Full Metal Jacket (1987) Movie Reaction & Commentary | FIRST TIME WATCHING
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.ค. 2024
- “This is my rifle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.” Today we are watching Full Metal Jacket (1987) for the first time. Full Metal Jacket is directed by Stanely Kubrick and stars R. Lee Ermey, Matthew Modine, and Vincent D’Onofrio.
Recruits prepare for the Vietnam War, but first they must suffer through the grueling training led by a foul-mouthed drill sergeant who wants to turn them into perfect killing machines.
Intro 0:00
Reaction 01:44
Final Thoughts 34:45
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Hi there! We're Eric and Sarah, a couple who is on an adventure to experience the wonderful world of cinema. Join us as we react to various genres of film for the first time. There will be plenty of laughs and definite tears, so we hope you tune in!
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I met Gunny about ten years ago. He couldn't have been more humble and kind to my wife and I. He was more interested in my military service than talking about himself. RIP Gunny.
2 million innocent Vietnamese died. RIP
@@penderyn8794 You done yet?
@@penderyn8794 All innocent clown please.
@@penderyn8794 does that include the south Vietnamese who were tortured and killed by the vietcong and the NVA? Or the millions of people persecuted after the end of the war??
@@penderyn8794 There were more victims, but the Vietnamese ...
Eric & Sarah, the boot camp seen was the closet to what actual Marine boot camp was like at that time. R Lee Ermey was an actual drill instructor. The Viet Nam war was a political war that you learn in time. I went to PI for boot training, served 1963-1967, Viet Nam, 66-67. My four brothers all joined the Corps after me, two of them was in country (Viet Nam) bro. Gary was wounded. Enjoyed watching this with you, was a long time before I was able to watch or talk about my experience of war, now at 77 y.o. I able to talk a little. Thank you, Ed.
@@rileyandmike Spot on, Ed.
Thank you for your service and thank your brothers, for theirs.
@@chrisdoyle5450 Much appreciated Chris and thank you, Ed.
@@edwardrmayer9807 thank you for your service.
@@Guildofarcanelore Appreciate you, Ed.
This was Vincent D'Onofrio's very first movie role. Talk about an actor's dream, your first role, and, you're working for Stanley Kubrick! Speaking of Kubrick, at this point in his legendary career, he didn't like to travel far from home for filming. As a result, this Vietnam war movie was filmed entirely in England. The "Hue City" battle scenes were filmed at a condemned gas works in London, that was slated for demolition. The palm trees were all trucked in.
Yes he was friends with Matthew Modine at he was a bouncer at a club in New York and Matthew told him about the part and that he should try for it!!!
I actually thought adventures in babysitting was his first movie because there are stories where he was really skinny in that movie and then it came time to do this movie and he gained so much weight to be the character in this movie. I could be wrong. I may need to go look that up.
@@shioriryukaze youre correct
Kubrick liked to use unknowns.
He was also in JFK! Him and lady playing his wife on top of their kids on the grassy knoll!
Drill instructors are mean because it's nothing compared what the enemy will do to you.
My late father graduated Army Boot Camp in 1952. He could describe his like it was yesterday.
step dad still think about the korean war daily, some stuff is hard to forget i guess.
@@jayizquierdo9534 Frozen Chosin. Sickening how that war is glossed over. Respect to your stepfather.
@@Anthony-kw4en My uncle would not sleep and sit alone in the living room with the lights off whispering to himself, reliving it nightly for 30+ years When he first came home he would run through our orchard screaming and running.
@@Anthony-kw4en 2 of my uncles was in the Marines n were both at the frozen chosen
army i don't think SO ! Paris Inland is one of a kind
Animal Mother is probably one of the best written characters in the movie imo. He's an obvious racist and asshole, yet didn't think twice about risking his own life to try and save 2 of his fellow soldiers, including 8-ball, a black man. Really shows how strong the brotherhood Marines share is.
Great point my friend.
Exactly. I remember in my platoon we had a mix of all types of guys from different backgrounds, ethnicity and parts of the country. We’d rip on each other that someone outside our platoon would see us as racists, homophobic, etc..but you know what anyone else outside our platoon tries to rip on one of us, you’re gonna have a problem with the rest of us. From 00-03 the platoon was basically my family. We’d tell the new guys, if guys aren’t ripping and roasting you, that’s when you should be worried cause they don’t like you.
USMC '91-2014. I remember swapping blades on a helicopter in '93 and being up there with a black guy, a Mexican, a guy named Fong, and a white guy with a swastika on his back and all were telling racial jokes and never once did the wrenches stop moving or anyone getting butthurt about anything. Best family I've ever had. After boot camp, everyone is one color: green.
Racist jokes are a ton of fun!
Racism was considered a "Real World" problem. If you went into the Marines with your clan hood out & proud you'd have at best two weeks before being thrown your own blanket party. A lot of Klanbakes went into the bush & most of them never came out - fragging is & remains a thing.
Every scene in this movie has a distinct meaning or message, influenced by a outstanding performance of acting, screenplay, and script. This use of sarcasm, satire, dark humor, and translation to combat and impact of war was genius.
The Drill Instructor actor, R Lee Ermey, was a Vietnam veteran, and also a Drill Instructor during the war. To give some context to the brutal training sequence of the movie: in an interview, Ermey mentioned that in 1966, the war really started to ramp up quickly. He said, the Corps, went from 13 weeks of training, with training platoons of 60+ recruits, to 8 weeks of training, and platoons of 120+ recruits. So, they had less time, spread between more recruits, to try and train these recruits to survive the combat zone they were almost guaranteed to be sent to. So, some D.I.'s would resort to physical and verbal intensity, to correct mistakes, because it was the quickest, surest way to ingrain the mistake and correct way into the recruits' memory. Mistakes get Marines killed, and under all the insults, screaming, and such... the D.I.'s care deeply about their recruits, and want them to have the skills needed to survive and come back home. After he was injured in Vietnam and medically retired, Ermey would read the Star & Stripes every single morning, looking for names in the obituaries, of Marines he trained. He said, every one he recognized in the list, hurt him deeply. It seems sadistic to an outsider, without the context.... but all this was done because they loved and cared deeply for these men they trained and sent off to war.
