One of the most psychologically sophisticated depictions of the painful (sometimes horrifying) process of human perfection (or 'wholeness'), which Nature imposes on human beings, whether they want it or not—an idea derived from the Swiss Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung—Full Metal Jacket is, like any fine piece of art, a film about many things: about how phony the Vietnam War was, about the outright falsehoods manufactured in the press, as well as the kaleidoscope of opinions held by different soldiers during that conflict. But more than anything it is, according to screenwriter Michael Herr, about 'the living, behaving presence of what Jung called the Shadow, "the most accessible of archetypes, and the easiest to experience."'
In this video, I use Carl Jung's writings, including his classic Aion, to analyze the film's progression, demonstrating that FMJ is not just a pessimistic picture of man's dark side, but about how a man achieves an agonizing re-birth through the mutual in-breaking of light and dark.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empire_of_the_mind/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Empire-of-the-Mind-102111168633434/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_empireofmind
RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/c-1405986
PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/EmpireoftheMind
Email: [email protected]
CHAPTERS
00:00 A Controversial and Misunderstood Film
05:13 The Jungian Shadow as a Positive GOOD
09:28 The Strange Case of Private Pyle
15:35 Shadow Possession: A Source of Dreadful Power
19:45 Joker: A Man of Light, Darkness, and Self-Delusion
27:13 Inflation: the Pride that leads to Disaster
32:28 A Documentary-like Depiction of Small-Unit Warfare
34:43 Return to the Dream-state: Joker's Moral Defeat
40:10 Re-birth: Crucifixion of the Ego & Happiness in a Dark World