Home
Creators
Search Recent Missing Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Full Metal Jacket (Patreon)

Published:
2023-04-01 09:12:20
Imported:
2026-06
haven't archived this post yet. have a subscription? use the importer!

Content

Full link: https://youtu.be/HYAQPp6FbZQ

This movie was definitely an experience! I love movies can combine criticizing certain behaviours with a lot of depth, which this movie definitely did. I hope you enjoy the reaction!

Files

Previews only

Comments

Paul Kay

I was in the Marines from 1971-75. The boot camp portion of the film was the closest I've seen to reality.

Otrant

Definitely a feel-bad movie. My Dad showed me this film when I was like 14 and I had to stop after the first half. Watched it on my own later and it ended up loving it. I recommend Dr. Strangelove if you haven't seen it yet. It's another Kubrick film, much earlier though, 1964. Compared to Full Metal Jacket, the satire is much more obvious and absurd in Dr. Strangelove.

David Bennett

Once again, Mari, I must commend you on choosing a film that is both important and difficult to watch. I understand your discomfort about the prostitute scene. It is a rather unpleasant fact of that time period and to some extent most of the war situations in history. The dominant force of soldiers taking what they want and using the locals how they please is a truly awful reality that has to be grappled with. Vincent D'Onofrio, the actor who played Pyle, did an amazing job, in my opinion of portraying a guy trying his best who can't seem to measure up for most of training and gets mentally broken BY the brutal nature of boot camp. You actually noted yourself how training needs to be tough in order to produce soldiers and marines that can handle how terrible real war is, but it can break a person irreparably in the process. To your question about the role of Marines, they ARE, in fact, seaborne infantry essentially. trained to storm a beach and then take the fight to the enemy, whereas the army typically rides in a vehicle on land or aircraft in the sky to close the distance with the hostile force. R Lee Ermey, the actor who played Drill Sergeant Hartmann WAS in fact a real marine AND a real Marine DI, so he had substantial life experience to draw on and that is why it looks so real on screen. I've been yelled at by a drill sergeant quite a few times (this was only 20 years ago, so they were NOT as tough on recruits as they were during the Vietnam era). It is a eye opening experience but that is the idea. To harden a person in order for them to be able to do their job. I would say the movie is definitely a critique on how the military is portrayed in entertainment and in propaganda vs how a real life combat situation actually is. (To be totally clear, I have NEVER been in combat myself and I don't claim to be some kind of spec ops badass, I washed out of ROTC because of my weight, so I am not some beacon of military perfection). Finding the line between doing what has to be done and not going to far has been something many folks in the military have wrestled with for centuries. I am glad you watched this one Mari. Hope you and your husband are having a nice time in Germany tonight!

Eric

Seems like you've watched a lot of movies like this recently (this and American History X comes to mind); they're good movies, but man they're not fun to watch. I'd like to see you watch something more fun, like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" or "Mr Right"

Bryan Tuck

Glad you made it through this one, Mary. :) Kubrick made another war movie many years before this called PATHS OF GLORY about World War I. It's in black-and-white, and not nearly as gory or intense. But still very good. In fact, while PATHS OF GLORY is unequivocally an "anti-war movie," with FULL METAL JACKET Kubrick apparently wanted to just make a straightforward "war movie," without taking a moral or political position. I think that's why so much of FMJ feels detached and dispassionate, like you're a neutral observer just watching the phenomenon of war. BUT... to me, if you're trying to make it feel "real," a war movie can't help but be "anti-war," because the reality is so horrible. But again, maybe that's me bringing my own predispositions to it, and maybe that really is the point.

Eric

Marine Corps, not army

Bubba Fett

USMC is it's own branch, while there are many similarities its not part of the Army. Mostly a specialized infantry force that focuses on amphibious operations and usually works closely with the navy.

