How accurate was Full Metal Jacket's boot camp scene?

[Zona]

I heard it said that it was pretty authentic. what was and what wasn't accurate?

Which part? I personally say the entire sequence of events were accurate...back then, the DI's could hit boots.

Not now though. Its a mental **** game more so now.

 

[Zona]

Sorry, I meant the entire first half of the movie.

Ah, well the D.I. was well beyond a Gunny, he was a E-9 in real life. The man was born for that role, literally.

Great great great movie. The second half was good, but the first brings me back to a "fun" time in my life.

 

[blu]

I went through Boot camp after changes had occurred but It was still pretty close to what we had, the only thing being the Drill Instructors could not physically hit you. Still happened of course. It was pretty real to me.

why would you let someone hit you?

 

[Zona]

According to my bros it is pretty much dead on except they aren't supposed to hit you anymore. They said it's actually worse now because of the head games, they would rather have been hit.

Doesn't change my mind, I'm still going Marines when I finally pull the trigger on this.

and you'll be a great one !

Fuckin A, DD.

Please, oh please join the marines!

 

[MikeK]

well dude..supply the clip at least...geez....is it just me ...or is this clip...funny as hell..in some weird way...


YouTube - Full Metal Jacket Clip

Nothing even close to that happened in my boot camp in the 1990's. Also, my pappy said nothing like that happened in his boot camp in the late 1960's, which was prior to the all volunteer Army.

Marine boot camp underwent radical changes beginning in early 1957 owing to a 1956 incident in which several recruits were drowned in a tidal creek that a DI named McKeon was fond of taking his platoons through. If that wasn't bad enough by itself, one of the drowned recruits was the son of famed newscaster, Walter Winchell, and another was the son of a very popular movie actress (name escapes me). Needless to mention, the shit hit the fan and change was inevitable.

 

[Zona]

The boot camp scene was dead on.

Three people dead while I went through boot camp, one on the pistol range shot his brains out, I did not see this.

Another died in the morning standing in front of his rack right after reville, he did not take in enough salt and died of dehdration.

Another drowned during swim qual, they said he died of a heart attack, I bet he did, if you could not swim the DI's pushed you under until you swam, no drowning, poor son of a ***** had a heart attack.

Had another guy slit his wrists and lived.

Another jumped off the 2nd floor, not far enough to die but he broke his legs.

I watched the DI hit people, not often and only at the end of boot camp when we had to little time left to report it. Nobody took a chance that late in the game, we got short and just wanted to make it.

People say they would rather be hit, right, we had the mind games and got hit, we suffered from sleep deprivation, lack of water, too much excercise, mind games, even less sleep, complete fatigue. I was a hollywood marine, I hear the guys at perris island got at alive by sand fleas.

The movie was dead on except there is just no way for an audience to truely relate.

I hated my drill instructor, Sgt Cambell, I remember his face like it was yesterday, his voice, what a prick.

I don't know what they do to girls... but knowing what my bros and dad have said I don't care. I will go and I WILL **** them up. I can be an unstoppable force of nature when I bring it, and I will bring it. I never lose my site on the prize. They can NOT break me.
A lot of people here probably think of me as a tender little flower because of how I talk about God and love... don't be deceived, I'm also the little girl that can drop a deer at 300 yards with a lite load, and skin it and turn it into dinner. And soooo much more. I'm pretty sure my destiny is with the Marines, like my father and his father before him. I think I need to join this long family tradition, and no matter what happens I will have made my father proud. And is there truly anything better 1 can do in their life? I don't think so.

You are exactly the type that get dropped in about the third week. It is fun watching your type break down. (and this was Navy boot camp, let alone the marines...) lol

Please please please join the marines. Please come back three weeks later and let us know how it turned out. An unstoppable force? Oh dear god. Boot camp is designed for people who say things exactly like you just did.

It is designed to break you down and bring you up a Marine. Its not about you, its about being part of the team and being a marine.

 

[Samson]

well dude..supply the clip at least...geez....is it just me ...or is this clip...funny as hell..in some weird way...


YouTube - Full Metal Jacket Clip

Nothing even close to that happened in my boot camp in the 1990's. Also, my pappy said nothing like that happened in his boot camp in the late 1960's, which was prior to the all volunteer Army.

Marine boot camp underwent radical changes beginning in early 1957 owing to a 1956 incident in which several recruits were drowned in a tidal creek that a DI named McKeon was fond of taking his platoons through. If that wasn't bad enough by itself, one of the drowned recruits was the son of famed newscaster, Walter Winchell, and another was the son of a very popular movie actress (name escapes me). Needless to mention, the shit hit the fan and change was inevitable.

