TO THOSE WHO THINK MY FATHER WOULDN’T HAVE WANTED #TRUMP TO USE FMJ FOOTAGE
— Vivian Kubrick (@ViKu1111) October 13, 2024
Here are my thoughts: I agree in principle that an anti-war movie is incongruous with promoting the idea of a tough non-woke US military and thus war itself - however - these are very dangerous and… https://t.co/0bSXz8nL3V
October 14, 2024
"And thus, on this tooth and claw planet, you need a very strong military - so I’m going to stick with the idea that ['Full Metal Jacket'] footage was used primarily because of its powerful, realistic portrayal of boot camp..."
"... juxtaposed with the entirely demoralizing and inappropriate injection of WOKE ideology into the USA military. Which I agree with myself and which I’m certain my father would have agreed with. Truthfully, I believe my father (who supported Reagan), would very much approve of saving America, indeed the world, from the highly destructive Globalist forces threatening to take over this planet...."
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131 comments:
That ad is hilarious. LOL.
I approve this message…
Wow!
That's powerful ad. Holy smokes.
Is there some reason other than the DI's language to complain about the ad?The Obama/Biden woke military is a threat to our security and the trans imagery is of real Democrats.
Oh no! Leftist Leftshit Soviet Democrats soon to be on the march to cancel the daughter of Mr. Kubrick.
I have never been in the military, nor have I had to serve in battle. So I can only imagine what fighting and actual war is like.
Over the weekend I re-watched the 2019 Movie "Midway" which is very well done. I can't imagine Dick Best, the dive bomber pilot who hit TWO Japanese carriers in one day, wearing a dress and lipstick.
I'm so old I remember when Kamala wanted to ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.
A truly great story, even as I prefer the 1976 version.
“What Democrats are realizing far too late is that they’ve Bud Lighted their whole brand.” - Bridget Phetasy
FMJ is anti-military in the same way that Slapshot is anti-hockey. In other words, it isn't.
Because I’m sure the irony of using FMJ footage is not lost on Trump or his team - Trump is always seeking to end wars and use peaceful methods. However, that’s primarily what FMJ is about, the shocking and complicated paradoxes of human nature.
This is too much for the liberal brain to absorb. Can you imagine the woke US Military entering a ground war with Kamalama-ding-dong as Commander in Chief? She wouldn't be able to resist escalation by those that control her.
Woke, disordered, dysfunctional is an evolutionary selfie-abortion with collateral damage.
The 1976 version is great. Saw it in the theater with my Dad. Maybe 1st grade?? But the CGI in the 2019 version is really good, and they take your from pre-war diplomacy to Pearl Harbor - to Doolittle - to Coral Sea - to Midway. Also I liked how the movie made the intelligence gathering a major part of the film.
I watched a ten minute interview on YouTube with Dick Best. He credited the intelligence with the victory.
All that was missing from that ad was the woke Non-Binary Biden Official Charged with numerous Felonies as a Suitcase Thief. Sam Brinton/they/them was in change of spent fuel. I'll say.
Strong military is how you get anti-war. Harris wants to give us the opposite of both.
Why are trans people attracted to the Military? Is it similar to the reasons why gay men become Jesuit Priests?
“What Democrats are realizing far too late is that they’ve Bud Lighted their whole brand.” - Bridget Phetasy
I posted the above comment earlier, but it was censored.
It was censored again, just that quick! Damn, how could anybody vote for more of this shit.
Here's a link to it instead. I'll try that.
https://x.com/BridgetPhetasy/status/1844868675989373420?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Original Mike
Strong military is how you get anti-war. Harris wants to give us the opposite of both.
This is what I was going to say. If your enemy (sic) has the ability to rain down hell fire and damnation, you are more likely to not provoke that enemy.
For one thing the military will pay for transition procedures.
Dick Best had his lungs damaged by defective oxygen system.
She and her dad will now be cancelled.
Because of the ad, I watched a few videos on YouTube from previous Drill Instructors and Sergeants reviewing FMJ and other movies depicting basic training. Other than the touching “laying hands on” aspect depicted in FMJ, they described the rest as very accurate. Laying hands was also considered realistic, but generally an unacceptable behavior that would get an instructor in trouble. In explaining that, many noted that Ermie’s “you are choking” yourself was often the counter argument when called out.
What was clear from the reviews, you don’t prepare people to fight a war without that type of rigor. What is apparent now is that we are attempting to select a President without such rigor.