Anonymous

Thought I'd have more time to type this up before you made it live, but I got lazy this past week. But here we go anyway, Mari: There's not really a movie-movie that really helps you understand the history of the Vietnam War. You'd have to watch a documentary for that, Ken Burns' Vietnam War is one of (if not the) best on the subject. Even the main combat scenes in Full Metal Jacket take place in bombed out cities which feel more reminiscent of WWII battles (like the ending of Saving Private Ryan). You mostly associate Vietnam with jungle fighting. Kubrick filmed the battle scenes on sound stages in the UK, despite the fact that most Vietnam War movies were shot in the jungles of the Philippines. But Kubrick didn't wanna go there cuz he was notoriously afraid of flying (even though he was a licensed pilot, like WTF). However, ''Platoon'' is the most accurate film about the soldier's experience in the Vietnam War cuz it's the ONLY Vietnam War film that was actually written by a ground soldier who served in Vietnam (Oliver Stone) and the only war film to be directed by an actual Vietnam vet (again, Oliver Stone). Yea, your association of Marines with boats is correct. Marines are technically naval infantry, that's how they originated. And no, the Marines are not part of the Army. Being naval infantry, Marines are technically part of the Navy cuz just like the Navy, the Marine Corps operates under the Department of the Navy (Marines f_cking hate when you say that btw). However, the Marine Corps does function as its own independent branch of the military, but they do share their operating budget with the Navy. And the Marines only get places by riding on navy ships. Also, the Marines don't have their own medical personnel, all their medical needs are provided by the Navy. So, the Navy and the Marine Corps are sister organizations. One can't function without the other. The other branches of the military include the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard and now in America, the newly minted Space Force (which previously was part of the Air Force). But for some stupid reason, Trump decided it needed to be its own branch. PT mean physical training (or exercise/gym class). One feeling from boot camp that you never forget is the first thought you have every morning in the first couple weeks. You wake up outta your slumber at 4 or 5am every morning to the sounds of drill instructors screaming in your face. In that very first microsecond of waking up, you think ''I was asleep and now dad's yelling at me''. But that mistaken first thought is immediately replaced with the realization of ''F_ck, I'm STILL here... at boot camp'' and you snap outta bed instantaneously. In those first few weeks, you're always hoping you'll wake up at home or anywhere else frankly. It's like being in prison. It takes time to adjust to the reality that THIS is your life now. It's such a culture shock from your previous life. You never forget that feeling, at least I didn't. Actually, everyone's thought when they're yelled at by a drill instructor for the first time is always ''Did I actually sign up for this sh_t? I think I made a big mistake...'' xD Yes, an awful lot of military personnel during the Vietnam War did not volunteer and were drafted. It was a very unpopular war and people dodged the draft in droves at the time. While the recruits at boot camp are singing cadence while running in formation, you hear them sing ''1-2-3-4, I love Marine Corps.'' There's actually a meaning behind that phrase. When people received their draft notice in the mail and had to report to the draft board to be processed, they were lined up in a row and they were told to count off in 4s ''1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4''. Everyone who called off 4 was asked to step forward. They were then told ''Congratulations, you just joined the Marine Corps.'' Hence, the phrase ''1-2-3-4, I love Marine Corps.'' When you're drafted, you have ZERO choice which branch you serve in. The draft boards resorted to this practice because of all the branches, the Marine Corps had the worst recruitment rate as it's the most intense branch of the military and those who were drafted dreaded serving in it (especially during periods of armed conflict). They're the first ones to be shipped to the combat zone and the last to leave it. You commented on why there were so many toilets at boot camp. Well, a company of recruits is typically made up of around 80 people all housed in one compartment, so you need lots of 'em. We had around 80 in my company and we only had 8 toilet stalls (plus 3 urinals which no one was allowed to use-- less cleaning that way). Stall #8 was the furthest from the door so it had the most privacy which recruits needed for... well, it doesn't need to be said xD. I'm more surprised you didn't comment on why the toilets were right next to each other and had no partition walls or doors around them. That was actually a thing, you had to go in front of others (in the past at least). Luckily, it changed when I was there. We had partitions around our toilets, no door but we did have a sliding curtain in front for privacy. However, at the school house at boot camp, there were no doors in front of the toilets, just partitions on each side. There were actually designated time periods to use the bathroom during boot camp. While in the barracks (the housing where recruits live and sleep), the bathroom break was announced by the drill instructors as ''5-minutes pump and dump'' (5 min to piss and sh_t for 80 people using only 8 toilets). Half would go at a time, so you'd only actually get 2.5 minutes to do your business. I could never do it in such a time crunch so I'd always wait to go after ''lights out'' (bedtime). That way you had all the time in the world. A ''Section 8 Discharge'' means being discharged from the military on psychiatric grounds. Yes, lots of people have a fear of heights even in the military. But they have little choice but to overcome it while at basic training when climbing the obstacles or while being forced to descend