FULL METAL JACKET 119
still out of the question in 1953, as per the Hays Code: “Sex perversion or any ref-
erence to it is forbidden.”
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Synopsis
Full Metal Jacket is a British- American war film produced and directed by Stanley
Kubrick. The film’s screenplay was adapted by Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav
Hasford from Hasford’s novel, The Short- Timers (1979). It follows a platoon of U.S.
Marines through boot camp at Parris Island and then into combat in the Vietnam
War during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
Background
Alabama native Gustav “Gus” Hasford (1947–1993) joined the U.S. Marine Corps
in 1966 and served a 10- month tour of duty (November 1967 to August 1968) in
Vietnam as a combat correspondent, where he covered the Battle of Huế, which
took place in March 1968, during the Tet Offensive. In the de cade that followed,
Hasford wrote some two dozen drafts of a Vietnam War novel that was eventually
published as The Short- Timers (Harper & Row, 1979; Bantam pbk. edition, 1980).
Though critically acclaimed, the book sold modestly and was soon remaindered.
Following The Shining (1980), director Stanley Kubrick pondered a Holocaust pic-
ture but fi nally deci ded to make another war film (his third, after Fear and Desire,
1953, and Paths of Glory, 1957) and sought out a creative collaboration with Michael
Herr (Vietnam War correspondent, author of Dispatches, 1979, technical advisor
for Coppola’s Apocalypse Now). In 1982 Kubrick discovered Hasford’s novel through
a notice in Kirkus Reviews, read it, and deci ded that it presented the kind of
bitterly sardonic perspective on war that he was seeking. Kubrick bought the film
rights from Hasford through an intermediary and proceeded to collaborate on a
screen adaptation with Michael Herr. As he had done with Herr, Kubrick carried
on a series of long- distance telephone conversations with Hasford before all three
men fi nally met at Kubrick’s Hertfordshire estate on 17 January 1985. Repelled by
Hasford’s intimidatingly brash demeanor, Kubrick barred him from the set and
never met with him again, though the trio continued to collaborate on rewrites of
the script by phone and mail. Kubrick also refused to give Hasford full credit as a
co- screenwriter, igniting a bitter dispute that Hasford eventually won by threaten-
ing to publicly embarrass Kubrick for cheating a Vietnam veteran.
Production
Stanley Kubrick initially hoped to cast Anthony Michael Hall (The Breakfast Club)
as Pvt. Joker but negotiations stretching over eight months ended in failure. Mat-
thew Modine, who had already starred in two Vietnam War– themed movies—
Robert Altman’s Streamers (1983) and Alan Parker’s Birdy (1984)— was cast in the
lead role. The drill instructor role went to the film’s technical advisor, R. Lee Ermey,
a Vietnam vet and Parris Island drill instructor who had acted in other Vietnam