Harris/Walz ticket's performance to-date is repugnant to most men, with exception of progressive-liberal betas and/or gay men. Polls prove this.
Obama's own recent hectoring paid-ad lecturing of Black men "brothers" backfired big time. Walz is a buffoon. Harris reminds men of their HS Prom Queen, preening to her court, bubble-headed Barbie doll.
Our military needs at least a decade to recover from its ill-advised woke policies. If Biden and/or Israel manage to drag us into a war before next administration, we're sunk, with high casualties and little positive outcome. China, Russia, and Iran know this.
She's a peach.
Very nice to see the backlash against the woke mind virus. Folks are starting to look at the left and say, bring it on.
😮 her time line looks just like mine.
Is the Professor's veil of cruel neutrality slipping? If so, thanks to Meade for any hand he had in it.
Trans people or more attracted to schools. Where they like em young(er).
Here's the scene from Saving Private Ryan -- strike that, Saving Silverman -- that Comrade Kamala's campaign should use.
This wasn't the beginning of R Lee Ermee's acting career, this movie. He was a technical advisor in Apocalypse Now!, where he also played a chopper pilot. And he started on FMJ as a technical advisor, coaching the selected actor on how to act / improvise as one, but he was secretly auditioning for the role too, and once Kubrick saw what he was getting at, Kubrick liked it so much, was so impressed, that he gave the part to Ermee.
You go girl! - both of you.
Michael K
Dick Best had his lungs damaged by defective oxygen system.
He had latent tuberculosis, which became active when he breathed the caustic soda fumes.
Kubrick's dead so I don't think he's going to be "cancelled" any time soon. If he was going to be cancelled, it probably would have been over Lolita or that rape scene in A Clockwork Orange. (Which is truly appalling -- I do not like that movie). Kubrick is a pacifist and in Full Metal Jacket he's illustrating the barbarity of man (which is a common theme in his art) and also the dehumanization of man (ditto).
Given the vehement hatred against Trump, I shouldn’t be surprised most prominent last names that support orange hair man, wisely chose to keep it close to the vest.
Gays against Groomers. It's real. short-hand for - Gays against the leftist march to normalize pedophilia.... and the pushing of they-them trans BS to young children.
Gays against Groomers. It's real. short-hand for - Gays against the leftist march to normalize pedophilia.... and the leftist march to promote they/them & trans BS to young children.
Heh, without that language a DI wouldn't be a DI. At least back in my day...
By all means let's never let any other country claim the title of the world's strongest military, and let's indeed cut the woke cancer out of it, root and branch.
But for God's sake can we start pulling back from playing the world's policeman? We have bases in something like 100 countries, most of them unwanted by the locals. We have been meddling in foreign affairs that are none of our business since before I was born, breeding ill will all over the world.
And isn't it amazing how the hippies and yippies of our youth are now firmly on the side of the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Stasi-style domestic spying, perpetual overseas military adventurism, and warmongering ogres like Dick Cheney? I bet there was a time back around 1974 when even Inga disliked the authoritarian police state she now worships.
No one but Trump is ever going to take on the military-industrial-intelligence monster.
Dick Best was some kind of guy! Like Mike K says, his oxygen rebreather was faulty and was producing caustic soda. That activated a dormant TB infection that he had in his lungs and within a couple of weeks he was out of action and being shipped back to the States for treatment. He ended up being medically retired from the Navy. Still lived to be in his 90's, though. Only guy to ever get two hits on two different ships on the same day.
Free genital mutilation surgery, courtesy of the taxpayers, with a steady paycheck all through the lengthy recovery. If they time it right, they can do 6 months of actual work during a 4 year hitch.
Si vis pacem para bellum! If you want peace, prepare for war!
Holy crap on a cracker
“the 2019 Movie "Midway" which is very well done”
I watched it this weekend too. You really need to raise your standards. The movie was a confusing mess, the CGI was horrible, and Emmerich can’t help embellish scenes with garbage that comes across as silly when you know the real events and operations. For example, here is the real footage of Doolittle taking off for his raid: https://youtu.be/NPGq7IYQHCM You’ll note the weather was not abysmal, he’s airborne well before the end of the ship, he didn’t fly through a wave just after takeoff.