Harsh treatment saved lives. What todays world is lacking in a lot of ways.
@@kaibrand8015 Complacency kills.
A close family friend was in the marines and he said that is exactly what boot camp was like.
They beat you down until you don't have a shred of dignity left, amd then they build you back up the way they want you.
@@riffgroove I’m a GDubya era Marine and will say it was just like you described.
u can't kill with niceness 😔
The "accent" that Joker often uses while messing around is John Wayne. John Wayne was like their generation's Arnold Schwarzenegger - like bad ass actor playing bad ass roles with a distinct voice and/or accent. Everyone hearing Joker would've known it. Also, I can't believe how old I'm getting
Wayne was also a very macho, hawkish, pro-war guy who was very careful to weasel his way out of ever going to war himself, which I'm sure wasn't something that was lost on Kubrick
I can't believe how young they are getting
@@sabalos To be fair, Wayne was 34 at the time America entered WW2, thus exempt from the draft. He didn't really have to "weasel his way out" of serving, he simply didn't sign up and wasn't able to get drafted. Also republic studios was desperate not to lose him. They threatened to sue if he walked away from his contract to serve.
Could he have found a way to sign up? Sure, but he didn't do anything dirty or underhanded to avoid it.
@@TheStapleGunKid I don't know what the draft ages were throughout WWII, but in the case of Hollywood actors, the War Department made exceptions for "stars," as the idea was they could do more for the war effort by making training and propaganda films. An interesting insight, is that Wayne was very influenced by know and emulating Wyatt Earp in Los Angeles during the early part of his career. So what you see in John Wayne's acting is an imitation of Earp's personality.
@@Badco1948 Still a lot of famous hollywood stars did see combat. James Stewart was 33 at the start of the war, yet he not only signed up, but he managed to get an exception to the Army's age limit for aviation cadets in order to become a combat pilot.
War is HIGHLY psychological. The reason for such intense training was, as the Sergeant said, to prevent that moment of hesitation. Giving their body the muscle-memory of moving while under intense pressure from external stimuli (ie. While the Sergeant is screaming obscenities at them, which takes their mind away from their task)
There is an interesting bit of trivia behind the US military training its soldiers to kill. Before widespread industrialization, would-be soldiers grew up on farms where death was a common occurrence, and so during revolutionary and civil war periods, soldiers had no qualms taking another man's life. All a soldier needed to know was how to operate and aim a rifle, and so the practice targets during training were all round with a clearly marked "bull's eye" and a scoring system. After a soldier familiarized himself with a rifle it was just a matter of getting him to the battlefield and telling him who to kill. It all changed once people started moving into cities, and access to medicine improved. Suddenly, the combat performance of the American forces dropped dramatically. While the soldiers knew how to aim and operate a rifle, they were unwilling to take another life, and so, reportedly, over 90% of shots fired by American soldiers in WWI were deliberately meant to miss. As you might think, the Army didn't think this was acceptable, and so in the run-up to WWII they started to look for ways to improve the situation. What they tried next was targets that had portraits of real humans on them, but that didn't help. Soldiers reported their unwillingness to fire at targets that looked human, and so the accuracy during training fell to an all-time low, along with the morale and motivation of soldiers. Eventually, they settled on practice targets that were vaguely human-shaped, but had no discernible human features: no faces, no arms, and so on. This proved to be the sweet-spot. Both the accuracy during training and morale improved, along with the willingness of soldiers in real battle to pull the trigger when aiming at a real human. That's why to this day, the US Army trains its soldiers on so called "silhouettes", rather than round targets or human portraits. I think it's a good reminder of how systemically dehumanizing war is.
@@B3RyL like being a protester pays my rent, welcome to the dog eat dog world! Communism can't feed the poor!
@@surenotejas3163 Wut? I think you've replied to the wrong person.
He's a Gunnery Sergeant, not a Sergeant. Marines address each other by their proper rank
@@B3RyL I only wonder if you know so much on the history of the Polish Husaria, my Polish brother.
Private Joker , the main character , is Dr Brenner on "Stranger Things" , for younger viewers who may not know his career.
Gomer Pyle is also a very well known actor who has done a ton of excellent work. I loved him "Law & Order : Criminal Intent" . Brilliant performance.
Private Pyle's actor (Vincent D'Onofrio) is also the Kingpin in Daredevil and Hawkeye.
@@KthulhuXxx Yes , he is ! I haven't seen either film , but I'm sure he does a good job.
He was also the alien bug villain in Men In Black. A big alien bug wearing very small and uncomfortable human skin suit. Vincent D'Onofrio has a wide range of acting skills.
Ya know I just started watching Stranger Things and I knew that actor looked familiar, just could not place it for the life of me
Private Pyle has another famous role, he was Edgar in Men In Black
Fun Fact: The helicopter door gunner was originally cast as Drill Sgt Hartman. R Lee Emery was a military advisor originally on the film.
you guys outta do a reaction video about me! cuz i'm so fucking good!!
That IS true.
When he showing the original actor how to act the producers liked him so much they dropped the first and hired Ermy.
@@chiefsteps-in-poo8447 not exactly
@@mikewilder6390
That's what I heard. If not then enlighten me.
The head scene where Lawrence kills Hartman was a dream/nightmare sequence as it would be impossible for a recruit to smuggle ammo from the firing range. Originally, we would've seen a jump cut of Joker waking up in Viet Nam in a cold sweat but for some reason, Kubrick cut it in editing to make it appear as if it actually happened.
My father was a Marine drill instructor at San Diego in 1962-63 and said that was by far the most accurate and realist depiction of Marine Corps boot camp ever filmed.
I know they do it now but did they do pat downs after the range like they do now in the military my unit made us take off our boots untuck our shirts after removing our gear and tops
His tossing the footlocker brings me back...In basic my drill tossed our whole bay..We came back in from training one day and EVERYTHING was in one pile. Clothes, equipment, chairs, bunkbeds, everything. They gave us 10 mins to get everything back in perfect order...Which was impossible. They treat you this way to become unflappable in any situation. Those things stop effecting you and you can keep pushing forward and complete the mission regardless of what happens.
RIP R. Lee Erery. Hell of a guy.
