Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford. The title refers to the full metal jacket bullet type of ammunition used by infantry riflemen. The film follows a squad of U.S. Marines through their United States Marine Corps Recruit Training and depicts some of the experiences of two of them in the Tet Offensive (1968) during the Vietnam War.
Plot
The film is divided into two parts. In the first part, a group of new recruits in the United States Marine Corps have just arrived at Parris Island for recruit training. After they have their heads shaved, they meet their drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey), who wastes no time in starting the process of making the civilians into Marines. With the Vietnam War in full swing, he has the task of producing trained warriors. The film's first section focuses on the physical and psychological treatment of the recruits: Hartman is extremely tough, intimidating and hard, in particular to Leonard Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio), whom Hartman derisively nicknames "Pvt. Pyle".
Hartman immediately pegs Pyle as a misfit: weak, socially awkward, dimwitted, overweight, out of shape, and afraid of heights. The recruit has trouble coping with the physical rigors of recruit training and has difficulty learning procedures. These deficiencies get the constant attention of Hartman, who punishes him to motivate him to perform better as well as to provide a lesson to the others. Hartman ultimately appoints the protagonist "Joker" (Matthew Modine) as Pyle's squad leader, bunkmate, and mentor, stressing that Joker will set Pyle straight, "or else". With Joker's help, Pyle begins to straighten up and becomes a more disciplined recruit. However, Pyle forgets to lock his footlocker before a barracks inspection: opening it and removing the contents, Hartman finds a contraband jelly doughnut inside and immediately puts a new rule into effect: every time Pyle "fucks up", Hartman will punish everyone else in the platoon on the grounds that they have failed to help Hartman by encouraging Pyle to work harder toward becoming a Marine. Shortly afterward, the other recruits, led by "Cowboy" (Arliss Howard), gang up on Pyle during the night and give him a blanket party, pinning him to his bunk using a blanket, gagging him and beating him severely with bars of soap wrapped in towels and socks. Joker, the last one to hit Pyle, covers his ears once he is back in his bunk to block out the latter's moaning and sobbing.
Over the next few days, Joker realizes that Pyle has become sullen, withdrawn, and psychopathic, and relays his concerns to Cowboy. Pyle begins to detach himself from the platoon as well as the rest of reality. His expert marksmanship with the M14 rifle impresses Hartman, but Joker becomes worried upon watching Pyle carry on conversations with his rifle. On completing their training, everyone in platoon 3092, including Pyle, graduates and the Corps assigns to each a Military Occupational Specialty, most commonly 0300-Infantry (one notable exception, Joker, gets assigned to 4212-Basic Military Journalism). On the platoon's last night on Parris Island, Joker draws fire watch (guard) duty, during which he discovers Pyle in the head (toilet) loading his rifle with live ammunition. Frightened, Joker attempts to calm Pyle and tells him "If Hartman comes in here and catches us... we'll both be in a world of shit." Pyle replies "I am... In a world...of SHIT!" Pyle then begins shouting and executing drill commands and reciting the Rifleman's Creed. The noise awakens Hartman and he rushes into the head, demanding the rifle and ordering Pyle to put it down. Pyle smirks in madness and as Hartman starts verbally abusing him, he shoots Hartman in the chest, killing the drill instructor. Pyle then turns the rifle, places the barrel in his mouth and commits suicide as the shocked Joker looks on.
The second part of the film opens in Vietnam in January, 1968. Joker has become a Sergeant and a Marine Combat Correspondent with Stars and Stripes, assigned to a Marine public-affairs unit along with "Rafterman" (Kevyn Major Howard), a combat photographer. One day in a meeting while reading reports and pitching article ideas, Joker tells his superior, Lt. Lockhart (John Terry), of rumors that the enemy might launch a large attack during the Tet Holiday. Lockhart downplays Joker's information. However, soon thereafter, the Tet Offensive begins and enemy forces attack the Marine base. During the offensive, Joker fights in his first battle when elements of the North Vietnamese Army attempt to overrun the base.
The next day, the PA staff learn from Lockhart about enemy attacks throughout South Vietnam. Lockhart assigns Joker to Phu Bai, a Marine forward operating-base near the ancient Vietnamese city of Huế, to cover the combat taking place in the area. Rafterman tags along, hoping to get some combat experience. En route to their new assignment, Joker and Rafterman meet a crazed door gunner (Tim Colceri) on an H-34 Choctaw who shoots every Vietnamese person he sees on the ground, on the assumption that they are all Viet Cong, even proudly shooting women and children and shouting, "Get some!" after each burst he fires.
