History Headscratchers / FullMetalJacket

* 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 agree with me.
** No, they wouldn't. Because they probably know what sarcasm is.
** Did it occur to you that Eightball was a moron?
*** I wouldn't call Eightball a moron. I think most humans have mixed feelings about dying for freedom. The self-preservation instinct is very strong.

** I agree, sorta. I mean I don't have a problem with obese people at all, they can do whatever they want, it's their life, they are not hurting anyone. But SERIOUSLY! He could not wait the whole 6 awake hours he had till he got to go to breakfast to get another doughnut? (He said he was hungry. Liar. He just loves sweets and wanted to have a snack) I don't really feel he deserves the sock beating that happens afterwards, but come one, show some mental fortitude dude. Your not supposed to have sweet snacks to much on whenever you feel like in basic training, DEAL WITH IT

** I agree, sorta. I mean I don't have a problem with obese people at all, they can do whatever they want, it's their life, they are not hurting anyone. But SERIOUSLY! He could not wait the whole 6 awake hours he had till he got to go to breakfast to get another doughnut? (He said he was hungry. Liar. He just loves sweets and wanted to have a snack) I don't really feel he deserves the sock beating that happens afterwards, but come one, show some mental fortitude dude. Your not supposed to have sweet snacks to much on whenever you feel like in basic training, !!!DEAL WITH IT.!!!

*** Or he could have squirrled away rounds from their range sessions.

***** It's '''''extremely''''' unlikely he was drafted. Period. And you don't just get to leave Basic if you're overwhelmed or fail.

*** Hartman asks something along the lines of why isn't Pvt. Joker stomping Pvt. Pyle's guts out for that. Joker handled it horribly. The job of the watch is to be alert this very kind of stuff at night, especially in boot camp, and while unarmed, the watch is the first line of defense in boot camp. So as soon as he seen Pyle in there he should've disarmed him and reported him to Hartman. His window was small but not that small. Or he could've just ran and got help. But to do nothing costed both Marines lives and possibly proves that its Joker who isn't fit to be a Marine. I personally witnessed a boot camp wig-out, To a far less dangerous degree but equally loud. And it was the guy on watch while we were asleep. Talk about [[NightmareFuel something potential scary]] [[FridgeHorror when you think of how bad it could've been with 50 sleeping recruits while a insane individual is supposedly watching you sleep]]. Lucky for us around 5 am and not closer to lights out. The watch commander( a recruit was the first person to try calming him down and getting loud back did work better than being calm, and much much better than doing nothing.

