FULL METAL JACKET (1987) | FIRST TIME WATCHING | MOVIE REACTION

Wow, after having time to process it and understanding the tone of the moving, the re-watch with the editing was a different experience for sure! Brilliant! The full length reaction can be found here: www.patreon.com/posts/104939022?utm_campaign=posts…

If life were fair, R. Lee Ermey would have gotten an Oscar nod for what HAS to be one of the most iconic performances in American cinema.

I'm an old Marine, I served from 1982-1986 and went through 13 weeks of boot camp at Parris Island (3rd Battalion, H Company). This movie's depiction of boot camp is spot-on. The first time I saw it, I had only been out of the Marine Corps a short while. It gave me serious flashbacks to my own experience. RIP R. Lee Ermy Semper Fidelis!

Did she just ask who is John Wayne???

"Who is John Wayne?" Has never made me feel older in my life.

Sargent Hartman was played by R. Lee Ermey, who was a Marine Drill Instructor. He actually fought in Vietnam. Section 8 is Discharge due to mental illness. The door gunner was played by the actor who was originally cast as Sgt Hartman.

I think your reaction is exactly what Kubrick was aiming for.

26:55 John Wayne was a famous actor from back in the day often in War films and Westerns

It's based on a semi-autobiographical novel called "The Short-Timers" by Marine vet Gustav Hasford. 95% of GySgt. Hartman's dialogue was improvised by the late, great R. Lee Ermey. Also, Pvt. Pyle was Vincent D'Onofrio's very first movie role.

The chopper gunner shooting at civilians was a real thing. They declared "free fire zones" where the locals were cleared out and anyone was assumed to be enemy. Of course people moved back, and they were considered to be supporting the VC. Anyone who had the urge was allowed to shoot at anything or anyone they wanted to in a free fire zone.

There is a mental and physical test that's given to soldiers, but during Vietnam the minimum IQ requirement was lowered from 92 IQ and above to allow people with as low as 72 IQ, which falls in the bottom 10% of the population. But 30,000 that fell below that minimum, which is considered a cognitive disability, were still permitted to inlist through some loopholes. This is clearly where the character of Private Pyle fell. It was called project 100,000

A notable bit of trivia from the IMDb.. "Regarding his character Gunny Hartman's brutal discipline of the recruits, R. Lee Ermey once said in an interview that a Marine drill instructor would never physically slap, choke or punch a recruit (at least not openly), even back in his day as a young Marine. Nevertheless, the gunnery sergeant in the book that the film was based on ("The Short Timers" by Gustav Hasford) often resorts to physical violence during the latter part of his drilling period, something that was significantly toned down in the movie."

Possibly the most anti-war war film. FMJ is a level of dark satire that you really have to applaud Kubrick for.

Stanley Kubrick was our greatest filmmaker. He was fearless and endlessly inventive, with a singular vision. Between this film, and two of his other films, Paths of Glory and Dr. Strangelove (my all-time favorite film), Kubrick put together the most definitive and comprehensive anti-war filmography in American history. Each film tackling a different aspect of the horrors of war. In a way all of Kubrick’s films were about the horror men can inflict on one another. A true master and the iconic embodiment of what it means to be an auteur. There will never be another like him.

You need to understand that Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann was played by an actual former Drill Instructor, named R. Lee Ermey. He was originally hired as a military advisor, to teach actors how to sound like Marines. Kubtick quickly hired him to play the role, after hearing him go on a blistering tirade. Ermey deliberately played the role to show how a DI should NEVER behave. I had the honor of meeting Gunnery Sergeant Ermey, a few years before he died. He was amazingly cool. The challenge coin he gave me, is one of my most treasured possession.

Vincent D'onofrio, who played Private Pyle, asked Lee Ermey to slap him for real when he didn't know right from left. That's why his cap flew off. He was really making contact with those slaps.

18:05 yes that is where you've heard that before. 2 Live Crew famously sampled it

Cowboy was shot in the back, straight through the heart, the round hit his dog tags hanging on his neck when it exited his chest.

Filmed in the UK. RAF Bassingbourn airfield in Cambridgeshire was used as a re-creation of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina. The abandoned gasworks at Beckton in East London was used as a location to shoot the famous bombed-out city of Hue in Vietnam. The helicopter scenes were shot in Norfolk Broads, located in East Anglia in the east of England. The vast expanse of rivers and lakes known as the broads was used to double as the Mekong River near Vietnam.

18:10 - Yup! This is where it (2 Live Crew song) is from :)