When Joker and Rafterman land outside Huế, they meet Lt. Walter J. Schinowsky, aka "Touchdown" (Ed O'Ross), who commands the platoon in H Co 2/5 Marines in which Joker's boot camp friend Cowboy serves. Touchdown directs them to a mass grave of civilians killed by the North Vietnamese Army. Afterwards, Joker finds Cowboy (also a Sergeant), second-in-command of the Lusthog Squad, whose M60 machine-gun carrier is a nihilistic Marine nicknamed Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin). Joker then accompanies the squad during the Battle of Huế, during which Touchdown is killed and a Marine nicknamed Crazy Earl (Kieron Jecchinis) takes command of the squad. As "Crazy" leads the men on a patrol through a ruined section of the city, enemy fire kills another squad member.
The squad goes out on patrol again, this time north of the Perfume River which divides the city of Huế, where enemy forces are believed to be hiding. Crazy comes across a toy rabbit in a ruined building and picks it up, triggering an explosive booby trap that kills him and leaves Cowboy the reluctant squad leader. The squad becomes lost in the ruined buildings, and a sniper wounds two of their comrades, Doc Jay (John Stafford) and Eightball (Dorian Harewood), with the apparent intention of drawing more of them in. As the squad maneuvers to try to locate the hidden position, the sniper finishes off the wounded men and kills Cowboy as well.
With Cowboy dead, Animal Mother assumes command of the remaining Marines. Using smoke grenades to conceal their advance, the squad approaches and enters the building used by the sniper. Joker finds the sniper on an upper floor, but his rifle jams as he tries to shoot. The sniper, a young girl, spins around and opens fire, pinning him behind a column. As he tries to draw his sidearm, Rafterman arrives and shoots the sniper, saving Joker. As Joker, Rafterman, and Animal Mother and other Marines of the squad stand over the mortally wounded sniper, they (with the exception of Joker) plan on leaving her to die. She begins to say "It hurts so much" in Vietnamese, but after a pause, she begins repeating "Shoot me" in English. Joker and Animal Mother argue over this request. Animal Mother initially wants to leave her for rats to eat, but changes his mind; he will allow a mercy killing only if Joker, who has much less combat experience, performs it. After a pause, Joker shoots her with his pistol. The film concludes with the Marines' rendition of the Mickey Mouse March as their reunited platoon marches into the night toward their bivouac.
Cast and characters
- Matthew Modine as Private / Sergeant James T. "Joker" Davis, the protagonist-narrator who claims to have joined the Corps to see combat, and to be the first one on his block with a confirmed kill. He witnesses Pyle's insanity in boot camp, but nevertheless becomes a "squared away" Marine. He later serves as an independent-minded combat correspondent accompanying the Lusthog Squad in the field. Joker wears a peace-sign medallion on his uniform as well as writing "Born to Kill" on his helmet.
- Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence: An overweight, clumsy, slow-witted recruit who becomes the focus of Hartman's attention for his incompetence and excess weight, making him the platoon scapegoat. After a blanket party from the rest of the platoon for failing almost everything and earning them collective punishments, he turns psychotic and talks to his rifle, "Charlene", yet he becomes a disciplined Marine. In The Short-Timers, Hasford portrays Leonard Pratt as a skinny, awkward Alabama boy who shoots Gerheim, then himself, in front of everyone in the bunkhouse section of the barracks. In Full Metal Jacket, he shoots Hartman while in the bathroom, and then himself in front of Joker. The humiliating nickname Gomer Pyle originates from a likable but dim character from the American television program The Andy Griffith Show who eventually enlists in the USMC.
- R. Lee Ermey (credited as "Lee Ermey") as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: the stereotypical Parris Island drill instructor who trains his recruits to transform them into Marines. The Short-Timers presents the equivalent character as the potbellied "Gerheim"; he is a Second World War veteran of the Battle of Iwo Jima.
- Arliss Howard as the Texan Private / Sergeant "Cowboy" Evans who goes through boot camp with Joker. He becomes a rifleman and later encounters Joker in Vietnam, taking command of a rifle squad. In The Short-Timers, a sniper — trying to draw the squad out — severely wounds Cowboy, and Joker mercifully kills him. In Full Metal Jacket, he quickly dies of a sucking chest wound, while in Joker's arms and weakly saying "I can hack it...", surrounded by the few remaining members of his squad.
