120 FULL METAL JACKET
War films (Sidney Furie’s The Boys in Com pany C, 1978, and Coppola’s Apocalypse
Now, 1979). In Hasford’s novel Private Pyle is described as “a skinny redneck” but
Kubrick opted to portray him as obese. Accordingly, Vincent D’Onofrio gained 70
pounds to play him. Because Kubrick lived in Britain and was unwilling to travel,
settings there masqueraded for locations in the United States and South Viet-
nam. The Parris Island training scenes and the air base at Da Nang were shot at
Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire, England, while the Parris Island bar-
racks set was built inside an old asbestos factory in a London suburb. Kubrick
re- created the war- torn city of Huế at the Beckton Gas Works, a square- mile
complex on the River Thames near London, closed since 1969. Working from
still photo graphs of Huế, Kubrick’s production designer, Anton Furst, had
buildings blown up and used a wrecking ball to knock simulated shell holes in
other buildings. Signs and wall advertisements in Viet nam ese and other embel-
lishments (including 200 imported Spanish palm trees and 100,000 plastic
tropical plants from Hong Kong) were added for effect. Matthew Modine called
the Beckton Gas Works “an environmental disaster area” that sickened the cast
and crew (Modine, 2005).Plot Synopsis
During the Vietnam War a group of new recruits arrives at Marine Corps Recruit
Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, for 13 weeks of basic training. After having
their heads shaved, they are assembled in barracks and harangued by Se nior Drill
Instructor Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (Lee Ermey), who insults and belittles them in
order to break down their individuality and rebuild them as Marines. Among the
men in the platoon are Pvts. “Snowball” Brown (Peter Edmund), James T. “Joker”
Davis (Matthew Modine), “Cowboy” (Arliss Howard), and Leonard “Gomer Pyle”
Lawrence (Vincent D’Onofrio), an obese, dimwitted recruit who is paired with Joker
after proving himself hopelessly inept in every endeavor. Pvt. Lawrence makes
improvements as the Joker works with him, but when Hartman finds an “illegal”
doughnut in Lawrence’s footlocker, things go downhill: Hartman states that the
75- man platoon will be punished for every mistake Lawrence makes while he is
spared. One night the platoon exacts vengeance on Lawrence with a “blanket party”;
they hold him down in his bed and beat him with towel- wrapped bars of soap.
After this incident, Lawrence seems to become a model Marine (and a surprisingly
good marksman). Hartman is impressed, but Joker recognizes signs of incipient
psychosis when Lawrence begins to talk to his M-14 rifle. Following graduation,
Joker is assigned to a Military Journalism unit while most of the remaining platoon
members are assigned to Infantry. Having drawn Fire Watch (barracks sentry duty)
on the final night at Parris Island, Joker discovers Lawrence in the latrine, looking
deranged and loading his M-14 with live ammunition. Joker attempts to persuade
Lawrence to return to his bunk but Lawrence starts to drill while loudly reciting
the Rifleman’s Creed, awakening Hartman and the rest of the platoon. Hartman
confronts Lawrence and tells him to drop his weapon, whereupon Lawrence kills
Hartman and then himself. The scene then switches to Da Nang, South Vietnam,