re: Full Metal Jacket released 36 years ago today

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Felt like it lost steam after boot camp.

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it gained steam after boot camp. the second half is much better.

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Platoon

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Platoon is the most clichéd, hackneyed piece of tripe ever made about the Vietnam War.

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I used to agree, but that has changed as I've gotten older. I said this a couple years ago about FMJ:

The second half is criminally underrated, especially since I've become older. When I was younger, I was mainly all about the first half, but man the second half is pretty awesome on its own. It's rugged and real, and tense as frick. It has the greatness that is the sniper scene, and of course, Animal Mother.

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This. It's weird how people run it down so much.

R. Lee Ermey made that movies first half. His portrayal of a Drill Sgt. in a Marine Boot Camp was off the charts good.

I'm one of the few that like the "In Country" part of the movie better than boot camp. The Boot camp part does a good job of entertaining, and it shows how their training was to try to get them ready for surviving the second half of the movie.

Love the music during the Vietnam part of the movie. That mechanical/metallic sounding sh*t when they're going to kill the sniper is haunting.

Full Metal Jacket Sniper Scene on YouTube

I love the parts of the movie where Joker is is working his job as a writer for Stars & Stripes. The meeting where the officer, who's his boss, tells the writers to not use the phrase "Search and destroy" anymore, and replace it with "Sweep and Clear" is so much like a corporate setting, it's crazy. The biggest difference is, in the corporate setting, the higher ups/owner of your company probably paid an outside source to come up with that crap. Worrying about the way something sounds instead of worrying about what's happening is what got us where we are today.

Corporations took their playbook from governments, so now, appearances are more important than reality. Yea, I grew up watching the War and then Watergate on TV every night on the news. If you don't like it, go eat a big sh*t sandwich!

At least I had Walter Cronkite back then.

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Platoon is the most clichéd, hackneyed piece of tripe ever made about the Vietnam War.

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i agree, but i still love it

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Talked to a Marine recently who made the mistake of watching it (for the first time) after he signed up and before he reported for boot camp.

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I've watched FMJ with some friends before they joined the military, didn't really phase them one bit compared to you know.. actual boot camp

Cute line, but I highly doubt if it actually impacted him in any way whatsoever

The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and strong you will hesitate at the moment of truth. You will not kill. You will become dead Marines and then you will be in a world of shite because Marines are not allowed to die without permission.

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I used to agree, but that has changed as I've gotten older.

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This is the exact way I feel. Many times when I was younger I would cut it off after boot camp, but today I relish the second half.

I do agree Platoon and Apocolypse Now are better movies but FMJ has some intended/unintended humor that helps the medicine go down. Platoon and AN have very little in the way of relief from the pressure.

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Love the music during the Vietnam part of the movie.

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I know I'm the only old fart that uses Pandora, but the Vietnam Radio station (from FMJ, Good Morning Vietnam, etc.) is nearly unassailable.

I actually bought the FMJ soundtrack back in the day. Should I be ashamed?