I have a friend who was an Army ranger, and the moment at 27:59 always reminded me of something he would say a lot after being in combat: “Never pick up anything off of the ground.”
The "blanket party" scene was to either scare him into doing shit right or push him towards an FTA (Failure To Adapt), which would remove him from the platoon and he would be recycled. He would start all the training over with a new incoming platoon and everyone in that platoon would know he was a fuck up. He could also be Discharged.
It was also very painful. Those soap bars were hard as stone; he was basically being battered by flails. Wouldn't break any bones but would leave him quite bruised.
@@UnclePengy It would be easier to the lock on your footlocker in a sock.
@@secludedmisanthrope6388 That could leave marks, possible broken bones and be potentially deadly.
Apparently you've never felt the bars of soap handed out in boot camp, they hurt like hell and can do damage. If a person is receiving a blanket party in boot camp scaring, hurting and leaving marks on them is the point. He would need to be injured if getting him kicked out of the platoon was the intention, bumps and bruises aren't going to accomplish much.
There’s a process to these things. Blanket party (with soap) is intended to let the recipient know that all of his fellow boots have had enough…their shit bucket is full.
We threw a blanket party when I was in boot camp and the guy got the message.
But, if the blanket party is not successful, there is at least the threat of the NEXT step, which is a Lock and Sock…drop your paddock in your sock and do the same thing. There is lore of that in boot camp, I don’t know if there has ever actually been one, or if the mere threat of one renders the blanket party motivation enough.
I think one of the more demented parts of this movie is just dialogue. It's when the drill instructor asks them if they know who Charles Whitman and Lee Harvey Oswald were. Then he asks them if they know where those two learned to shoot. Then he proudly states it was in the Marine Corps. On one hand, those guys were murderers, so how can you be proud of that? On the other hand, it was some impressive shooting, so I can see why he'd be proud of that.
The cause isn’t the issue, the damn fine shooting.
In reality Lee Harvey Oswald was only an average shot!! He wasn't even up to Marksman level.
@@bernardsalvatore1929 true but you must admit shooting a moving target - let alone a headshot - a few hundred yards away is quite impressive.
Not condoning the man or honoring him in any way here folks. Just admiring the man's skill. Not the man himself.
Marksman is the lowest qualification for a USMarine. So Oswald had to be at least a marksman if he was a Marine.
@@marcogodinez8114 I remember that also every marine is a rifleman.
I worked with a guy for 9 years who was in the Vietnam war. This was in the early 2000's and he still had nightmares. He suffered from PTSD as well. He wouldn't talk about the war much except to say it was really bad. He showed me his legs once and it looked like he had cigarette burns all over them, he said it was from the leeches that got on you at night. I asked him if the US should have gotten involved there, he said he really didn't think about it, he just wanted to survive and come home. He passed away a couple of years ago. He was a good friend and I miss him.
I am a combat vetertan ( Vietnam ) You can not possibly know the good you have just done. Thank you for this and God bless you both
Welcome home.
Thank you dearly for your service, sir
@@revolvermoth Your very kind and God bless you
@@kriswelanetz9537 Thank you very much it means a lot
Thank for your service n welcome home 🇺🇸💪🏼
The singing while marching actually serves a purpose. It pretty much creates a consistent beat for them to consistently stay in rhythm with each other.
"The point" of the training is best explained with what the Drill Instructor said to Cowboy..."Are you shook up? Are you nervous? Do I make you nervous?"
After boot camp and SOI, you can perform any task with anything going on around you. Chaos indoctrination.
A year or so after I graduated boot camp, I was in the helo dunker and after it flipped over and filled with water, I had a moment of realization that this was one of the most dangerous situations I had been in but it was so peaceful and no one was in my face threatening death or bodily harm and all I had to do was get out and swim.
Marines pretty much get bored with "regular" and tend to gravitate to extreme sports and other dangerous activities.
The Marine Corps ruined roller coasters for me.
Semper FI
Y’all did good commentary for your first time watching. I think this movie requires more than one viewing to appreciate it.
You almost touched on the structure when you mentioned the movie had two halves. This is a two act play; three act plays are really the norm for most movies. In the three act, the third act is where the plot reaches an emotional climax and resolution. Whether the ending is happy or sad, the audience is invited to feel relief, to find some meaning, to experience catharsis.
There is no third act here by Kubrick’s intention. There is no expected resolution. Joker does not receive absolution or resolution for killing the girl (even if she was begging to be put out of her misery)-that’s going to stay with him for the rest of his (fictional) life. The movie ends with the platoon absurdly singing a childish song as they return to base, as Joker reflects on how he’s happy he survived.
Kubrick doesn’t offer us any meaning, because there is no meaning in this type of war. There’s no catharsis, just chaos. Kubrick wants us to feel unsettled. He’s hoping we will feel unfulfilled by the movie by denying us any emotional pay off.
Wonderfully said
True Joker is a fictional character, but he is partially based on the author of Dipatches, Micheal Herr, which formed a partial basis for the second half of FMJ. Herr was one of the screenwriters. It’s an excellent novel, if you can find it.
The song as meaningful. We all watched the Mickey Mouse club. It wasn't just the war that defined us it was all the experiences before it. The 1950s weren't exciting, they were hum drum. The excitement and destruction of WW2 demanded a peacetime of boredom and rebuilding. We wanted similar experiences. Mickey Mouse, Howdy DoodyTo, Hop Along Cassidy, Sky King and Roy Rogers. Who could represent boring better than President Eisenhower?
Vietnam was our next common experience both for those who avoided it and those of us who went. Attitudes were changed or developed. Polarization increased between the two groups. Mickey Mouse might be the only thing we held in common because of Vietnam.
@@ronbock8291 Outstanding book - he was also an advisor for apocalypse now
Hard to wrap my head around the fact that Pvt. Pile is Vincent D'Onofrio (the 'Men in Black' bug, and 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent'). He's a really great actor.
A Kubrick film everyone should see is Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb..(or simply, "Dr. Strangelove.")
God damn, Kubrick was a genius. This is a great film but you guys really need to explore his entire filmography, as it's one of the greatest and most iconic in cinema.
A great contrast to this film is Paths to Glory. Made by Kubrick in the early 50's with Kirk Douglas. Set in WWI France a very powerful anti war film.