- Adam Baldwin as Sergeant "Animal Mother": the nihilistic M-60 machine gunner of the Lusthog Squad, Animal Mother is contemptuous of any authority but his own, and attempts to rule by intimidation. Animal Mother believes victory should be the only object of war. In The Short-Timers, he is a New Yorker who joined the Marines to avoid going to jail for stealing a car.
- Dorian Harewood as Corporal "Eightball": The black member of the Lusthog Squad, insensitive about his ethnicity (e.g. 'Put a nigger behind the trigger'), and Animal Mother's closest friend. The sniper shoots him repeatedly in attempt to lure the others into the open, before killing him.
- Kevyn Major Howard as Lance Corporal "Rafterman": Rafterman is a combat photographer with the Stars and Stripes office with Joker. He requests permission to accompany Joker into Huế and ultimately saves him by shooting the sniper, an act which gives him much pride and exhilaration. He seems to be a natural killer.
- Ed O'Ross as Lieutenant Walter J. "Touchdown" Schinowski: The commander of the Lusthog Squad's platoon, he was a college football player at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He is killed in an ambush outside of Hue City.
- John Terry as Lieutenant Lockhart: The PIO officer-in-chief and Joker's assignment editor. He has combat-reporting experience, but uses his officer rank to avoid returning to the field, he says on account of the danger and the bugs, rationalizing that his journalistic duties keep him where he belongs, "In the rear with the gear."
- Kieron Jecchinis as Sergeant "Crazy Earl": The squad leader, he is forced to assume platoon command when Platoon Leader Lt. Touchdown is killed. Touching a booby-trapped toy kills him. As in the novel he carries a BB gun, which is visible just before he dies.
- John Stafford as Doc Jay: A Navy corpsman attached to the Lusthog squad. Doc Jay mocks President Johnson when he is interviewed by documentary men in the film, Doc Jay quotes LBJ when he was Vice President expressing his intentions to avoid sending American soldiers to Vietnam. He is wounded by the sniper while attempting to drag Eightball to safety; the sniper uses a subsequent automatic burst to finish them both off when Doc Jay attempts to indicate the direction of the sniper.
- Tim Colceri as the door-gunner, the Loadmaster and machine gunner of the H-34 Choctaw helicopter transporting Joker and Rafterman to the Tet Offensive front. Inflight, he shoots at civilians, while enthusiastically repeating "Get some!", boasting "157 dead Gooks killed, and 50 water buffaloes too." When Joker asks if that includes women and children, he admits it stating, "Sometimes." Joker then asks, "How can you shoot women and children?" to which the door-gunner replies jokingly, "Easy, you just don't lead 'em so much!...Ha, ha, ha, ha...Ain't war hell?!" This scene is adapted from Michael Herr's 1977 book Dispatches.
- Papillon Soo Soo as Da Nang Hooker: An attractive and scantily-dressed prostitute who approaches Joker and Rafterman at a street corner during the first scene in Vietnam. She is memorable for the phrases "Me love you long time," "Me so horny" and "Me sucky sucky", which were later sampled by 2 Live Crew in their song, "Me So Horny" and in Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back".
- Peter Edmund as Private "Snowball" Brown: African-American recruit, the butt of jibes from Hartman about "fried chicken and water melon", and famous for informing him that Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from "that book suppository [sic] building, Sir!".
Production
Development
Stanley Kubrick contacted Michael Herr, author of the Vietnam War memoir Dispatches, in the spring of 1980 to discuss working on a film about the Holocaust but eventually discarded that in favor of a film about the Vietnam War.[1] They met in England and the director told him that he wanted to do a war film but he had yet to find a story to adapt.[2] Kubrick discovered Gustav Hasford's novel The Short-Timers while reading the Virginia Kirkus Review[3] and Herr received it in bound galleys and thought that it was a masterpiece.[2] In 1982, Kubrick read the novel twice and afterwards thought that it "was a unique, absolutely wonderful book" and decided, along with Herr,[1] that it would be the basis for his next film.[3] According to the filmmaker, he was drawn to the book's dialogue that was "almost poetic in its carved-out, stark quality."[3] In 1983, he began researching for this film, watching past footage and documentaries, reading Vietnamese newspapers on microfilm from the Library of Congress, and studied hundreds of photographs from the era.[4] Initially, Herr was not interested in revisiting his Vietnam War experiences and Kubrick spent three years persuading him in what the author describes as "a single phone call lasting three years, with interruptions."[1]
