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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Full Metal Jacket
    #21724358 - 05/26/15 10:36 AM (8 years, 8 months ago)

I assume many of you here have seen the excellent movie Full Metal Jacket.  I just wanted to bring up a question I've been wondering about.

Full Metal Jacket was filmed in England, at the defunct Becton Gasworks.  Kubrick didn't fly, and thought this approach could mimic Southern Vietnam well enough. 

My dad is a Vietnam veteran -- he did two tours in 1970-71 with the 101st Airborne Division, based mostly at Foo Bai and Saigon, although he pretty much went everywhere and saw everything by the time his tour was over.

What I'm getting to is that my dad has seen Full Metal Jacket and has stated multiple times that that is not what things looked like.  He stated that Kubrick's Hue looked nothing like the real thing, and he spent considerable time in Hue.  He also said he never saw a single tank in all his time there, and yet Kubrick inserted a Marine tank division.

Incidentally, my dad's favorite Vietnam war movie of all is Apocalypse Now.  He told me that is, for the most part, exactly what it looked like, especially the bridge scene near the end (in which the surfer guy is on acid during the firefight).  Of course, that was filmed in the Philippines, in a jungle, like its subject.

How badly do you think Kubrick fucked up if a Vietnam veteran discounts his movie as too unrealistic?  Do you think he got away with filming it in England, or not?  I still think it's a great film, but that is, in my opinion, a pretty big mark against it.  What do you think?


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Offlineclock_of_omens
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Re: Full Metal Jacket [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #21729204 - 05/27/15 03:42 PM (8 years, 8 months ago)

I haven't seen the whole movie. I rented it one time and the DVD stopped working right when it switched from the boot camp part to the Vietnam part. That kind of thing isn't really all that important to me though. I could see how it might bother someone who was actually there though.


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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Re: Full Metal Jacket [Re: clock_of_omens]
    #21729245 - 05/27/15 03:58 PM (8 years, 8 months ago)

Point taken, I guess I love the movie so it doesn't matter so much for me, but on the other hand, I sort of feel like it makes the movie incomplete in a way.  When you have Apocalypse Now, which has such a realistic look to it, and it's so good all the way around, I feel like Kubrick dropped the ball a little bit filming it near London and having palm trees shipped in.  A good Vietnam movie should be cinematically brilliant, and further than that I think a good way to test its merits would be to have a veteran watch it and give it a thumbs up.  I have to think that's a valid criterion.  But as you say, if it is technically and artistically sound, perhaps it doesn't matter at all.  It's academic, anyway.


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Offlineclock_of_omens
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Re: Full Metal Jacket [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #21729314 - 05/27/15 04:14 PM (8 years, 8 months ago)

Yeah, on Wikipedia it said that he studied a ton of photos and stuff to try to make it realistic, and he usually puts a lot of effort into details. It even mentions him studying Hue, so I don't know what happened.


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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Re: Full Metal Jacket [Re: clock_of_omens]
    #21729420 - 05/27/15 04:42 PM (8 years, 8 months ago)

:shrug:


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Offlineclock_of_omens
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Re: Full Metal Jacket [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #21729443 - 05/27/15 04:49 PM (8 years, 8 months ago)

He's still the boss.


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