@@AI_Image_Master Another of Kubricks anti-war films is "Dr Strangelove". Afaik, James Earl Jones' had his first film role in this film, and Peter Sellers pulled off three different characters as well. It's about one general ordering his bombers to attack Russia, and the desperate attempts to recall them to avert an all-out nuclear attack.
... oh, and it's a dark comedy as well.
2001's "The Dawn of Man".
It's not specifically mentioned anywhere I've seen, but I've heard the theory that Private Pyle might have been part of Project 100,000, which was an actual program run from the late 1960s thru early 70s. In a nutshell, it lowered some qualification standards for potential draftees in an effort to fill out the military ranks, allowing people like Pyle (or Forrest Gump, if you've watched that one yet) to be drafted despite having IQs low enough that they would have been disqualified from military service normally. The program was as much of a failure as you'd expect, as service members drafted under these new standards tended to suffer much higher casualty rates in combat.
Senior Drill Instructor Hartman (and any person in charge of training new military recruits) doesn't _hate_ any of them, as he explains in his own way early on. His job is to break each and every recruit down and then to rebuild them in the form the military needs. That requires some actions which seem cruel and heartless, until you've actually been through a basic military training program. No matter what those D.I.s do to you, it's never going to be as bad as what an enemy will try to do to you in combat. Given that Hartman _knew_ that nearly all of his recruits would be sent directly into combat when he was done with them, he was motivated to do everything he could to enable them to survive it. That includes his change of tactics, when he starts punishing the whole platoon for Pyle's mistakes--if one Marine screws up in combat, the entire unit is likely to suffer the consequences. So it becomes crucial that not only does each individual perform to standard, but that everybody else constantly watches out for each other and picks up the slack when needed.
It's also come to be called McNamara's Morons. And yeah, having low IQ individuals is a massive liability and leads to catastrophic failure most of the time.
The military will still make some concessions for low IQ individuals but only when they are so desperate to meet their recruitment quota. Everyone is required to take a test to measure their cognitive abilities that's called the ASVAB (the. ame may have changed since I enlisted nearly 20 years ago but the test is the same). Recruiters are allowed very few of what's called ASVAB waivers, a waiver granted for someone that just barely fell short of passing the test by a few points. And I mean very few, like maybe two waivers per recruit station per year and they hate even doing that because it reflects poorly on that recruiting station overall.
It doesn't seem bad to to most to allow someone that failed a test by two or three points a pass but it really is a massive difference. The military has one of the best, most thoroughly created test to measure intelligence that if a person fails it they are essentially borderline retarded, like toy said Forrest Gump level of intelligence.
There was an ASVAB waiver recruit in my platoon when I went to Boot Camp and he struggled like what toy see in this movie. He was a kind hearted guy that otherwise you wouldn't mind having a loose friendship with but the Marine Corps has a purpose and he really shouldn't have been there. Luckily he didn't reach the level of McNamara's Morons as in one incidence they started to toss around a live grenade as if it were a baseball, somehow pulled the pin and ended up blowing a few men up in there own camp.
It was true. Johnson wanted it. Men in the field and all.
Very well said, it wasn't personal, the DI's had a job to do, turn kids into Marines.
"You might not believe it but under fire Animal Mother is one of the finest being that ever walk this earth. All he needs is someone to throw a hand grenade at him for the rest of his life."
My grandad was a corpsman/medic in the Military before he retired. He later became a nurse at a General Hospital in my city. Doctors have said how he was never phased at anything he saw in the hospital. However I saw myself how maladjusted he was at home. Long sleepless nights, tossing and turning in bed from the nightmares, and he would smoke 2-3 packs a day as he said it helped him calm his nerves.
I salute your Grandfather, we Marines love our Navy Corpsman (unsung heroes) and no one can fu#k with our corpsman, they patch us up in the middle of a firefight and will fight their asses off when necessary, we rely on "Doc" many things. Semper-Fi Doc.
The problem wasn't just that Americans were being racist toward the enemy, it's that they were racist and arrogant to ALL Vietnamese.
Love the reaction guys!
I love that former Marine DI Lee Ermey was hired as a technical consultant and convinced Kubrick to put him in the movie as the DI. No oscar winning actor could have ever been more authentic than a real DI. The actor originally hired as Hartmann ended up being the crazy door gunner. One of the best war movies ever made, great cast, Kubrick was an artist.
Ironically, he coached Louis Gossett Jr in his role as a drill instructor in "An Officer And a Gentleman", which won Gossett an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Along with Platoon and Apocalypse Now, one of the best films about that war with all of its complications. For filmmaking it is hard to beat Apocalypse.
"Apocalypse Now" is the only movie that outKubricks Kubrick.
what were your thoughts on 1917?
Platoon is great. I prefer it over FMJ and apocalypse now. But they all deserve a reaction
back then when hollywood allowed movies that were pro/con for military.
the boys in company c is another r lee ermey vietnam film also
Yeah... R. Lee Ermey was a real drill instructor (retired at this time).The actors weren't taking the original drill instructor (chopper gunner) seriously enough. So Ermey showed up one day in his Marine uniform and got in their face for real. He scared the shit out of them. Ermey was promoted from consultant to Sgt Hartman. R. Lee Ermey was actually a very nice guy in real life. But once that uniform goes on the first and last word out of your filthy sewers better be SIR! There are many interviews with Ermey to watch. When he passed away he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was given a military funeral with full colors and a 21 gun salute.
As a former Marine, '05 to '13 I watched this with my dad much earlier when he had just retired from the Marine Corps after 20 years. Other than the shooting of Drill instructor Hartman, he thought the film was pretty damn close to the real thing.
I was puzzled by the shooting as well. Where did "Pyle" manage to get the 7.62 Ammo? Did the Marine Corps issue a rifle to recruits that were operable? I ask because When I was in the Navy Boot Camp we had inoperable 1903 Springfield rifles. It was 1971 and I think all the services had gone with the M16 by then. I don't know what they did with all the M14 rifles after they were collected.
I was a Seabee and the battalions issued firearms and accessories to us. Construction Electricians were Bravo Company and were issued the M16 with some also getting an M79 Grenade Launcher.