Re: Dick Best. I've read several accounts of the Battle of Midway, the most recent being "Shattered Sword" by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully. In preparation for his second sortie, Lt. Best's SBD was routinely re-equipped, which included freshly charged O2 bottles. One of them contained sodium hydroxide crystals. The shipboard operation that recharged those bottles used sodium peroxide (Na2O2) reacted with water to produce oxygen gas, a process that yields NaOH as a byproduct. Evidently, whatever process they used to bottle only the oxygen was either incorrectly or incompletely executed in that case. The inhalation of that contaminated gas activated Best's latent and undiagnosed tuberculosis. He recovered after several weeks hospitalization, but he was permanently grounded and reassigned to staff duties instead of combat. Unfortunately, Best relapsed and was medically retired in March 1944 as a lieutenant commander.
Breathing O2 is still vital, but I would assume that given the abundance of electricity available on the super-carriers of the USN, that electrolysis is the the prefered generating technology today.
What happens between consenting adults is don't ask, don't tell. Good for taking a stand against a wicked sexual orientation.
uh - Where's team Trump on this topic?
They should be all over it. Just vile.
"500,000 kids have been smuggled into the U.S. since Biden took office.
Border Patrol detains them, then sends them to secret “warehouses” before they’re placed into what the government calls “loving families”.
Where are these kids going? No answer.
The ethics of the story is... War! What is it good for? The moral of the story is don't lust for abortion.
Voting for Democrats = There is something wrong with you.
"Kubrick is a pacifist".
Hmmm, I don't think he would have agreed with you.
Running in the morning at Ft. Polk in the summer of 1969 chanting "I want to be an Airborne Ranger, I want to lead a life of danger". I'll leave out a verse about "If I die on the Russian front, bury me deep in a Russian ------". 1,000 men each week started 8 weeks of AIT for Light Weapons Infantry MOS. About ` man in each 200 man training company got orders for Germany. The rest went to Viet Nam. Not all came back. But the experience made most of the survivors better people and better citizens. Now that the draft is gone, I doubt that the General Millies of this world could get enough volunteers to fill a phone booth.
My opinion of Stanley just went up.
I came on here to report that I saw a dem election sign today that read,, IIRC "Hate won't make you great". Imagine that!
SHHHH!
https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/20-long-100mph-drone-fleet-weeks-over-langley-norfolk-dec2023.149016/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/unknown-drone-fleet-breached-us-military-base-airspace-virginia-17-straight-days-report
Too late, it was last year.
Do they think Russian or Chinese basic traijing is any softer its brutal the russians have s word devdochina for their sometimes fatal hazing
Just had a couple grandkids retire from Navy and AF, NCO's, took their pension and GTFO. They hated this stuff. One is making big money for a defense contractor, not sure what the other one is doing.
You really need to raise your standards Geez Leland. Take it easy. All war movies take a bit of poetic license. The weather during Doolittle's take off bothers you? All I'll say is the average American public school student who is marched around in rainbow parades, can get a pretty good "CliffsNotes" education from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Shit they're not driving home anymore. At a minimum they walk away with know who Dick Best was, and Wade McClusky.
I also thought 2001's "Pearl Harbor" was pretty good. Plus it featured an in her prime, smokin' hot, Kate Beckinsdale.
Well, I googled it and the AI agrees with you. Which is hilarious.
John Ford is very sympathetic to the military, while Kubrick is perhaps the most anti-military filmmaker I know.
YouTube Interview with Dick Best
He seems like a pretty humble, unassuming guy compared to what he did. Maybe its the age at the time of the interview. He credits the efforts of the intelligence officers for the victory at Midway. as is highlighted in the move.
However, I'm not sure the interview is up the high standards of Siskel and Leland.
Here's a pretty interesting analysis of Full Metal Jacket
I"m all for a strong military, and no discrimination against white/Asian men, although the days of Sargent Hartman are well in the past. The problem is we don't need to fight a land war in Euro-Asia and have large numbers of gun-toting Grunts and Marines.
Americans need to wise up. We can't be the world's policeman. We have a zillion dollar deficit. We have a population with zero patriotism. And neither Russia nor China are expansionist powers. There are no "Hitlers" on the march. A strong navy, a strong airforce, and alliances with NATO and friendly pacific powers is all we need.