down the rappel tower. The concept of constantly shouting at recruits is meant to force them to operate under stress. The idea being if you can't function under stress in a controlled environment, then you won't perform under real stress in an uncontrolled one. And yes, drill instructors do go home with sore throats every day. And no, drill instructors are not actually angry all the time. It's just an act. In fact, they say things intentionally to make you break your ''military bearing'' (meaning trying to get you to break the professional manner in which you conduct yourself) and to make you laugh, which you're not supposed to do, at least at the beginning of boot camp, but the drill instructors DO lighten up a bit as training progresses. In our boot camp company, one guy's last name was ''Fu'' whom the drill instructor made a sort-of clever pun with his name. One time Fu made a mistake and the drill instructor told him ''if you mess up again, then F.U. Fu!'' All of us including Fu were cramping up so hard trying NOT to bust out laughing. And they want you to laugh, so that they could ''beat'' us for it (not literally but to beat us by making us perform endless exercises). Again, it's all just mind games. The opening 45-minute boot camp sequence is the most realistic portrayed on film. The only things that are not realistic about it is that the company of recruits in the movie only had ONE drill instructor. Every recruit company has multiple assigned to their company. My company had 4. Also, Gomer Pyle killing the drill instructor and then himself wouldn't happen. There is actually very strict accounting for ammunition during rifle training. You would never be able to sneak ammo off the gun range. And about punishing others to motivate one recruit. I'm not sure how much that still happens currently. When I was in boot camp, I was in a ''900 division''. 900 divisions would have to have to perform flawlessly in front of recruits' families at graduation-- drill teams (guys who twirl the rifles) etc. Kinda like military cheerleaders. These 900 divisions were made up of recruits who either had prior military service, who were involved in high school military programs like Junior ROTC, who were skilled musicians who then had to play at the graduation ceremonies, or they scored very highly on the military entrance exams (I was in the last category). I guess we were the ''Ivy League'' kids of military boot camp, so we didn't screw up very often nor had to be punished for one guy's mistake-- most in 900 divisions knew what they were doing most of the time (or if we didn't, we at least were smart enough to know how to fake it). VC means the Viet Cong, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (a communist organization) who fought under the direction of North Vietnam against the South Vietnamese. You were correct on both counts that the sniper at the end was both a kid and female. She was a teenage girl. Joker was not outta ammo at the end, his gun jammed. The automatic rifle he was using is the M16 which are prone to jamming, especially when they were first introduced during the Vietnam era. Every now and then in the film when the Marines are reloading, you see them tap a magazine (of fresh bullets) on their helmet before loading it into the weapon. What that does is, it forces the ammunition within the mag to slide to the fully aft (back) position. If the rounds are too forward in the magazine, they will jam up in the rifle while firing. Don't worry, the term Eskimo is not offensive. It's a term used to refer to two closely related Indigenous tribes of people: the Inuit and the Yupik of eastern Siberia and Alaska. The K-word that rhymes with ''LIKES'' is a slur for Jews. Greaser is a slur for Mexicans. WOP is a slur against Italians, it's incorrectly believed to have originated at Ellis Island (where immigrants were processed as they first entered America). WOP was believed to have stood for ''without papers'', implying that Italian immigrants entered the U.S. as undocumented immigrants. Apparently, it's not true but it's a widely believed myth. So, you mentioned Rambo a couple times, so you are aware of the Sylvester Stallone character in pop culture. You should react to Rambo: First Blood. Great film plus it's a very popular reaction. I actually watched ''Full Metal Jacket'' for the first time with a large group of people the night before we all shipped to boot camp. The day before you ship out, the US government puts you up in a hotel nearby the military processing station. There was about 20 of us and we watched a DVD of this movie in the hotel lobby or common room, whatever it was. We laughed our asses off at the first half, but at the same time, there was this pervasive thought of ''oh sh_t, is this what boot camp is gonna be like tomorrow?'' And yea, the film does a great job simulating the intensity of the experience. Boot camp in a weird way is kinda fun actually. The worst part about it is the 5-week flu you have during your stay. The same virus has been spreading from person to person at every branch's boot camp for literal decades now. And yea, you obviously know by now that FMJ is a critique of Vietnam, hence the over-the-top tone of the film. It's not like most war movies. There's no real plot or ''mission'' that needs to be accomplished. It's more of a psychological character study of the dehumanization effects that war can have on the human psyche-- as we see what happens to Gomer Pyle in basic training. And then later in the second half, we see how actual combat can turn men into sociopathic monsters, like Animal Mother. His character is basically the flip side of Gomer Pyle, the ''good'' and intended result of that training. Kubrick has made multiple films that have a rather critical look at war and at the military, including ''Paths of Glory'' and ''Dr. Strangelove''. They're older classics so they are more accessible and easier to watch, unlike FMJ which is rather cold and distant. And thanks again for reacting to this for me, Mare, even though it's certainly not a particularly enjoyable one.