A serious error in this movie. The officer is wearing chromed collar insignia. The Officers and Petty officers wore blackened devices. There was no saluting on the chance that it would identify officers from enlisted.
@@robertcuminale1212 yes they are issued operable rifles. They are not issued ammo though. He wouldve have to had somehow snuck rounds here and there from the range. That is the unrealistic part...getting the rounds without them noticing. But it wasnt 100% fallacy, as there were the occasional suicide by boots back then. Not common, but happened a few times
@@robertcuminale1212 Relax, it was a movie. Liberties were taken to enhance the impact. Gunny Ermey was ok with it, so I was too. My boot was damn close to this except for the DI striking a recruit and of course a recruit having access to a rifle and ammo after the days training.
@@robertcuminale1212 Was in the army at this time, and in fact, we had a trainee in our AIT company snag a round from the range and off himself in the barracks with his M14 while the rest of us were out in the field. Like these Marines, we had access to our (definitely working) rifles quite a lot of the time. And unlike most Marines (although, they actually did have some draftees at the height of the war), the army was a draftee force of many reluctant participants. A very few got suicidally depressed in training.
"A rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills."
Prescient words, given the latest rash of mass killings as of late.
correct, but you kill alot more people with an ar than you can with a spoon.
sort the culture and mental health out and people wont want to murder kids
But without rifles, or automatic weapons hard hearts cannot perpetrate mass killings. Flood the country with weapons and there will be enough hard hearts to perpetrate substantive mass killings. With a knife it would be much more difficult.
Those who want to ban guns are not really against them. They just don't want patriotic Americans to have them. They want the guns in the hands of the state, to enforce state tyranny and bring about the Great Reset.
@@thinkforyourself2109 your comment is the rest of the world knows America is insane
@@eatthisvr6 I guess you'd rather have the world run by Chinese Communists, with their torture and gulags and slavery. Because without the USA that will happen. The CCP stated their goal of world domination by 2049. They're using "useful idiots" in the West to accomplish that. Communists and Nazis love banning guns so they can have authoritarian control over people and destroy their lives.
This is a difficult movie to watch, but a very important one. This movie is about juxtaposing narrative vs reality; training vs war; humor and horror. Joker had it right, it's about the duality of man. Like the soldiers in this war, there is the version of yourself that existed before seeing this, and the version that exists now. Take time to digest it.
@Fransico Buttersworth I could list a bunch of keywords but they would probably catch the TH-cam automod's attention and get my comment deleted.
Instead, I will ask if you consider yourself a particularly empathetic person.
Either way, the looks of shock, horror, and wincing on the part of reactors should show that it was a difficult watch for them too.
A part of me envy's you for being so innocent watching this classic movie that accurately represented a time in American history then, and somewhat the present.
Apocalypse Now is probably the best Vietnam War anti-war movie ever made. Keep in mind, the Vietnam War was a long, bitter conflict that bitterly divided the country (ask your parents or grandparents). I would also suggest "Platoon." Another very powerful Vietnam War movie. Thank you for sharing. Love your reactions.
the deer hunter,coming home,and casualties of war also.
The country being divided is kind of an odd thing. You look back at media now and the news at that time, we were divided. Looking back at everyone I knew and talked to coming from a conservative part of the country, 100% of them supported the soldiers and vets.
@@orgasmatronrickpsych
Don't forget Hamburger Hill, and a forgotten movie called Platoon Leader.
The boot camp scenes were very much like how it really was when I went through in 1963, except it lasted 14 weeks and was followed with a month of infantry training for all new Marines. The Army has Drill Seargents, we Marines have Drill Instructors.
the Vietnam war was on TV every night. it was the major news story of the day for years. lots of civilian camera crews on the ground.
Many of the Vietnam scenes (the door gunner mowing down civilians, the peace sign/born to kill, the city fighting scenes based on the battle of Hue, etc) are things that really happened. Read the book "Dispatches", by Michael Herr. He was a war correspondent who often attached to Marine units in Vietnam, and the book is true stories from his time there. He is also the screenwriter for Full Metal Jacket, and injected these real experiences into the movie. Yes... that troubled door gunner was a real Marine.
A Co 1/2 2nd Marines 87-91. The drill instructor is trying to help them. Basic stuff like right shoulder arms or keeping up is nothing compared to having to assault fortified positions or running into an ambush to save a dying friend.
BTW he didn't shoot the Drill Instructor. That was a dream.
Both my dad & brother went through Marine boot camp so I've heard all the boot camp stories. I know my brother hated fire watch duty. They included a miniature movie poster with the VHS tape of this movie, one of the few I bought instead of renting back in the day.
I watched this movie with my dad when I was about 8 years old, and I haven't had a jelly donut since.
I really liked and appreciated this reaction because it left both of you vulnerable. War and killing are two of the most controversial things on this earth. It's even more difficult when responding to those themes. When you are able to capture vulnerability, tension, response and reaction naturally it makes not only for a great film, but a great watch. A reaction should only overpower a great movie if the reaction is one of emotional gravity and greatness. Otherwise the movie should take precedence. This was an example of the latter. I was able to enjoy this movie as though it was my first time with two people who saw it for the first time in awe.
Only good communist is a dead communist. Not that hard to understand or contemplate
I think your commentary was really good. This is an unsettling movie to watch but it's also one of the best war films ever. R. Lee Emery was phenomenal as the very strict and psychotic drill sergeant. 😊
My father told me his time in the marine core during vietnam was "dehumanizing". That being said he qualified as an expert marksman in the United States marine core.
It's actually spelled CORPS, but it sounds like CORE.
In the book that the movie is based on (The Short-Timers), Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (different name in the book) says he's proud of Pvt. Pyle right before Pvt. Pyle shoots him.
Ooh, I like that.
SHAZAM!
Thanks for taking this one on. It's not an easy film to watch, especially when you're coming to it with no real frame of reference. I enlisted at seventeen and went through USMC boot camp just after the Vietnam war ended, and it was pretty much the way this showed it. R. Lee Ermey, as was only befitting his actually having been a drill instructor, gave the best portrayal of that role in any film I've ever seen.
I ended up serving for twenty years, including serving as a DI myself, became an officer, and retired as a captain in 1996 after commanding a field telecommunications company of about 200 Marines.
