History Headscratchers / FullMetalJacket

*** Personally this troper wouldn't say she's that bad looking, granted given the short time she's on the screen it's hard to get a clear flattering screen shot of her (lets see she's spinning around shocked to see a bunch of soldiers, firing a gun with a heck of a kick, then is shot and bleeding to death = not much time for her to pose for the camera) granted she's not the most attractive girl they could have cast but other than the rather disturbing lack of eyebrows this troper don't see much wrong with her

* One of the Aesops of the film was delivered by Eightball when he sarcastically says the Vietnamese are dumb because they would rather be alive than be free. This is delivered by a black male at a time where the work of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and others who died to see equal rights for all would be especially fresh in the people's mind. This just bugs me. I'm sure Patrick Henry, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and the Free French would disagree.

*** That's true. People go crazy based on their own timing. Being away from home for the first time (for many recruits) is stressful. Those who go to milder training (as pointed out above) only know how much their own situations suck. When I went to Boot Camp in 1987, we had our share of crazies, too. At that time, Marine Corps Boot Camp was very similar to what was shown in the movie, except that I never saw a senior drill instructor who was an E-7. All of them were E-5 or E-6. The senior drill instructor was usually the milder of the three or four assigned to the platoon. Only one of them was really known for hitting recruits and he was only temporarily assigned to my platoon, long enough to punch me in the head on one occasion, but he was best known for the time he butt-stroked a recruit right in the face. We started out with 84 recruits and ended up with 70, including a few who had been picked up from other platoons along the way. That means more than 14 original recruits were weeded out, either because of mental or physical problems, or they couldn't pass the training. We had one who refused to follow orders and two who desserted and we never saw them again. My point is, these were all volunteers in peace times. In fact, there was even a rule prohibiting recruits from taking weapons into the head (latrine/bathroom) for this very reason. Apparently, shooting yourself in the head while sitting on a toilet is appealing to depressed/crazy recruits.

** Whatever, I’d hit it!

*** That's true. People go crazy based on their own timing. Being away from home for the first time (for many recruits) is stressful. Those who go to milder training (as pointed out above) only know how much their own situations suck. When I went to Boot Camp in 1987, we had our share of crazies, too. We started out with 84 recruits and ended up with 70, including a few who had been picked up from other platoons along the way. That means more than 14 original recruits were weeded out, either because of mental or physical problems, or they couldn't pass the training. We had one who refused to follow orders and two who desserted and we never saw them again. My point is, these were all volunteers in peace times. In fact, there was even a rule prohibiting recruits from taking weapons into the head (latrine/bathroom) for this very reason. Apparently, shooting yourself in the head while sitting on a toilet is appealing to depressed/crazy recruits.

** It happens often in training like that, this troper experiencing it first-hand even in the "milder" Army. I think him going insane supposed to show the reality of life in training.

*** I'm thinking that from the point at which he gets that thousand-yard stare, he had every intention of doing what he did, and the training fron then on was him psyching himself up.