish-speaking country some April 1 and play a joke on your friends and follow that up with a shout of  ¡Tontos de abril! chances are youll get nothing but blank stares as a reaction. The minor holiday of April Fools Day, perennially popular in the United States, is little known in Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America, but there is a rough equivalent, el Dà ­a de los Santos Inocentes (Day of the Holy Innocents), observed on Dec. 28. The Day of the Holy Innocents also known sometimes in English as the Feast of the Holy Innocents or as Childermas. How Dec. 28 Is Celebrated The day is observed  throughout the Spanish-speaking world  in much the same way as April Fools Day. But when the prankster is ready to reveal the joke, the saying is  ¡Inocente, inocente! or Innocent one, innocent one! (See the lesson on making nouns out of adjectives for the grammar behind this.) It is also common on that day for newspapers and TV stations to print or broadcast news stories based in humor rather than fact. In its origins, the day is a sort of gallows humor. The Day of the Innocents observes the day when, according to the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible, King Herod ordered the baby boys under 2 years old in Bethlehem to be killed because he was afraid that the baby Jesus born there would become a rival. As it turned out, though, the baby Jesus had been taken away to Egypt by Mary and Joseph. So the joke was on Herod, and thus followed the tradition of tricking friends on that day. (This is a sad story, but according to tradition the babies murdered in Jesus stead went to heaven as the first Christian martyrs.) Celebrating With a Food Fight One of worlds more unusual celebrations of any kind is used to mark Dec. 28 in Ibi, Alicante, Spain, not far from the middle of the Spanish Mediterranean Coast. In a tradition more than 200 years old, townspeople engage in a massive food fight of sorts- but its all in good fun and is used to raise money for charity. After a several decades in which the festivities were suspended for the Spanish Civil War and subsequent national events, they were revived in 1981 and have become a tourist draw and major event since then. The festivities are known as Els Enfarinats in Valencian, the local language closely tied to Catalan. In Spanish, its known as the fiesta of Los Enharinados, loosely translated as The Flour-Covered Ones. (Enharinar is the verb for coating something with flour, known as harina.) The festivities traditionally begin around 8 a.m. when participants in mock military attire stage a fake coup and take control of the town and enact all sorts of crazy ordinances in program called New Justice - Justà ­cia Nova in Catalan and Justicia Nueva in Spanish. Those who brake the pretend ordinances are fined, with the money going to worthy causes. Eventually, a massive fight ensues between the rulers and the opposition, a battle fought with flour, vegetables and other harmless projectiles. Festive dancing marks the end of the battle. Other Observances of Inocentes Several other regions have distinctive ways of observing the Day of the Holy Innocents. For example, various celebrations are widespread in Venezuela, where many of the celebrations mix European and indigenous traditions. In some areas, for example, festivities are held in which children dress as the elderly, the elderly dress as children, leaders dressed in tattered clothing, men dress as women and women as men and so on, and many wear colorful masks, headgear, and/or costumers. Names or some of these festivals include the festival of the locos and locaà ­nas (the crazy ones). Although Dec. 28 is not an officially observed holiday, some of the festivities can last the entire day. Another noteworthy celebration takes place in El Salvador, where the largest observance of the day takes place in Antiguo Cuscatln. Floats for a parade are adorned with pictures of children representing those in the Biblical story. A street fair is also held. Key Takeaways In most Spanish-speaking countries, Dec. 28 is observed as the Dà ­a de los Santos Inocentes, or the Day of the Holy Innocents, commemorating the Biblical story of King Herod killing babies in Bethlehem.The day is observed in some areas much like April Fools Day is observed in the United States.Colorful celebrations are held in some other areas to observe the day.