On the one hand, I had nightmares for twenty years - on the other, I still miss the closeness and the camaraderie, the dark humor. I've had a good life including a rewarding second career as a psychotherapist since I took off the uniform (I'm all the way retired now), but being a Marine still comes after only being a husband, father, and grandfather as cornerstone of my identity and sense of self.
It changed me, not in boot camp so much as the first time I had to put a dead Marine in a body bag, and then via the subculture in which I found myself throughout my service, especially during my first enlistment in the infantry. When I was in grad school and wrapping up my M.A. in counseling psych, we had a professor for a course in cross-cultural counseling, a very small, very opinionated Aussie expat. He began on day 1 by telling us that since we were in California we would have a lot of clients from countries in eastern Asia. He said we would never be able to really understand them, because they came from collectivist cultures, in which the individual is subordinated to the whole, while we, as Americans, had spent our lives in the most individualistic society on earth - we would never understand a collectivist outlook except in the abstract.
We had to write a major paper for that course, so the thesis I chose was the argument that although I had indeed spent my first seventeen years as a typical American, I had spent the twenty years since then embedded in the subculture of the Marine Corps, one of the most collectivist environments around, and I was more at home in a collectivist setting than in an individualistic one.
He gave me an A and said I had made him aware of some things he'd never thought about.
As I said, it's still who and what I am, and I still miss it. Even so, although military service has been a tradition for men in my family, I'm glad that my son, my daughter, and now my grandson have not chosen to go into the military. I think the two generations before mine, and the unanimous service of my generation (three of us, and both my brothers followed me into the Marine Corps, both also at seventeen), has my family's dues covered for a while yet.
Semper Fidelis, and thanks again.
Jim Finley
Captain, USMC, retired
The expressions at the viewing of a " blanket party " are priceless . Non veterans cant believe it but it happens ! I saw it done twice with boots instead of soap !
the door gunner was the one originally cast as the drill sergeant but Lee Emery was the movies marine consultant on the film and he worked his way into the roll of Gunny Hartman
In an interview Tim Colceri the door gunner still believes that he could have performed the part better than R Lee Ermey. The guy is still pissed . Talk about being delusional.
this is such a classic war film. I've served in the military before and its pretty tame compared to how it used to be back then, mostly cause they stop the leaders from striking the recruits. In the end the insults are necessary for when you join the military as you can more than likely encounter folks who will insult you however possible to throw you off your game. with the insults it turns them into nothing more but regular words that wont distract from your mission. if personnel get bothered by insults they cant maintain self control even in stressful situations. this is all nothing more but to train a person to have as much self discipline as possible in whatever stressful situation they have to deal with.
The entire movie was filmed in England. The final scene was shot in the east end of London. Some of the buildings were already partially demolished.
When watching Vietnam movies you gotta remember that a full third of those guys were drafted so the outlook/view between soldiers could vary widely.
I saw this the night I graduated from Marine Corps boot camp in 87.
This is the most accurate portrayal of boot camp life I have ever seen.
Boot camp for me in the service is a very proud and cherished memory of mine. As a young man, I discovered true discipline, purpose, and a sense of pride only few get the chance to experience.
Embracing new and difficult experiences EVERYONE has to endure truly brings peace to the soul.
Gunny Ermey (the man who played GSgt Hartman) was a gem of a man. A gentleman, a warrior. he was a wayward youth and after getting arrested for the 2nd time the judge gave him a choice, military service or jail. He enlisted in the US Marine Corps, and found his purpose in life, went to Vietnam, got injured in combat then he became a real life Drill Instructor at Marine Corps recruit depot San Diego.
after retirement he was promoted to Gunnery Sgt by the Commandant of the Marine Corps himself (1 of three marines to ever be promoted post retirement). after that he started his hollywood career and in many ways become the face of the Marine Corps. Alot of us when we think of a Marine we think of Gunny Ermey.
He was wearing his real uniform in the movie, that wasn't a costume.
RIP warrior
Vincent D'Onofrio' set a record. He put on 60 lbs for that role after his acting school buddy Modine suggested he auditioned.
Yeah, I saw a video of him saying he showed up 30 or so pounds overweight and Kubrick said he needs to put on more weight because he just looks like he can kick everyone's ass. The reactors need to watch Adventures in Babysitting, they wouldn't recognize him.
The "accent" being used by Joker is his imitation of John Wayne.
I just want to say that as a first time viewer of your channel and content, I appreciate the fact that you're admitting that you don't really know much about the history of the Vietnam War. I'm only a minute and 40 in, and I already like you guys. You decided not to go in blind and made the effort to learn something first. That's respectable. My father was a Vietnam veteran, and did four tours there. 2 in the Navy, 2 in the Army. He NEVER talked about it, and when I asked, he told me that he hoped that I'd never have to go through anything like it. I hope my children never have to either.
I met Gunny at SAC museum years ago. Coolest nicest dude ever. He had a tv show called Mail Call. He answered one of my questions about grenades on the show hearing NAME from SO and SO asks blah blah. I couldn't have been more happy. Love that show on the history channel till this day. He was also a real life drill instructor. Animal Mother (the guy shooting civilians in the rice pattys farming) was meant to be cast as the drill instructor but Stanley was convinced by Gunny to let him play the part since he used to do that IRL.
edit: Watch Saving Private Ryan if you havnt seen it before
The opening scene will never not be amazing no matter how many times I watch this movie. Also I feel like the reason they did "mickey mouse" at the end of the movie is to highlight the fact that most of these soldiers are actually kids after all. 18 year old kids fighting old powerful mens wars.
That's about how it was. I served 20 years in the Marine Corps and two combat tours in Vietnam. The first tour as a machine gunner (0331) in 1965-66 and the second as a Platoon commander (0369) in 1970-71. I retired after 20 years and had a 30 year career as a California police officer ( Marin County). What I learned in the Marine Corps has helped me all my life. I highly recommend it to anyone needing direction and wishing to learn self discipline .
Tom Boyte
GySgt. USMC, retired
Bronze Star, Purple Heart
Thank you for your service sir
You sure you got that right? You were a Platoon Commander? Not a Platoon Sergeant? An enlisted Platoon Commander?
