Posted on 10/02/2016 8:24:38 AM PDT by NFHale
The Actors, including R. Lee. Ermy, talking about the making of Full Metal Jacket and working with Stanley Kubrick.
The door gunner on the Huey was supposed to be the original Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann... then REAL Drill Instructor Ermy came along, and the rest is history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRkyKYz5SYM
Ping.. Check this Youtube clip out.
If the measure of the greatness of a movie is remembering much of it as the years pass then Full Metal Jacket is one of the greatest movies ever.
I have a relative who was in the marines during that time. He said the portrayal of boot camp was accurate.
Certainly a well done film, for sure.
Always wondered what Vietnam combat vets thought of it. That’s the real measure of it, the only yardstick worth measuring. They lived through it.
Much in the same fashion as “Saving Private Ryan” and the Omaha beach landing, and those gentlemen that lived through that.
My uncles were WWII Pacific Marines. I’m pretty sure they’d have said similar.
I noticed one thing about Kubrick’s movies a long time ago. Many scenes really stick in your consciousness.
Kubrick’s goal was to show innocent boys being turned into killers. Vietnam was merely the stage.
Me too.
My uncle was in the Marine Corp during Vietnam.
He said the bootcamp scenes were accurate. He personally got beat down by his drill instructor. Said it made him a better man.
“...The whole movie looks like every stereotype, myth and legend of Vietnam combined ...”
RE Door Gunner: Agreed. I found it kind of outside the realm of believability too. But people anywhere and everywhere can and have done savage things.
That guy that played the door gunner was actually SUPPOSED to be the original Drill Instructor, until Kubrick met R. Lee Ermy, who was the real deal. Discusses that in the Youtube clip.
I understand and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie except for the door gunner scene which I found jarring, horrific and unrealistic. Even the stereotypes were ok and fun. I just think that part was over the top and should be noted as a part of Hollywood anti-veteran propaganda.
My buddy served in the marines during somalia. He was in that shithole country and from his stories, the gunner mowing down civies in Vietnam is totally believable. Like the gunner says “aint war hell?”
For those who haven’t seen this; the making of “We Were Soldiers” by Joe Galloway and Gen. Hal Moore:
Joe Galloway was from my hometown in Texas. Joe and I have talked about making the movie “We Were Soldiers.”
I highly recommend signing up for the daily email from the website https://warhistoryonline.com which is at the link above. Their stories and videos are awesome for those who love military history.
That is one of the most amazing films I’ve seen. Gibson was great.
The book is Essential Reading Material, IMHO.
“The helicopter door gunner in the movie just mows down civilians like there’s no tomorrow.”
Ah, exactly where my tag line came from.
When shooting at people farming the rice patties the reporter leans over and asks the door gunner how he could shoot women and children?
His reply, “It’s easy, you just don’t lead em as much”
Still makes me giggle everytime I think about it.
“...jarring, horrific...”
I think that that is exactly the emotion Kubrick was trying to invoke.
But there has been savagery in every war, in all times, not just Vietnam, by ALL peoples.
There’s a famous WWII picture, published in LIFE magazine; it’s a decapitated Japanese soldier’s head, staked onto the front of a disabled Jap light tank, on Guadalcanal.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/be/1c/16/be1c16223db1b30be7226f53de5d2217.jpg
Dont look if you are easily disturbed. I never forgot that photo after the first time I’d seen it.
Some 19 year old American kid, who’d just seen his people - his buddies - killed, spiked that head there.
But that’s war. It’s horrible, and passions/emotions override a lifetime of conscience sometimes. You watch your friends get killed, and you want revenge, so things happen.
One of my uncles was almost killed in the Pacific. He made it through 7 amphibious landings before getting badly wounded on Okinawa, midway through that months-long slugfest. He HATED the Japanese until the day he died. He was pinned under an overturned jeep, and a Japanese patrol bayonetted him, laughing about it. He lived, but barely so.
It is what is, and those of us not there, not living moment to moment in a vicious, horrifying environment, can’t judge what those who ARE or have been there do/did.
There is a difference between wanton barbarity - such as what the Japanese did to our men on the Bataan Death March, or in Nanking with the Beheading Contests, or the SS bastards mowing down our Prisoners at Malmedy - and what is done in the name of survival.
So your point about mowing down innocent people is understood; my only contention is that anyone, anywhere, can be barbaric, and when societal and moral constraints are removed - or perceived to be removed - it shouldn’t be surprising.
It’s not about me looking or not looking or me not understanding that horrific things happen. It’s just that this scene is false and propaganda. This scene. Not me.
Got it, friend. I’m not arguing with you. :^)
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