BTW, I"m suprised Kubrick supported Reagan, since all his movies are anti-military and subversive. You can pick out scenes out of context that seem to glorify military values but only if you ignore the rest of films
Harris should make a counter ad with Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning. Maybe appear with a Taylor Swift song in the background and Chelsea cutting some dance moves. Chelsea is lean and fit, not like that fat Admiral. She's ready for war and has a more nuanced view of combat than those Navy Seals, many of whom suffer from toxic masculinity. Be all that you can be in the Harris Army. Such an ad might cause many people, especially those in Hamas, to rethink their strategy about confronting the USA.
Reagan wanted to use the military sparingly if needed in the fulda gap
For instance he didnt want to invade a country if he didnt need to
Instead of a woke military, why not a Woke Division? Set aside one division for all the woke policies. When mobilization is required, send them in first.
The film is largely based on gustav hasfords account of basic and deployment to vietnam
I worked with a large contingent of VN combat vets. Fine bunch, as you said.
They stood out.
The Obama/Biden/Harris regime is not just a threat to our security ... they are funding America's enemies with our own tax dollars.
They are traitors and should be hung for their war crimes.
Was that when she was blowing Willie Brown?
Clockwork Orange man bad.
Gays Against Groomers is a 501(c)4 nonprofit of gays, lesbians, and others in the community who oppose the sexualization, indoctrination, and mutilation of children under the guise of radical “LGBTQIA+” activism. We are moms and dads, couples, siblings, husbands and wives, families and friends, typical gay American men and women who live our lives just like everyone else. Our mission is twofold: to end the war on children being carried out in our name, and to reclaim the community we once called our own, which at this point has become unrecognizable.
What we are witnessing is mass-scale child abuse being perpetuated on an entire generation, and we will no longer sit by and watch it happen. From its inception in 2022, Gays Against Groomers has shut down “family-friendly” drag shows aimed at children, lobbied for bills preventing child abuse and mutilation, given speeches at school board meetings, organized rallies and protests, spoken out from within the community, and endorsed candidates who unequivocally condemn the current state of the gender movement as much as we do.
Gender ideology isn’t just a neo-religious cult; it is biotechnological warfare in drag. Its propaganda machine is relentless, like a multi-headed hydra with claws in every corporate sector. Those in mainstream media who endorse the trans agenda fail to represent the interests and concerns of gay people. This agenda is wreaking havoc in our schools, in our government and legal sector, and in the medical community—at the expense of millions like us who disagree with prioritizing so-called “gender identity” over material reality. We of Gays Against Groomers are determined to put a stop to this insanity once and for all.
Red alert the basis for strangelove was more sober
Peace thru strength = war avoidance.
My reply to Gusty winds, also censored.
These arrogant bastards think they need to stick their algorithmic beaks into our conversation here on Althouse Blog and decide what we can see and say.
How could somebody be undecided about how to vote? What's it going to take?
And don't tell me Google isn't the government. There is no line between them.
From the movie The Stuntman (With Peter O’Toole)
“Eli Cross: I know a man who made an anti-war movie... a good one. When it was shown in his home town, army enlistment went up six hundred percent.”
We are a very different country in comparison to 1944, when we built 15 Essex class carriers and invaded a number of islands.
First we were worried that we couldn't build enough warships for the Navy, now we can't get enough sailors to sign up for the ones we build. It's a kind of corruption of our culture, not that I blame the kids. Who wants to go fight and kill people in other countries just to take their stuff and give it to rich friends of the President?
omg.
Sen. @AmyKlobuchar
, please define the Democratic Party and the Kamala Harris campaign in one sentence, please.
OK
Kind of like the song "Born in the USA." One thing about normal people is that you can count on them, well, us, to ignore complex "context" and focus on the glory.
Peace through superior firepower. On the flight deck flying a mission (I was an AF C-130E Tactical Qualified Navigator in the 80's) no one cared what religion you were, who you slept with or what color your skin was. We only cared that we all did our job and accomplished the mission. And if you fucked up, everyone knew about it because it was brought up at the debrief. I can assure you, your feelings were not part of the equation.
"Neither Russia nor China are expansionist powers." Russia has been an expansionist power for nearly 1000 years, bud. Any interregnum to that expansion is due to lack of ability, not desire. China is BUILDING FUCKING ISLANDS in the Philippine Sea.
I agree with nearly everything else in your post but that statement is pure unadulterated bullshit.