The Ribbon Creek Incident.

 

[MikeK]

The guy who played Gunny I seriously think has to be alittle crazy in real life, every role he plays he is alittle crazy. In Saving Silverman he is completly gone but quite hilarious!

I believe that to be a good DI one must possess the innate personal skills of a born method actor, i.e., one must project an intensely powerful image and convey a flawless impression. And Ermey does that.

 

[Samson]

I heard it said that it was pretty authentic. what was and what wasn't accurate?

A relative question. For Vietnam-era boot camp? It was probably pretty accurate minus Gunny Hartman pushing Private Pyle over the edge.

My two cents.

Sargent Carter was a more accurate portrayal

You can use that pic for your avatar if ya wanna.

 

[Shooter]

Here's the no-shitter. The entire first half of the movie (boot camp) was pretty accurate. I will say this. Nowadays someone like Pyle wouldn't have stayed with his platoon if he was ******* up and as out of shape as he was in the movie. Today the hats would toss his ass in PCP, or as we called it the Pork Chop Platoon or the Donut Brigade.

Interesting note about R Lee Ermey. Everyone knows he was a real-life hat but what's cool about his performance is that over half of his dialogue was improvised which is extremely rare in a Stanley Kubrick movie. Kubrick has always been a stickler for going by the script verbatim. But he allowed Ermey to do his own thing because he liked the realistic and authentic portrayal of the part.

 

[MikeK]

Boot-camp has a way of buffing off those rough edges a lot of us have when we're young.

I can fold my clothes like a there's no tomorrow, even thirty years after the fact.

All the girls at the laudrymat are always impressed.


Let's see ... what else did I take away from that place?

hmmm...Nope, that's it.

That's not really all that much for sixteen forking weeks of 24/7 non-stop bullshit, is it?

 

[Shooter]

Ah, well the D.I. was well beyond a Gunny, he was a E-9 in real life. The man was born for that role, literally.

If you're referring to R Le Ermey you are incorrect. Ermey retired as an E-6. Later he received a post-retirement promotion to E-7.

 

[Trajan]

which was prior to the all volunteer Army.

hello.....

 

[Trajan]

Nothing even close to that happened in my boot camp in the 1990's. Also, my pappy said nothing like that happened in his boot camp in the late 1960's, which was prior to the all volunteer Army.

Marine boot camp underwent radical changes beginning in early 1957 owing to a 1956 incident in which several recruits were drowned in a tidal creek that a DI named McKeon was fond of taking his platoons through. If that wasn't bad enough by itself, one of the drowned recruits was the son of famed newscaster, Walter Winchell, and another was the son of a very popular movie actress (name escapes me). Needless to mention, the shit hit the fan and change was inevitable.

The Ribbon Creek Incident.

yup...an interesting book too; Court-Martial at Parris Island: The Ribbon Creek Incident.

a short story on an aspect of that.

Behind one of the lines on the rifle range, the firing line that is, there are 6-7 white crosses. We sat neat them during range week, some form the platoon of course had to ask our DI what they were for, he told us they had buried some recruits there that were **** ups and got themselves killed.....5 or 6 years ago I was talking to one of my old buddies and it came up, I found the book online.

 

[Zona]

Ah, well the D.I. was well beyond a Gunny, he was a E-9 in real life. The man was born for that role, literally.

If you're referring to R Le Ermey you are incorrect. Ermey retired as an E-6. Later he received a post-retirement promotion to E-7.

You are correct. He was a D.I. in san dog and did a few tours in nam. He was the only retiree to get promoted like that. I swear I read somewhere he was a E-9....damn, I am getting old. CRS!

 

[Zona]

I don't know what they do to girls... but knowing what my bros and dad have said I don't care. I will go and I WILL **** them up. I can be an unstoppable force of nature when I bring it, and I will bring it. I never lose my site on the prize. They can NOT break me.

A lot of people here probably think of me as a tender little flower because of how I talk about God and love... don't be deceived, I'm also the little girl that can drop a deer at 300 yards with a lite load, and skin it and turn it into dinner. And soooo much more. I'm pretty sure my destiny is with the Marines, like my father and his father before him. I think I need to join this long family tradition, and no matter what happens I will have made my father proud. And is there truly anything better 1 can do in their life? I don't think so.

Somebody's gonna learn humility real quick! Good luck, Amanda!

