Throwback Thursday Movie is Full Metal Jacket

This week’s Throwback Thursday Movie is Full Metal Jacket.

With the passing of R. Lee Ermey, it seemed like the right time to spotlight the movie Full Metal Jacket. R. Lee Ermey died on April 15, 2018. Ermey was 74 years old.

R. Lee Ermey had a famous scene in the movie.

After retired from the military he set his path to Hollywood. His plan to break into Hollywood was to use his knowledge of the military to become a military film consultant and then convince the filmmakers that he should be in the movie. This worked for Ermey three times in the movies The Boys in Company C, Apocalypse Now, and his famous role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket.

Here are the opening lines to the movie, given by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman…

I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your senior drill instructor. From now on you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be “Sir”. Do you maggots understand that?

It is also well know that Ermey improvised much of his dialogue, drawing on his experience as a Drill Sergeant in the Marines.

Stanley Kubrick told Rolling Stone…

“In the course of hiring the Marine recruits, we interviewed hundreds of guys. We lined them all up and did an improvisation of the first meeting with the drill instructor. They didn’t know what he was going to say, and we could see how they reacted. Lee came up with, I don’t know, 150 pages of insults.”

Full Metal Jacket stars Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, and of course R. Lee Ermey. Directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Watch more streaming movies: What’s On.

Throwback Thursday Movie is Full Metal Jacket

Reviews

Rotten Tomatoes

All  Critics: 93%
Audience Score: 94%

Oscar Nominations

• Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Taglines

In Vietnam The Wind Doesn’t Blow It Sucks.

Vietnam can kill me, but it can’t make me care.

Acclaimed by critics as the best war movie ever made.

By The Numbers…

Release Date: July 10, 1987
Running Time: 1h 56min
Rating: R
Gross Total US Theater Sales: $46,357,676
Budget: $30,000,000  (estimated)