“We're gonna see like a bus going through Western Wisconsin with — I want you to picture this — Bernie Sanders & Dick Cheney together holding a sign that says brat fall.” @amyklobuchar x.com
uh - what? OK. Good to know Bernie Sanders and Darth Cheney got it going on.
USMC and 82nd Airborne are the primary strength of the United States. Naturally they are targeted by the WOKE INSANITY and DEI.
an arms race is not glamorous - but it is what it is.
Take a knee is a choice. Trust but verify requires an incentive. A weak stature is an invitation to redistributive or retributive change in a world with finitely available and accessible resources and green ambitions. Woke falls under the umbrella Diversity or class-disordered ideologies exacerbate the human condition. #HateLovesAbortion
I attended Marine boot camp about 6 years before Full Metal Jacket came out and was still in the Marine Reserves when I saw the movie. Even though there were some major and minor differences between my boot camp experience and the film, the imagery and vibe were startlingly similar to what I remember. Bear in mind, the film was of the Vietnam-era Marines and I attended, something like a dozen years after that period.
Some of the differences:
--We wore camouflage uniforms.
--I was at MCRD San Diego and the film was set at Paris Island.
--We had 3 drill instructors and I only remember one from the movie--nobody works 24/7, so while possibly good for dramatic purposes, highly unrealistic.
--There were two deaths in our company though not our platoon. Neither were murdered---one was a recruit who has a massive heart attack while on a PT running workout and another recruit drowned in the pool during swim qualifications.
--Shooting instructors kept tight control of ammunition when we were out at the range, so it would be difficult to possess unauthorized ammo. It happened once by accident and became something of an incident. After shooting, we would all go around and collect the brass casings. I came across a live round and put it into my cargo pocket to turn-in later, but then totally forgot about it. A few days later, I rediscovered it and knew that I'd be screwed if I came forward at this late date. So I casually tossed it out the window of the barracks. It was inevitably discovered and there was a major hubbub. Nobody confessed and there wasn't much they could do since the barracks had 6 platoons of 90 men each and they had no idea how long the round had been resting in that location before being found. In retrospect, maybe I should have flushed it down the toilet.
he didn’t fly through a wave just after takeoff.
In the next iteration, the plane will go underwater, the pilot will push the engines to SUPER full-power -- against specific orders not to do so in this situation -- only to resurface and fly away to Japan.
When the bomb doors open over Japan a large load of captured fish fall out, which the Japanese later find and consume, having nothing else to eat. Thus, sushi ultimately comes from America.
The draft is not gone. It is lurking in the background.
House Passes Bill To Automatically Register Young Men for the Draft
MIdway was awful because of obviously fake airplane action CGI. If you actually fly in formation, airplanes move nothing like what they portray. In particular they don't wiggle - they move without wiggle in some slightly different direction. That is, the direction effect is huge and the wiggle effect is unnoticeable. The movie has wiggle effect large and direction effect unnoticeable.
If you like lies - Vote D.
"The weather during Doolittle's take off bothers you? "
That was just one example. Since you bring up Best and link to an inteview, note that there is a graphic that explains why you don't drop the bomb below 1000' as depicted in Midway. What bothers me is in all the crap that Emmerich did to add drama, he made the aviators appear far less professional than they actually were. And in case you didn't know, what they did in war was already dramatic enough without the arcade nonsense.
Try watching "Tora, Tora, Tora". The Pearl Harbor raid in that movie is recreated every year at the "Wings over Houston" air show. Most of the planes in the movie recreation are still flying to do the air show recreation. It would be cheaper to just show them than to make that very bad CGI. It is also more dramatic because the aircraft actually fly like a real plane because they are real planes.
As for understanding Dick Best's part in the Battle of Midway, here's a 6-minute video clip from War and Remembrance, a TV mini-series from the 80's. After watching it, tell me you think "Midway" did a great job.
"Pearl Harbor" is much better than "Midway". One reason is because they used some of the "Tora, Tora, Tora" planes for the main scene in the movie. Kate Beckinsale is very attractive in that movie, and she is still in her prime. Don't know about Beckinsdale.
I have Full Metal Jacket on my DVDs watched list, and think I remember it as unmemorable. I couldn't bring myself to care much about anything in it, like watching an old black and white TV western.
Stranger than Fiction (2006) would be a recommendation, if you want something it's possible to get interested in. An IRS agent is the hero.
