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| FMJ film cover |
Now if you just read that in the voice of R.Lee Ermey, welcome, you've come to the right place, I hope you learn something about this great movie, and if you know anything you feel should've been mentioned, please let me know. If you didn't read the quote in Ermey's voice, then go and watch it, if you like war movies chances are you will love it, it's on Netflix and Amazon Prime or you can pay £2.49 to watch it on YouTube or buy the dvd on Amazon for £4.98, or even the 25th anniversary edition on blu-ray for £121!
1. Full Metal Jacket the greatest British war film ever made?
*Spits out tea* Yep well sort of, although the film is quintessentially about the US war in Vietnam and nothing whatsoever to do with the UK, it was filmed here. The Marine bootcamp (Parris Island) scenes were filmed at Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire, then a British Army base and many of the extras in the film were serving UK squaddies. In London a few hundred yards from the Thames, an old gasworks was utilised to mimic the city of Hue, the scene as the tanks approach the city through to the final scenes with the Viet Cong sniper, all filmed in England complete with imported palm trees. The more eager eyed viewer may have spotted the British road markings in some of the training scenes.
2. The film is not anti war.
FMJ was not the first war movie to be made by Stanley Kubrick, decades before he had his debut with the movie Fear and Desire he later completed one of the universally acclaimed best war films Paths of Glory. They are both bona fide anti-war films. But Full Metal Jacket isn't really, at first glance it can be difficult to tell what it's about, the politics and motivations behind the Vietnam war don't really feature nor does the wider Cold War. Unlike many other 'Nam films what the actual soldiers think is not a part of the plot. What are the soldiers motivations? What do they think of the war? Are they fighting a just war? All questions without answers, according to co-screenwriter Michael Herr Kubrick "wanted to show what war is like". via GIPHY
3. The film is about the internal conflict of the mind.
Rather than being anti-war or even pro-war, Full Metal Jacket is about people, it's a study of character and how people can be morally split. The obvious example of this is when Joker is confronted by the poge Colonel at the site of the mass grave. The officer picks him up on the fact he wears a peace badge and has born to kill written on his helmet and calls him up on it. Joker explains that it's the "Jungian thing", a reference to the psychologist Carl Jung who proposed a theory that humans are split between their own beliefs and that of the wider community. In Joker's case he is born to kill, the events in society have led to the Vietnam war and despite his own personal beliefs, that's who society needs him to be. This was based on an actual experience the author had in Vietnam with a Major, there's a great account of it on the Gustav Hasford blog here, it's well worth a read.
4. The cast is almost entirely male, but women play some of the best parts.
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| Viet Cong sniper |
5. Full Metal Jacket has a great soundtrack but a terrible theme song.
There's a handful of songs that are synonymous (at least for war film/ FMJ fans) with the film; These Boots are Made for Walking by Nancy Sinatra, Surfin' Bird by the Trashmen, Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones. Obviously music plays a massive part of the movie setting the scene for the action and dialogue but also it is an integral part of the plot with the singing particularly by the Marine recruits in the training scenes. The film would not be the same without the chants of: "This is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for fighting, this is for fun." One piece of movie music that doesn't seem to have stood the test of time is the theme song, that was produced to promote the film. Called Full Metal Jacket (I Wanna Be Your Drill Instructor) it did reach number 2 in the UK charts and is a great reminder of the fact that the movie came out in the eighties, with the erm stunning, electro-synth sound. If you fancy it, here's a link to the video.
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| Gustav Hasford pictured in Vietnam |
Full Metal Jacket is based upon a book written by a former US Marine called Gustav Hasford, titled Short Timers it is a semi autobiographical novel about Hasford's experiences in the USMC. The film stays largely true to the book especially the training camp scenes, although Hasford worked on the production with Stanley Kubrick and Michael Herr, the relationship was not good. At one point Hasford even threatened to sue the production over writing credits. Later when the film was nominated for an Oscar at the Academy Awards for it's screenplay adaption. Gustav Hasford did not attend despite the fact he was named as nominee and author of the book. Kubrick worried that the title Short Timers would confuse the audience and believe it was about part timers so opted for the name Full Metal Jacket instead, referring to the outer casing of ammunition, after he read it in a gun catalogue. The name of the book refers to American soldiers lingo during Vietnam, short timers are those coming to the end of their tour of duty.