And, another thing, the Marines for you, being a pretty girl, will be a constant fight against male Marines who feel resentful that you won't sleep with them, who think you are getting screwed by all the higher ranking Marines in your platoon so you can get promoted or whatever, of female Marines who think the same thing or are jealous (cause there are a lot of ugly women in the Marines) against Marines who want to sleep with you (and be wary because the rate of rape for active duty female Marines is extremely high) - you're gonna be walking around with about 20 dudes constantly watching you or trying to get your attention. So just be ready for that. The Marine Corps is not what you expect. Not even close. Back me up on this Gunny, Retired Gysgt., and the rest of you former Marines.

I hated being a Marine and loved it. I look back on it now, having been out almost ten years, and I don't regret it a bit. But it was no walk in the park. And I was good at it.

(keep in mind, some women like men sniffing all over them....but thats a whole differnt ball game....)

Back me up (anyone who went to any boot camp)..when a kid walked in with the attitude of "you cant break me"..what happened? If someone said...." I can be an unstoppable force of nature when I bring it, and I will bring it." What happened? Eery single time..

 

[MikeK]

[...]It was a thrill to march back to quonset huts or to the mess hall at the end of the day and hear the crash of 70 boots all striking the pavement at the same precise instant.[...]

During the early weeks at PI, when we felt like and knew we looked like a pathetic herd of dirty, exhausted, stumbling slobs, when passing what we knew to be a graduating platoon because of their clean, starched utilities, all moving in perfect unison and the sound of eighty heels striking hardtop in precise cadence, I remember thinking how far away it seemed and if we would ever make it -- and how proud their DIs must be at what they've managed to accomplish.

There must be an enormous sense of creative satisfaction in such a unique achievement.

 

[Zona]

I can speak from two generations of the reality and differences of the movie. My dad was at Parris Island in '74 and the stories he told me BEFORE he saw the movie were spot on. He told me about Gardener, the "shitbird", and the ex highschool lineman that tried to hit the DI the first day and got his teeth kicked in by the DI. He also told me about the other shitbirds that were given the option of The Corps or jail time and how the US needed "warm bodies" at the time. He told me about a very similar speech a DI gave them about supplying God with souls and holding a Bhudda statue and getting them to warface chant "Bbbhhuuudddaaa" over and over again. They were called every name in the book, got the physical shit kicked outta them, and had to cover for each other (dad had to qualify shoot for Gardener by rolling over to his mat and firing- dad was sharpshooter). Dad's least favorite PT is still the sand buckets lol.

My experience with Army Basic was pretty different. Most guys there were pretty decided in their focus of military career as opposed to just being warm body ground fodder. "I'm just here to learn computers" was pretty common, at least in my group. Luckily the US wasn't really engaged in any major foreign engagements at the time, so it was really maintenance by SF and presence at NATO bases at the time Our TIs weren't there to hold our hands, but they weren't allowed to do many of the things in FMJ due to our wonderful litigious society with the asshats at the ACLU. They couldn't hit us or call us faggots (maggots has been used at least since my dad's time as an alternative). Again it was a different time. We had two shitbirds in my group (now just called fatbodies) but one actually washed out thankfully. I had experience as a Boy Scout, so it was really like a Mean Crazy Summer Camp with a Gun for me. I had always been into the military so I had read many things previously that I got to actually touch. I had also done JROTC in highschool so drills weren't a problem. I'm pretty bright, but those things always mess me up so I'm glad I had practice lol. As I mentioned before I was pretty much there for a career with rank boosts from Eagle Scout and JROTC. I got my knowledge, served my time happily and met many great friends I still have today. There is something about the military, when you are doing things in a routine fashion that many folks never ever get to do, that you take a step back and say "Holy cow. Me and these 23 other assholes just changed X event from changing the WORLD."

So yeah for the time period it is spot on. I emailed the 10 mins of boot camp to dad after he got retired from his job from a stroke. He called me all choked up, but he was talking about going out and finishing the roof of the house. Mom later said he had watched it several times in a row and had of course forwarded it to everyone on his email list- but it was the catalyst for getting him back to normal awesome guy again I'm glad to say that he is completely recovered and enjoys his Saturdays with his granddaughter and he is STILL "Dead Eye Atticus" if any of ya are a lil read up This is my account some first hand, some not, hope it helps someone. Thanks for reading

Outstanding! Thank you for posting this.

 

[Zona]

when were you in bootcamp?

1979.

No shit, me too, P.I., platoon 2019...."Senior drill instructor Staff Sgt. Bayless"...still rolls off the tongue like it was yesterday.....

84..Chief Petty Officer Bowles. C154 Orlando Fla. Isnt it funny how some things, you never forget..

 

[Obamerican]

SSgt Judsen 1970

The man DID NOT sweat when running in 100+ degree weather. Amazing. AND he was Kennedy's honor guard at the President's funeral! Amazing man.