Daughter of Stanley Kubrick Responds to Trump 'Full Metal Jacket' Political Ad: 'I Believe My Father Would Approve'
The fact that people like Vivian Kubrick see through the masquerade of wokism is something that I find very encouraging.
On Sunday, former President Donald Trump shared a political ad that included several cuts from Stanley Kubrick’s award-winning film Full Metal Jacket (1987) in a tweet slamming “wokism” in the US military.
The video, which was first revealed at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania several days earlier, contains scenes featuring a hardnosed drill sergeant (R. Lee Ermey) whipping Marines into shape by berating and demeaning them. The footage was interspersed among clips of Rachel Leland Levine, the transgender US Assistant Secretary for Health, talking about celebrating Pride Month.
“WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY!” Trump tweeted.
Many were displeased with Trump sharing scenes from Kubrick’s celebrated antiwar film, which was based on Gustav Hasford’s 1979 autobiographical novel The Short-Timers. Several people accused Trump of missing the message of Kubrick’s Academy Award-nominated film.
“You can tell he never watched Full Metal Jacket,” one man tweeted.
“Whoever made this didn't really get ‘Full Metal Jacket’, and what these drill scenes were all about,” another said.
Trump, however, received a word of support from a surprising source: Vivian Kubrick, the daughter of the legendary filmmaker.
TO THOSE WHO THINK MY FATHER WOULDN’T HAVE WANTED #TRUMP TO USE FMJ FOOTAGE Here are my thoughts: I agree in principle that an anti-war movie is incongruous with promoting the idea of a tough non-woke US military and thus war itself - however - these are very dangerous and strange times and thus using this footage is doubtless pure expedience.
Because I’m sure the irony of using FMJ footage is not lost on Trump or his team - Trump is always seeking to end wars and use peaceful methods. However, that’s primarily what FMJ is about, the shocking and complicated paradoxes of human nature.
And thus, on this tooth and claw planet, you need a very strong military - so I’m going to stick with the idea that FMJ footage was used primarily because of its powerful, realistic portrayal of boot camp, juxtaposed with the entirely demoralizing and inappropriate injection of WOKE ideology into the USA military. Which I agree with myself and which I’m certain my father would have agreed with.
Truthfully, I believe my father (who supported Reagan), would very much approve of saving America, indeed the world, from the highly destructive Globalist forces threatening to take over this planet. And if that footage from FMJ helps Trump make the point that the US military needs properly trained, super tough, focused, dedicated warriors, and not introduce the demoralizing effects of woke-ism, and attracting people to join up simply to have their sexual reassignments paid for, then Trump has my blessing.
Finally, knowing my father very well, I can assure you he had a profound grasp of how paradoxical human nature is! Which accounts for how at the same time he made anti-war films, he had a great passion for guns (self-defense not hunting) and he had quite a few!
My father had a great respect for life - his movies being unimpeachable evidence of his love for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness! So on that basis, I feel very confident he would be a Trump supporter and would forgive using FMJ incongruously, if it helps the cause of freedom!
Capisce?
Let me just say I think that Vivian Kubrick is basically right, and I applaud her for having the courage to speak out against wokism, which is a threat to not just the US military but the soul of America.
People often accuse conservatives and classical liberals of not being able to define wokism, but I find that’s rarely the case. I think it’s pretty clear what wokism is, as I’ve pointed out before.
Woke: Social justice, intersectionality, and neo-Marxism masquerading as compassion for the poor and oppressed.
As economist Don Boudreaux has pointed out, wokism isn’t just a pernicious ideology but a deeply childish one. It tends to be supported by individuals who have a nasty habit of failing to put matters in their proper perspective, and see racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, etc. in virtually every aspect of society.
“It’s undeniably true that some individuals are racist while others are xenophobic, that some men are sexist, and that some people are homophobic, Boudreaux wrote. “Such will always be the case, sadly so.”
He continued:
“But there’s no question that racism, xenophobia, sexism, and homophobia are far less commonplace in America today than they were even just a few decades ago. Yet the woke seize upon every reported instance of such intolerance – reports which themselves are amplified by social media – as evidence that American society is suffused with incurable racism, xenophobia, sexism, and homophobia.
Because the woke are far more interested in displaying their own imaginary moral superiority than they are in understanding reality, they refuse to recognize the overwhelming civility and tolerance of modern American society. Like children, the woke’s understanding of the society they inhabit is defective. Unfortunately, unlike children, they occupy prominent places in the media, in the academy, and in officialdom.”
The fact that people like Vivian Kubrick see through the masquerade of wokism is something that I find very encouraging.
Kubrick was a highly overrated director. His "On The Beach" ( for one example) has no children. Granted, neither does Chute either but directors of genius probably might have noticed their absence in the city scenes which are child free. Who had more to lose with the loss of a planet than the children? "What's happening Mummy?" Is a line that certainly writes itself and would have born repeating. Anthony Perkins can't even bother to try to fake an Australian accent and apparently the director couldn't bother to replace him. The capper is the big finish with scenes of empty San Fransisco. Not enough to see scenes of empty streets and abandoned builds, as if we're all idiots who can't figure out for ourselves that his is somehow significant, Mr Kubrick has to beat us over the head with staccato symphony notes at several short scenes from all over the city like exclamation marks. Subtle would have worked brilliantly here and been genuinely dramatic rather than amateurishy melodramatic. Not his final bomb. No doubt he voted for Reagan.