I stood on the yellow footprints in the summer of 89. Man, it was one hot summer. But out of 89 of us who began in our platoon. 45 remained by the time graduation took place in August. It's just about keeping your head in spite of the physical and mental stress. And that's why recruit training in the Corps is so difficult. They're preparing you for the worst.
What a viewer now might not appreciate is that when this came out it was unique in many ways. Now war movies like it are more common, thanks to this movie paving the way.
I watched this movie after I signed up for the Marines. Guess what my occupational specialty was...
Journalism. It wasn't 4212 anymore and it wasn't called basic military journalism anymore. It was 4341 - Combat Correspondent.
R Lee Emery was a real Drill Sergeant(retired).He was also a Vietnam vet.Before he passed,he was hosting a show on The military channel.He would occasionally talk about his experiences in the Vietnam war and he went back to Vietnam and when he was filmed,he got emotional.
Give the man his due gunnery sergeant
*Drill Instructor
Drill Sergeant is the army. Marines get pretty serious about describing their stuff correctly. Also, being compared as similar to other branches is one of the biggest insults.
R Lee Ermey was an actual drill instructor based at San Diego, who later served in the Vietnam War. The insults he used were based on things he had heard from other drill instructors, as well as what he knew himself. He would write down pages of script, have it typed up, and between Kubrick and himself they would tease out the juiciest lines to use in the film. Ermey too really did not have a script. Kubrick gave him full range to just be a drill instructor, and he really did pull out all the stops. RIP Gunny.
Ronald Lee Ermey was only there to advise but the director decided to use the real deal instead.
So Ronald became Gunnery Sergeant Hartman and history was made.
Sadly Ronald passed on to the Warfield above on April 15, 2018
Vincent D'onofrio was brilliant in this movie. Absolutely brilliant
Boot camp is about learning to follow orders when given. Failure to do so could be fatal. Boot camp is also about attention to detail. Boot camp is about teamwork and learning to build comraderie. Its about the beginning of being part of a brotherhood. I may have served in the navy only 6 years, but those years have had significant impact on my life. As more of my navy and marine buddies that pass away, the more I miss the brotherhood that we had. Boot is also about weeding out those that don't belong in the military that made it through the cracks in the recruiting process.
I went through Marine Corps Recruit Training in San Diego, California. While not as intense as this, my training still prepared me for many different situations. R. Lee Ermey actually served as a Marine Corps Drill Instructor during Vietnam and ad-libbed much of his dialogue. The United States Marine Corps is a warrior culture that exemplifies order and discipline
To add context to the scene in the helicopter, they were flying over what is called a free fire zone. The normal rules of engagement don't apply. You can fire at anyone in that zone for any reason. The idea is that there are so many enemies in that zone. All the civilians are supposed to leave that area. The problem is that they don't always know they're supposed to leave, or they just don't, because they're homes, families, and means of making a living are there.
If you want another film about the Vietnam War (or at least set in it), there is Apocalypse Now.
My favorite example of Marine humor is when the ask the helicopter gunner how he can kill women and children and he responds “easy. You just don’t lead them as much”. “Leading”is shooting where your moving target will be when the bullet gets there instead of shooting where your target is at. So the joke is funny because his answer is not about morals but about physics.
My dad doesn't talk about Vietnam. My mom says he sometimes wakes up at night hearing helicopters.
There is an adage "the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat"!
a ferocious criticism of the uselessness of war, by Stanley Kubrick. in the same vein, I always recommend Kubrick's "Paths of Glory", 1957, on the soldiers sent to the massacre, in the First World War. with Kirk Douglas, nominated for various Oscars.
My first one of your reactions, and it’s a good one. At least in this example, I really enjoyed your presentation and editing choices. As a longtime fan of Kubrick’s work, I hope you continue. But there really aren’t that many. I look forward to watching more of your reactions, regardless of specific directors.
Thanks David, we appreciate it :)
23:38 Joker is doing his impression of John Wayne. He does it throughout the movie. Earlier in the movie, Sgt Hartman slugs him in the stomach and gives him the name 'Joker' after he smarts off saying 'Is this you John Wayne, is this me?' 2:41
To prevent telling a long story, those bootcamp scenes are spot on, the blanket party was a real event, and the drill instructors exact! If anything it was a pleasant watered down version of them. USMC 1975-79
There’s a lot going on in this movie, thematically, some of the sequences can be viewed as dream sequences, metaphors…particularly with how similar in character animal mother is to Pyle…Pyle born again hard after killing off his softer side. The sniper sequence too was deliberately dreamlike because it ties in to the previous scenes where the marines are haggling over the prostitute, how they act around the shot girl can be seen as a distorted version of what they did to the prostitute. You noticed the huge amount of sexual dialogue..Kubrick was concerned by the mixing of sex and violence and conquering being indoctrinated into the recruits. Pyle’s character was also a jab at how the US drafted people with mental issues, developmental challenges, and the abuse they received in training, when they were clearly not suited to being soldiers.
As an aside it might be worth rewatching the Shining..and Kubrick’s other movies, as from 2001 a space Odyssey onwards , all his films have layered narratives with a surface storyline and secondary narratives when you follow certain contextual cues, ambiguities in line delivery (like "inside every g**k is an American trying to get out" - either the Vietcong don’t realise they’re American inside…or they see damn well what America has to offer and they want out of it fast), background imagery and repeated compositions to tie sequences together…sort of puzzle cinema. The shining..for the secondary story, there’s nothing supernatural happening at all, just damaged people having their inner psyche appear as terrifying or alluring hallucinations….and Jack did things to Danny
@4:15 singing cadence also helps you breath well while running
The soap/towel beat down scene is called a "blanket party" in boot camp. It's where the company "fixes" things internally. It's hazing on a whole higher level. And that was in '91. Can't imagine how things went down in the late '60s
Every movie fan is obligated to view the entire Kubrick catalogue. Every movie is epically unique and incredible in its own way.
Kubrick is a master genius. The last third of the movie when they're walking through the destroyed city is actually a studio set built in London. All of the buildings were set and destroyed on purpose and set on fire to make it look like a war zone. What an epic set design and vision by amazing director.