In 1985, Kubrick contacted Hasford to work on the screenplay with him and Herr,[2] often talking to Hasford on the phone three to four times a week for hours at a time.[5] Kubrick had already written a detailed treatment.[2] The two men got together at Kubrick's home every day, breaking down the treatment into scenes. From that, Herr wrote the first draft.[2] The filmmaker was worried that the title of the book would be misread by audiences as referring to people who only did half a day's work and changed it to Full Metal Jacket after discovering the phrase while going through a gun catalogue.[2] After the first draft was completed, Kubrick would phone in his orders and Hasford and Herr would mail in their submissions.[6] Kubrick would read and then edit them with the process starting over. Neither Hasford nor Herr knew how much they contributed to the screenplay and this led to a dispute over the final credits.[6] Hasford remembers, "We were like guys on an assembly line in the car factory. I was putting on one widget and Michael was putting on another widget and Stanley was the only one who knew that this was going to end up being a car."[6] Herr says that the director was not interested in making an anti-war film but that "he wanted to show what war is like."[1]
At some point, Kubrick wanted to meet Hasford in person but Herr advised against this, describing The Short-Timers author as a "scary man."[1] Kubrick insisted and they all met at Kubrick's house in England for dinner. It did not go well and Hasford was subsequently shut out of the production.[1]
Casting
Through Warner Brothers, Kubrick advertised a national search in the United States and Canada.[2] The director used video tape to audition actors. He received over 3,000 video tapes.[2] His staff screened all of the tapes and eliminated the unacceptable ones. This left 800 tapes for Kubrick to personally review.[2]
Former U.S. Marine Drill Instructor R. Lee Ermey was originally hired as a technical adviser and asked Kubrick if he could audition for the role of Hartman. However Kubrick, having seen his portrayal as Drill Instructor SSgt Loyce in The Boys in Company C, told him that he wasn't vicious enough to play the character.[2] In response, Ermey made a videotape of himself improvising insulting dialogue towards a group of Royal Marines while being pelted by people off-camera with oranges and tennis balls. Ermey, in spite of the distractions, rattled off an unbroken string of insults for 15 minutes, and he did not flinch, duck, or repeat himself while the projectiles rained on him.[2] Upon viewing it, Kubrick gave him the role, realizing that Ermey "was a genius for this part".[4] Ermey's experience as a real-life DI during the Vietnam era proved invaluable, and the realism was such that in one instance, Ermey barked an order off-camera to Kubrick to stand up when he was spoken to, and Kubrick instinctively obeyed, standing at attention before realizing what had happened. Kubrick estimated that Ermey came up with 150 pages of insults, many of them improvised on the spot — a rarity for a Kubrick film. According to Kubrick's estimate, the former drill instructor wrote 50% of his own dialogue, especially the insults.[7] Ermey usually needed only two to three takes per scene, another rarity for a Kubrick film.
The origininal plan envisaged Anthony Michael Hall starring as Private Joker, but after eight months of negotiations a deal between Stanley Kubrick and Hall fell through.[8]
Bruce Willis was offered[by whom?] a lead role but had to turn it down because of the impending start of filming on the first 6 episodes of Moonlighting.[9]
Principal photography
Kubrick shot the film in England: in Cambridgeshire, on the Norfolk Broads, in Beckton, and in Newham (East London). A former RAF and then British Army base, Bassingbourn Barracks, doubled as the Parris Island Marine boot camp.[4] A British Army rifle range near Barton, outside Cambridge was used in the scene where Private Pyle is congratulated on his shooting skills by R. Lee Ermey. The disused Beckton Gasworks portrayed the ruined city of Huế. Kubrick worked from still photographs of Huế taken in 1968 and found an area owned by British Gas that closely resembled it and was scheduled to be demolished.[7] To achieve this look, Kubrick had buildings blown up and the film's art director used a wrecking ball to knock specific holes in certain buildings over the course of two months.[7] Originally, Kubrick had a plastic replica jungle flown in from California but once he looked at it was reported to have said, "I don't like it. Get rid of it."[10] The open country is Cliffe marshes, also on the Thames, with 200 imported Spanish palm trees[3] and 100,000 plastic tropical plants from Hong Kong.[7]
Kubrick acquired four M41 tanks from a Belgian army colonel (a fan), Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw helicopters (actually Westland Wessex painted Marine green), and obtained a selection of rifles, M79 grenade launchers and M60 machine guns from a licensed weapons-dealer.[4]
Matthew Modine described the shoot as tough: he had to have his head shaved once a week and Ermey yelled at him for ten hours a day during the shooting of the Parris Island scenes.[11]
At one point during filming, Ermey had a car accident, broke all of his ribs on one side and was out for four-and-half months.[7] Cowboy's death scene shows a building in the background that resembles the famous alien monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick described the resemblance as an "extraordinary accident."[7]
During filming, Hasford contemplated legal action over the writing credit. Originally the film-makers intended Hasford to receive an "additional dialogue" credit, but he wanted full credit.[6] The writer took two friends and snuck onto the set dressed as extras only to be mistaken by a crew member for Herr.[5]
Kubrick's daughter Vivian - who appears uncredited as news-camera operator at the mass grave - shadowed the filming of Full Metal Jacket and shot eighteen hours of behind-the-scenes footage, snippets of which can be seen in the 2008 documentary Stanley Kubrick's Boxes.
