This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
BT The P - I'd argue that Gunny Ermey himself is a trope, having basically defined the drill sergeant and drill sergeant wannabe types for 30 years.
He actually did a guest voice on Kim Possible, but he wasn't a drill sergeant. He was in fact a three-star General in charge of Area 51. May seem the same to most, but he didn't "motivate" anyone, and no one "dropped and gave him" any. So what's the point?
Seth: A-Didn't Recess do this at some point. B-Would the guy who taught the Average Joes in Dodge ball count?
Tabby: Seconding the notion that Ermey is a trope in and of himself.
Licky Lindsay: I dig R. Lee Ermey as much as anybody, but doesn't this trope go back to WWII movies (made during and after that war) at the very least?
Lale: "...in recent years the US military has been moving away from this type of recruit training..." Is this really true?
Thunder Phoenix: No.
Lale: I thought so. In that case, deleted.
Keith: Well, it's somewhat true. The problem is that pretty much every recruit will have seen Full Metal Jacket or the equivalent so the over-the-top Gunny Hartmann routine doesn't quite carry the same weight it once did. I was a drill instructor for the Canadian Forces back in the early 90s and one of my collegues was a full on ranting and raving lunatic (and this was not long after the film came out, so it still wasn't entirely cliche by that point) and people would laugh at it when he blew a gasket. On the other hand I once reduced a man to tears on the parade square but never raised my voice, didn't swear, and didn't personally insult him. The lovingly detailed list of his faults and how disappointed everyone must have been in him was quite sufficient.
Somebody: Why doesn't this one have the drill sergeant from Starship Trooper? I mean, he's one of the most over the top insane drill sergeants in movies. He actually throws a dagger through a trainee's hand to prove a point.
H. Torrance Griffin: Anyone here read Mercedes Lackey's 'The Last Herald Mage"? The Ashkevron Armsman from Magic's Pawn fits this to a tee, and I am annoyed that I blanked on his name.
Ellen Hayes: Jervis, no last name that I recall. Does a Heel–Face Turn later in the series.
Lt NOWIS: Did Full Metal Jacket really start this trope? I know Ermey influenced everything since than, but Himmelstoss in All Quiet on the Western Front might also qualify.
Ellen Hayes: Considering that Sobel from Band of Brothers was a real person, and his sergeants really muntinied while in England, I'd have to say it wasn't Full Metal Jacket.
Silent Hunter: Sergeant Major is certainly older. It features in Monty Python and It Ain't Half Hot Mum, both slightly older. Himmelstoss is German, right?
Rabrab: This trope was around long before Full Metal Jacket. Many of the examples are much earlier, so I've deleted the phrase "which more or less originated the archetype, ".
LO Rd:
- Again, while not exactly being a Drill Sergeant, Old Master teachers tend to act this way to their students, pushing them to the brink of physical and mental collapse (sometimes even threatening their lives) in order to train them. These include Pai Mei from Kill Bill 1/2, Master Roshi (and basically any martial arts teacher) on Dragonball/Z/GT, Genkai from Yu Yu Hakusho, Urahara of Bleach, Hiko Seijûrô XIII from Rurouni Kenshin, etc.
Red-Hatted Plumber: Would someone add where Sergeant Brooks (a "rare example of a female Drill Sergeant Nasty) is from? Original below:
- Though we never see her training, we do get some testimonials from other characters of Sergeant Brooks...a rare female Drill Sergeant Nasty. Luckily for the Player Character, she is an actual sergeant, and the PC starts as a captain, so the most she can do is be grossly insubordinate and threaten violence.
Wind of the North: Am I alone in thinking that the Drill Sergeant in Forrest Gump wasn't all that Nasty? He yelled, and swore, and made Bubba and Forrest clean the floor with toothbrushes once, but he never did anything outstandingly cruel. Heck, half the time he was telling Forrest how awesome he (Forrest) was.