7. Vincent D'Onofrio put on a record breaking 5 stone to play the part of Pvt. Pyle.
R. Lee Ermey later expressed that Private Pyle was the best part in the whole film and it's hard to knock that opinion. Pyle is a character that in the start is jolly, if a bit dim, by the end he is completely broken and famously takes Hartman's life followed by his own. Private Leonard is given the nickname Gomer Pyle by Hartman after a US tv comedy character who is a clumsy hapless loser. The part was played by Vincent D'Onofrio, which completely changed the actors career, the story goes that Matthew Modine bumped into Vincent who was working as a doorman and suggested he send audition tapes to Kubrick. Thus the star was born, well not quite, there was the small question of getting into character, Vincent put on a total of 32KG (70lbs) for the part, still the most weight ever gained by an actor. It took him from 15 stone 6 pounds (98KG) to 20 stone 6 pounds (130KG). Which is a huge amount of weight, so much so that Vincent hurt himself during one of the assault course scenes and had to have reconstructive surgery on his knee, that's commitment to a part!
via GIPHY
8. F**king hell the film includes a lot of swearing!
During the 1 hour 56 minutes of the production there are a grand total of 170 swears, cusses and racist remarks that's one every 41 seconds! Which is a mind boggling amount of foul language, some kind soul has put all of the swearing into 1 YouTube compilation. It's clear from the first half of the video that a lot of it was everyone's favourite drill instructor, the late great R. Lee Ermey. Ermey himself a USMC veteran of the Vietnam war, was brought onto the set of the film as a consultant, to advise and to ensure realism. He was so impressive that he ended up with the role of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman and a movie legend was born. It seems a funny thing to write but the man was very eloquent, at swearing and shouting and the vast majority of his lines in the film were improvised by himself. Which is feat in and of itself, improvisation is not normally associated with films, let alone Stanley Kubrick productions as he was known for taking charge of every aspect.
9. Filming was a car crash or two.
Now this doesn't refer to the length of the filming or the various problems they encountered on the way but actual vehicular accidents. The first was by Stanley Kubrick, driving his wife's suv, scoping out filming locations. Apparently driving albeit slowly, he was explaining how the soldiers could come over this hill and the like, and just drove into a 6 foot ditch, the suv fell on it's side, without taking a breath Kubrick undid his seatbelt clambered out and carried on explaining the scene. The other car crash was involving Ermey and was much more serious, the actor broke all of his ribs down one side. He was lucky to survive the ordeal and it set back filming for four and a half months.
10. Private Joker's real name is a tribute to a US soldier killed in 'Nam.
Earlier on I made the point about the dehumanising nature of the film and the lack of any kind of normalcy. Names are a great example of this, most of the monikers are given by the Drill Instructor. Even in the credits only Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is given a name, everyone else is solely a nickname: Cowboy, Animal Mother, Rafterman, or a description Da Nang Hooker, Door Gunner etc. However in the early scenes Joker is wearing a shirt that has the words Davis J, this was also featured in Short Timers. This refers to the first battlefield fatality in the Vietnam War, SP4 James T. Davis (1/6/1936 – 22/12/1961). A communications specialist, his unit were tasked with direction finding communist guerrillas radio signals. En route to a mission their convoy was ambushed near Saigon and he became one of the first US casualties in war in Indochina.
I don't feel like I've really done this justice. There's loads more trivia to know, I didn't even mention that Val Kilmer wanted the role of Joker, that Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down the role of Animal Mother, that Bruce Willis turned down a role and that Denzel Washington was interested in a part. I could've written a lot on the setting, the part of the Vietnam war itself, the crucial Tet Offensive. Or perhaps a paragraph or two on Hasford's view of the John Wayne Vietnam film The Green Berets and how in some part his book (and Vietnam experience) is a counterpoint to that piece of pro war propaganda. There's also Matthew Modine's www.fullmetaljacketdiary.com based on his writings and photography from the set. AND probably tonnes more I've not realised, anyway I hope you enjoyed it 😊
If you want to know more about the film there's a few links at the bottom. The last link is a documentary which is really good, it's all interviews with the actors and there's loads of great insights. For me the best part of it, is R.Lee Ermey talking in a section about Stanley Kubrick, explaining about the driving into the ditch incident, he's a great storyteller, link to that part here.
Additional reading and viewing:
Matthew Modine's Diary from filming
http://www.fullmetaljacketdiary.com/
Playlist of music from the film
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093058/trivia
16 Hardcore Facts about Full Metal Jacket
http://mentalfloss.com/article/65427/16-hardcore-facts-about-full-metal-jacket
The Making of "Full Metal Jacket" documentary
https://youtu.be/XRkyKYz5SYM
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