There are lots of YouTube audiobooks on Midway that are excellent, some 15-part and some a mere hour. You don't need visuals. Mostly analysis by Japanese commentators. The American point of view doesn't seem to be interesting enough to write about. Lots of planes went out, lots got shot down, but also some spectacular luck for the American strikes suddenly. As a battle of courage, it was a tie.
" Russia has been an expansionist power for nearly 1000 years"
Now do the United States. Now do any country over the past 1000 years. Any country at all. The difference between Russia and the US is that the Russians incorporated the nations they encountered in their expansion, and the US genocided them. If the US grew like the Russians have, we would have Cherokee republic, and Iroquois republic, a Sioux republic, Apache republic, etc, etc.
Russia has been invaded by the Mongols, the Swedes, the French, and the Germans. Russia's big invasion of Europe, well, the Soviets' was a counterattack to a Western European invasion that nearly reached Moscow.
how did he get confirmed?
Vivian is a Scientologist, but her father Stanley was born to Jewish parents. One year plus one week ago Jews were forcibly reminded of the need for a strong military.
Wait. The gov is trafficking kids? Is anybody checking who gets them? Any chance kids are being handed to former priests? or former Boys Scout masters? or Hollywood producers? or Music industry moguls?
The list is long and getting longer all the time.
I liked that movie.
I had actually thought about the difference in "Pearl Harbor" and "Midway" but forgot to note a few items above. Before I describe them, I'll note that directors need to have artistic license to depict things not necessarily exactly as they occurred but to convey the story they want to tell. That's fine, and even for a historical drama, I accept some changes have to be made.
For example, Emmerich uses the real-life person of Edwin Layton (portrayed by Patrick Wilson) to connect the movie and tell the story. This allows Emmerich to show the pre-war relationship between the US and Japan. And that's a good choice. Emmerich also wanted to tell the story of Wade McClusky, another hero beside Dick Best, in the Battle of Midway. However, Emmerich uses Wade McClusky in the attack on Pearl Harbor. He's the guy yelling "incoming" as they Japanese begin strafing. Ok. Later in the attack, we see Wade McClusky, a pilot, take the mount of an AA gun to fire back at the Japanese. That's a depiction of a real event during WWII when an untrained seaman took control of an AA gun to fight back. Except, in real life, that event was done by Doris Miller, a cook. Doris Miller won the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. He was also black and was portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. in "Pearl Harbor" more accurately. Still, Emmerich wanted to pay homage to the scene and used the actors and characters he chose to tell his story. I get it.
Emmerich also needed to show the drama of getting the B-25B's off the carrier for the Doolittle Raid. The real video actually makes it seem like was easy. So Emmerich puts the carrier in a storm with massive waves and has them take off in those conditions. Now consider how "Pearl Harbor" conveyed the difficulty of taking off a B-25B from a carrier deck. Michael Bay adds a scene showing them practicing at Hurlbert Field in Florida and shows them working out what it would take for the mission to be successful. Which one of those depictions make the people that fought WWII look more professional?
As for a good history of WWII in the Pacific, I recommend Midnight In the Pacific by Joseph Whelan. The Audibook is terrific. Those young recruits in The First Marine Division were indeed brave men. And they parlayed the Navy’s victory at Midway to win that war, although the Navy did mostly abandon
them for the crucial first two months.
Another good history was written by Merrill B Twinning the Operations Officer of the First Marines mostly from memory because predatory to surrender to Japs the Divisions records had been ordered burned. It was that close and was a loser until Nimitz replaced the local over cautious Navy Admiral with Halsey.
The “On No Bended Knee “ book is only on Kindle. (By Merril B Twining).
Like all of Kubrick's films FMJ is full of striking imagery and is well directed and edited. The first half is fantastic. The 2nd part - in Vietnam - isn't as good. Some of the scenes seem unrealistic and "Hollywood". The sniper scene always struck me as silly. A whole squad of combat experienced Marines are almost wiped out by a one female VC. Subversive but not believable. Possible but improbable.
Breathing O2 is still vital, but I would assume that given the abundance of electricity available on the super-carriers of the USN, that electrolysis is the preferred generating technology today.
Actually, onboard an aircraft carrier the A Gang produces pure oxygen and nitrogen using a process called cryogenic liquefaction to chill the air until the O2 and N2 become liquid and separate due to their differing liquefaction points.