No other war film explored the mental madness, other than the emotional aspect, that contributes to PTSD of veterans.
Apocalypse Now??
Casualties Of War certainly did - a criminally underrated film.
@@redddawggg Apocalypse Now explored the madness of war, but it’s so big and mythical that it’s too big to focus on PTSD. FMJ isn’t so much exploring it as showing us the experiences that cause it without giving us a phony resolution. Joker kills a girl. He’s going to have that forever, an unresolved issue, and no amount of jokes or black humor will create a space between him and the act he committed. He’s happy to be alive in a world of shit and that is it, end of story, movie over. There’s no real resolution, no third act.
Subscribed! Great reaction, looking forward to whatever else you guys are watching.
The making of the movie documentary really shows you the Kubrick style.
My dad took our family to the movies to see this when it came out when I was in the 4th grade. He was a Vietnam veteran who was there the same time as this movie portrays. He was in the army and not the marine corps, but he said the boot camp part is pretty much just like it was in real life. The Vietnam part however, he said was nothing like his time there. Most Vietnam war movies are more political statements than actually being very accurate. The movie We Were Soldiers is the most accurate to my father’s experience there, along with some some of Hamburger Hill. The rest, according to him are “just a bunch of Hollywood bullshit” lol
that was a unique thing about Vietnam; every unit stationed in different areas of Vietnam, and even in different years, experienced different, unique wars of their own. Up near the DMZ, they faced artillery. In Hue City, they faced WW2-esque urban combat, in the jungles they faced ambushes, booby traps, and close battle in small units, etc etc.
I don't know about now, but the beating Pyle got was fairly common when I went through Boot (and before my time). We called it "Rack Recon." You've got to look at training as you do combat. Those who continue to mess up or act out in Boot will be the same ones who do the same thing in the Field, when Deployed or when in Combat and that can and has cost lives. We had a gut in Boot Camp that goofed off and acted up a lot. We conducted Rack Recon on Whitaker. It works, but at times, it can go south. In our situation, it worked well for Whitaker and he did a 180 and became a good Marine.
MCRD San Diego - C Co. Plt. 1033 (1992)
When I was at Great Lakes for the NAVY in 97 and they took our bars of soap away from us. We had to use Prell shampoo and our hands as a wash cloth. they also took away our Qtips
A kid I knew in high school signed up around 83 or 84, and he was a fuckup and non-hacker. He washed out, but he took a lot of shit and a few beatings before he was separated. Maybe it was different during the draft. The rough idea I got is that the DIs took an immediate dislike to my acquaintance, and “convinced” him to quit before he got too far into basic.
@@dirtysmity Why the Qtips?
@@MarcosElMalo2 Because you can cause yourself serious harm if you decide to stuff that thing all the way in your ear and can even cause death in some instances.
I love your channel! You have a great selection of classics even if you just started! Keep uploading reaction videos!
Thanks so much-we appreciate it! :)
The Tet Offensive was an offensive launched by the Vietnamese during the Ceasefire during their Lunar New Year. It was like the Trojan Horse if it got a shitload of Americans killed.
As a Marine Veteran, I hope it gives you a real appreciation for those of us that serve.
IF THAT SUMBITCH STANLEY KUBRICK WAS A BADASS GENIUS GIMME A HELL YEAH!
HELL YEAH! 💀
From what I recall, Ermey was a consultant on the set originally, but when Kubrick heard him shouting at the people he was instructing, showing them how they should do it, Kubrick was like "hell, why don't I just hire Ermey instead?" I believe most of Ermey's drill instructor scenes were improvised. Kubrick basically said, "this is what we want happening in the scene" and just let Ermey just run with it.
This particular movie has stirred so many more thoughts in my mind as an adult than it did when I was in high school:
I have a great uncle that was Army Special Forces that was killed in Vietnam before my dad was even born, and he was in Vietnam before "we" were "in Vietnam." I also have at the very least one blood relative on the same side that was SF through the late 80's and all the way up to about 2010. I live in the Houston-ish area, and many Vietnamese people live around here. I worked at a car dealership for a couple of years driving people that dropped their car off for service and came in contact with several Vietnamese business owners that, for the longest time, I just thought were just loud and obnoxious and demanding. After driving many of them around and simply talking to them, I came to realize that they're a unique and friendly people with a fairly unique language to the western ear. I'd talk to them, they'd tell me their family history, and I'd tell them mine. My family history is deep-rooted in the military, so, in talking about their homeland, the topic of the US military came up. Every single individual with a Vietnamese background that I talked to on that job was extremely grateful for my family's sacrifice, which allowed them to come to the US and forge their own path through their lives on this planet. The whole "Vietnam Situation" is a weird one. Now, by chance, I'm dating an old college friend who was adopted out of Vietnam, and we're working on plans to get her mom, twin brother, and nieces to the US. As a side note, though, the "sniper" that was described in this video as "looking 14" looks how my current girlfriend did not long into our friendship. Now, I take her out to eat, and there's a lot of debate when she wants to order a beer or margarita. Shit gets weird, and this movie provokes many thoughts, so my apologies.
Definitely one of my favourite war movies. Only behind Thin Red Line.
That very last scene gets more and more disturbing each time I watch it. The soldiers cheerily chanting the old Mickey Mouse Club theme, evoking what is essentially a symbol of childish idealism, and a symbol of American success... it's a song that would typically be sung by children, but here it's sung by a swarm of black silhouettes marching past all the carnage and the hellfire they're leaving in their wake...
I actually sang it as a kid and sometimes randomly now because of full metal jacket. One of my favorite movies as a kid. Totally relate to Animal Mother.
Full Metal Jacket is based on the novel The ShortTimers which is based on the authors time in the marines and Vietnam. In the book the drill instructors name was Gunnery Sgt. Gearhardt not Hartman and the character Leonard Lawrence(Gomer Pyle) after he snapped killed the drill instructor in front of the entire platoon not in the bathroom like in the movie. Also after Leonard shot Gearhardt in the book the DI's final words to him were I'm proud of you. The author wrote a follow up called The Phantom Blooper.
These guys were drafted. The way it went was out of four men, three went to the Army and one to the Marines.
Also, the use of lighting as well as camera movement/placement in this is indescribably perfect.