Music
"Abigail Mead" (an alias for Kubrick's daughter Vivian) wrote a score for the film. According to an interview which appeared in the January 1988 issue of Keyboard Magazine, the film was scored mostly with a Fairlight CMI synthesizer (the then-current Series III edition), and the Synclavier. For the period music, Kubrick went through Billboard's list of Top 100 Hits for each year from 1962-1968 and tried many songs but "sometimes the dynamic range of the music was too great, and we couldn't work in dialogue."[7] The sequence that includes "Surfin Bird" was included in UGO's Top 11 Uses of Classic Rock in Cinema
Reception
Full Metal Jacket received critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie a 96% "fresh" rating.[12] Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader said it was "the most tightly crafted Kubrick film since Dr. Strangelove." Variety referred to the film as an "intense, schematic, superbly made" drama, while Vincent Canby of the New York Times called it "harrowing" and "beautiful." Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert had a dissenting view, stating the film was "strangely shapeless", though on his television show, Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, he said that Benji the Hunted, which he gave a "thumb's up", wasn't one tenth the film Full Metal Jacket, which he gave a "thumb's down", was.[citation needed]
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing for an adapted screenplay. Ermey was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.
Full Metal Jacket ranks 457th on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.[13]
In March 2008, the film became the first to receive a double-dipping on Blu-ray Disc [14].
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
- Nomination - Best Adapted Screenplay (Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, Gustav Hasford)
Awards of the Japanese Academy
- Nomination - Best Foreign Language Film (Stanley Kubrick)
BAFTA Awards
- Nomination - Best Sound (Nigel Galt, Edward Tise, Andy Nelson)
- Nomination - Best Special Effects (John Evans)
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
- Won - Best Director (Stanley Kubrick)
- Won - Best Supporting Actor (R. Lee Ermey)
David di Donatello Awards
- Won - Best Producer - Foreign Film (Stanley Kubrick)
Golden Globes
- Nomination - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (R. Lee Ermey)
Kinema Junpo Awards
- Won - Best Foreign Language Film Director (Stanley Kubrick)
London Critics Circle Film Awards
- Won - Director of the Year (Stanley Kubrick)
Writers Guild of America
- Nomination - Best Adapted Screenplay (Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, Gustav Hasford)
References
- ^ a b c d e f CVulliamy, Ed (July 16, 2000). "It Ain't Over Till It's Over". The Observer. http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/artsandentertainment/story/0,6000,343722,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k LoBrutto, Vincent (1997). "Stanley Kubrick". Donald I. Fine Books.
- ^ a b c d Clines, Francis X (June 21, 1987). "Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/062187kubrick-jacket.html. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
- ^ a b c d Rose, Lloyd (June 28, 1987). "Stanley Kubrick, At a Distance". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/movies/features/kubrick1987.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
- ^ a b Lewis, Grover (June 28, 1987). "The Several Battles of Gustav Hasford". Los Angeles Times Magazine. http://www.gustavhasford.com/battles.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
- ^ a b c d Carlton, Bob (1987). "Alabama Native wrote the book on Vietnam Film". Birmingham News. http://www.gustavhasford.com/interview.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
- ^ a b c d e f g Cahill, Tim (1987). "The Rolling Stone Interview". Rolling Stone. http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0077.html. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
- ^ Epstein, Dan. "Anthony Michael Hall from The Dead Zone - Interview". Underground Online. http://www.ugo.com/channels/filmtv/features/anthonymichaelhall/. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
- ^ http://www.playboy.com/articles/playboy-interview-bruce-willis/index.html?page=2
- ^ Watson, Ian (2000). "Plumbing Stanley Kubrick". Playboy. http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0094.html. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
- ^ Linfield, Susan (October 1987). "The Gospel According to Matthew". American Film. http://www.gustavhasford.com/interview-modine.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-11.
- ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/full_metal_jacket
- ^ http://www.empireonline.com/500/8.asp
- ^ http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;0;-1;-1;-1&sku=745410
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