A story from dad's bootcamp days: one soldier wasn't going to do pusups the way he was told. That evening everyone was in formation and the reluctant one was out in full gear - helmet, pack, and rifle. And that recruit lowcrawled under the line of barracks in thevdirt, bugs, and filth - back and forth until the sergeant was satisfied. Then he had to clean his gear up until it was satisfactory. No one else needed a lasson. This was tye early 1950s.
Power abhors a vacuum. If the USA isn't world police someone else will do it. You may not like that other nation's ideas very much.
Kubrick was much too smart and canny to think that he could make an antiwar movie that people would want to see. If he can be called antiwar, it was because, and only to the extent, that he was anti-institution and anti-system.
He said that he was attracted to stories of war because war is the ultimate liminal experience, and soldiers in combat live intensely.
To me the whole "Was Kubrick Anti-War?" debate is missing the point of his art.
I'm with Quaestor and the AI on this one.
Good one.
It’s the duality of man, sir. The Jungian thing.
JSM
I don't know who currently owns the rights to Full Metal Jacket, however if the Trump campaign paid the proper licensing fees, then Kubrick's heirs don't have a veto on how the clip is used.
DickCheney’s heart is not in it.
“duality”… Kamala Harris has added that word alongside “dreams”, “aspirations”, “community”, etc. that she includes in every horrible speech she makes.
…and you can keep it, Sparky!
Going through Navy boot camp back in '01, one of our RDCs (Recruit Division Commanders, Navy's version of drill instructors) would tell us that he would watch the boot camp scenes of FMJ with his wife for the comedic value. Obviously he couldn't pull any of those shenanigans with us, but after that we would keep an ear out whenever he shouted insults to see if we could spot a reference to the movie. It helped break up the monotony...
I spent two years in the Army in June 1975- June 1977 because my father, who had just bought a large ranch as cattle prices went south and interest rates went north, was being sued by a neighbor over his water rights -- a big deal, which he won but years later. So he had no money for college for me and I did the GI bill thing in exchange for two years of driving tanks in Germany. I remember many things about that but two stood out. One was a day of instruction in tank warfare, which included the famous 1973 Israeli story of two tanks holding off a battalion, but what impressed me the most was the 10 to 1 ratio we were going to be expected to kill versus being killed to win if the Russians did come through the Fulda Gap. The second was a tank which had a previous hole about 1 3/4 inch in diameter that had been an anti-tank weapon that had hit the turret and burned right through 12+ inches of steel, and had subsequently been refilled with a steel rod.
Anyway, my drill instructors were nowhere near as hardcore as the one in the Marines in FMJ, but the Marines wanted 4 years and the Army only 2 years, so for me the choice was easy. I do hope to see my buddy Randy at the 50th class reunion next year, as he did the 4 years in the Marines.
Hah, haven't laughed like that in a while. After all, everyone knows that the only good Marine is a Submarine...
I can appreciate a good trolling effort, but this one really felt like you were just phoning it in.
The dive bomber pilots off the Enterprise lead by McClusky never flinched as 4 Jap carriers were blown straight to hell.
Kevin. Don't say you weren't warned. But what about the women? Shouldn't they register as well?
Does anybody else remember the TV movie 'The Tribe'? It was a Marine Corps boot camp movie with Jan Michael Vincent, back when he was still pretty, and Darren McGavin as the D.I. JMV played a hippie, bringing long hair, beads, and Zen to boot camp.
Good for Vivian. If this story lasts, though, take bets on who'll be the first to mention her Nazi relatives.
Interesting about the oxygen. I never knew it was produced chemically. I was familiar with Oxygen Breathing Apparatus (OBA) which used a canister of chemicals to generate oxygen.
I had always assumed that oxygen, especially for aircraft and on a carrier was distilled from air in a LOX plant. (Compress and cool air into a liquid, run it through a distillation column, boil off oxygen, notrogen, argon at different stages of the column)
As a Machinist Mate I was required to know how to do that, though the only time I was ever in a working LOX plant was a visit to some buddies at the one at Roosevelt Roads where I drank coffee and did a tour.
There was a LOX plant on the USS Leyte CV-32 that was decommissioned and laid up in the Bayonne drydock. We used to go scavenging on it. Officially, my ship was homeported in Bayonne. Leyte was commissioned in 1946
John Henry
Let's be fair, Tim. Until WW2 Russia never won a war. It simply let its topography and weather defeat invaders. Also, in fairness, Russian serfs(slaves) had no incentive to die for the Czar.
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