Cinema
Full Metal Jacket
Stanley Kubrick · 1987
Synopsis
Parris Island. Marine recruits have their heads shaved, then Drill Instructor Sergeant Hartman shouts at them that they are nothing and that he will make weapons of them, and gives them nicknames. Leonard Lawrence, fat and slow, becomes “Gomer Pyle”. Since he fails at everything, Hartman punishes the whole platoon for each of his mistakes. One night, the other recruits pin him down on his bed and beat him with bars of soap rolled in towels.
Context
The film was shot in England. The city of Huế was recreated in a disused gasworks at Beckton, in east London, from photographs taken in 1968: according to the director, some buildings, of 1930s functionalist architecture, reproduced exactly the industrial suburbs of the city. Part of it was blown up, then a wrecking ball, guided by the art director, pierced the others over two months. Two hundred palm trees came from Spain, with a hundred thousand tropical plants, most of them plastic. R. Lee Ermey, a former Marine instructor, had first been hired as a technical adviser; the director estimated that he had written about half of his lines.
Who it is for
One hour fifty-six minutes, in two clearly separate parts: the training of the recruits, then the war.
Prizes and reception
Nominated for the Oscar for best adapted screenplay; the actor who played the drill instructor was nominated for the Golden Globe for best supporting actor.
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