* Okay, so I'm reading [[http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Full-Metal-Jacket.html the script]] and it seems like the sniper was supposed to be a very pretty girl ("...a beautiful Vietnamese girl of about fifteen" "...a slender Eurasian angel with dark beautiful eyes"). So why the ''hell'' did they cast [[http://www.imfdb.org/images/3/36/FMJ-AK-47.jpg this]] [[http://www.collativelearning.com/PICS%20FOR%20WEBSITE/assorted%20pics%20for%20film%20reviews/fmj%20sniper.png girl]] in the role? I mean, no offense, but the freaking [[MeLoveYouLongTime prostitutes]] were better looking than her. Did they think an attractive sniper would generate too much sympathy?
** Okay, just so you know (and I'll apologise in advance for any ego-bruising), you are not the Universal Barometer Of Beauty. People's ideas of beauty differ ''vastly'' even within a single peer group. Now get back under your bridge.
*** Ahem. Movies are made with the expectation that audiences will watch them. In particular, this movie was aimed at Western audiences. So in keeping with the script, shouldn't they have chosen a actress who better fit the Western conception of prettiness, regardless of the fact that a minority of individuals in those cultures would find the girl that got casted in the current version of the movie better looking?
**** I don't think there is such a thing as "Western conception of prettiness." She looks like an average young girl that the audience can pity. They did their job, in my opinion. I think it would have been stranger if they had cast someone who looked like a supermodel.
** Plus she was dirty from being in a firefight and in no way dressed to show of her beauty. For all we know, she was just a bath, hair combing and makeup session away from being Miss Saigon.
** Whatever, I'd hit it!
*** 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.
*** People also tend to look a lot less pretty when they're completely freaking out, like she was in the picture. [[BolivianArmyEnding And who can blame her?]]
** She's young- and innocent-looking. Is what you're suggesting that they should've cast a more white-looking girl?
*** [[EverythingIsRacist Ugh]]. There is actually such a thing as a golden ratio of facial features considered attractive across all cultures and ethnic backgrounds, chill out. That being said, I don't think this is a particularly legitimate complaint, considering I know people who find Scarlett Johansson unattractive (besides, this troper is kind of sick of this kind of aesthetic scrutiny being especially applied to female characters. But that may be another story...)
**** If you're referring to the 'work' of Stephen Marquardt then you can just get the fuck off my internet. He's a cosmetic surgeon, and his theory is quackery of the sort you often see in the 'beauty' industry.
**** Yikes. No, I've never even heard of him. I was referring to something from ThatotherWiki. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness#Determinants_of_female_physical_attractiveness]]
*** This troper mistook her for the second prostitute (partly because of what looked like a GroinAttack against 8ball, who had... yeah).
** This is a great example of YMMV, because I think she's gross looking.
** The script is not God? I'm afraid this thread seems like a thinly-veiled excuse to bash a woman's appearance to me, and contains the nasty implication that you can't sympathize with a woman you don't consider attractive.

***** I don't think washing out would have been a good option. Washing out doesn't necessarily mean you get to go home and you're finished with your obligation. In the Marine Corps, if you "quit," or fail at something, it just means you will be recycled, which means at some point in the training, you're sent away to another platoon, often repeating two or three weeks of training you already had and spending more time in Boot Camp than you should.

** They are also attempting to win "hearts and minds" and trying to appease the home front, so for that they need some people able to handle themselves in the shit and with half a brain. Hartman is in disbelief too, but it's only a small proportion of the trainees afterall, most of the privates are assigned grunt duties. One of the points of the movie is that the war is not an example of "managerial acumen" (read sanity), there is hardly a ReasonableAuthorityFigure in the whole picture; the senior officer shown in the movie (Colonel) is a joke and Joker's lieutenant disregards the Tet-offensive when Joker brings the rumors up.

** They are also attempting to win "hearts and minds" and trying to appease the home front, so for that they need some people able to handle themselves in the shit and with half a brain. Hartman is in disbelief too, but it's only a small proportion of the trainees afterall, most of the privates are assigned grunt duties. One of the points of the movie is that the war is not an example of "managerial accumen" (read sanity), there is hardly a reasonalbe authority figure in the whole picture; the senior officer shown on the movie (Colonel) is a joke and Joker's lieutenant disregards the Tet-offensive when Joker brings the rumors up.

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* There are several issues I have with the lead up to Pyle shooting Hartman dead. First of all how did Pyle get into the armory and attain ammunition for his gun? Why did Joker simply let Pyle get to the point where he could load bullets into the gun? The moment Hartman woke up from his sleep, due to Pyle chanting the Marine moto, why didn't he get someone to accompany him into the room to confront Pyle? There just appear to be so many things that could have been done to prevent this incident from happening.
** As to the ammo, I always assumend he squirreled it away when he was at target practice. I'm assuming that they had more than one day at the rifle range, and it wouldn't be impossible to take one or two bullets each time and hide them until you were ready to use them.

* What does Hartman mean when he yells he'll motivate Pyle even if he has to short-dick every cannibal in the Congo? Castration of every aborigine? Great feat but motivating how?

* What does Hartman mean when he yells he'll motivate Pyle even if he has short-dick every cannibal in the Congo? Castration of every aborigine? Great feat but motivating how?

** The script is not God?