Anonymous
>>105426721

The Marines don't work closely with the Navy. They are technically part of it and operate under the Department of the Navy (it's even printed on their official seal). But yea, they function as an independent branch, using Navy funding and resources of course.

Jeffrey Miller
>>105434394

You covered a lot of what I wanted to mention. My dad enlisted in the Army in 1981 and served 20 years. He basically said that yeah, the drill instructor was intimidating and used a lot of obscenities and insults. The DI was also a large black man and you can use your imagination of how that might have been incorporated when talking to recruits. My dad worked out big time before he joined up, and there was this thing near the end of basic where they'd talk to some recruits to get their opinion on the experience. Well my dad said that he was in better shape before he got to basic. The DI didn't like that and he wanted to make sure everyone was challenged physically the next day. He told everyone what had happened, but he didn't say it was my dad. Edit: Since my dad joined in '81 there were still some guys that served in Vietnam that made a career of the Army and my dad said they had some pretty interesting stories.

Jeffrey Miller

As some have talked about earlier, US Vietnam War movies are kind of their own sub-genre. Along with FMJ your big ones are 'Apocalypse Now' 'Platoon' 'The Deer Hunter' 'Born on the Fourth of July' and I'd throw in 'Hamburger Hill'. 'We Were Soldiers' in 2002 is a Vietnam War movie in so much that it's about the Vietnam War. Thematically and tone wise, it is far more like other war movies.

MattTheHazard

You are my favorite reactor because you are able to see both sides of the coin in many situations. It's a sign of strong empathy, being able to put yourself in other peoples situations and realizing the weight of the choices they face. There is a saying 'there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity' and you picked up on that when Animal was running into the sniper area to save the other soldiers.

Anonymous
>>105434394

''The DI was also a large black man and you can use your imagination of how that might have been incorporated when talking to recruits.'' My senior drill instructor was black. It didn't really play a factor or differentiate from the white drill instructors I had. Not sure what you mean exactly. Were the white recruits constantly called honky or peckerwood by the black DI or something? And yea, it is true about some recruits being in better shape before they went to basic training. The bigger guys tend to lose weight (muscle actually) while the smaller guys tended to gain weight during basic.

Don Mayhem

Another movie I'm shocked you watched. Mainly because of some scenes in the movie that came to mind like when they beat Private Pile with the soap. Vincent D'Onofrio, who played Private Pile, he was in Hawkeye as Wilson Fisk. A lot of the language in the movie is either very out dated and some just sounds like made up dialogue. There is a lot of discussions about why the U.S even went to war with Vietnam only to lose the war. Also different stories on soldiers who came home having a hard time finding a job and some burying themselves in drugs because of their PTSD. There are movies that show the horrors of war, but movies like this, showing the dark side of humanity that war brings out. The actor who played Private Joker, he was also in The Dark Knight Rises. Stanly Kubrick is a great inspirational filmmaker who is talked about by many actors and filmmakers.

Tyler Foster

I was not in any kind of military service, but while many people state that the first half of the movie is incredibly accurate, the actor who played the drill sergeant, R. Lee Ermey (who was, unsurprisingly, a real drill instructor before he became an actor) said the one thing that was totally unrealistic (or at least, totally wrong and not something that a good drill instructor should do, in his opinion) was that Sgt. Hartman used physical violence. The yelling and psychological cruelty was one thing, but actually hitting Pyle was another.

Eric
>>105418688

Yeah, I remember watching it when I was much younger and I really didn't clock how good it was. I watched it again relatively recently (it had been prob 10 years since I'd last watched it) and I was blown away by how good it is. The writing is so elegant; nothing is wasted, every line is inspired, every scene is important (and often funny). Fantastic performances, the way the toons interact with real objects is incredible, would be amazing were it made today much less, what, 40-some years ago? Re-evaluating it after the more recent rewatch, I'd put it in my top-10; it's up there with "The Princess Bride" in that it's such a perfect movie, I can't imagine anybody not liking it. Fun, funny, charming... I'm as confident as I can be that Mary would find it delightful.