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R Lee Ermey was a legit marine and improvised damn near every line of this in the movie

I met Gunny years ago at an event. He couldn't have been more humble and kind to my wife and I. He was more interested about my service than talking about his. RIP Gunny.

Boyd, take it from a Marine the boot camp portion of this movie is 99% accurate. The actor playing the Drill Instructor actually was a Drill Instructor. However, I understand that very recently the outspokenness of Drill Instructors has been muzzled.

His wife used to babysit me as a kid. My dad and gunny knew each other from the marines. Super nice guy. Used to golf with him a lot. First time my wife met him, she was worried he was gonna scream at her. Soon as he saw her (we came in back of the room) he jumped up, looked her right in the eyes, and goes, "here you go sweety. There aren't any more seats. Take mine. How are you today?" Got pics if you don't believe me

"But the Marine Corps lives forever, and that means, you live forever." RIP R. Lee Ermey

I love him saying that "this is not the job for him" about possibly the most well-known real-life drill instructor.

That's about how it was. I served 20 years in the Marine Corp and two combat tours in Vietnam. The first tour as a machine gunner (0331) in 1965-66 and the second as a Platoon commander (0369) in 1970-71. I retired after 20 years and had a 30 year career as a California police officer ( Marin County). What I learned in the Marine Corps has helped me all my life. I highly recommend it to anyone needing direction and wishing to learn self discipline . Tom Boyte GySgt. USMC, retired Bronze Star, Purple Heart

1:35 Take it from a US Army Cold War Veteran (1983-1986), other than the being physically struck, this is very accurate to Basic Training. One of my Drill Sergeant’s favorite name for us was “Dickweeds”, we weren’t worthy of the muck on the bottom of his boot, so on and so on. After graduation I asked him why he was so hard on us and he responded, “You see Hoffman , we have just 13 weeks to teach a punk off the street how to be a Soldier and hopefully survive if sent to combat, we can’t do that being nice and respectful.”

Had to take down and re upload, due to some language used in the beginning of the movie.

My dad graduated Parris Island, in 1965. Did 12 years, and got his honorable discharge, as Staff Sgt, USMC He said this was absolutely correct, for that time. These guys had to be hard. They knew what these kids, who were just in high school, drinking with their friends, were about to face. And, they only had a few weeks to do it. Also, not everyone was there by choice. Mental health was rarely a consideration, in boot.

They weren't sending these guys up against a rival football team, they were sending these guys out to kill or be killed. It's not about being comforting and nurturing, it's about shaping a normal person into a weapon of war. To be fair, they should have ejected Pyle a long time before he got a dose of batsh*t.

Vincent D'Onofrio is the actor in Private Pyle. He gained 75 pounds for the role. He's been in many other roles in several movies and TV series.

The “Gomer Pyle” name originated from Gomer Pyle, USMC; A TV show 1964-69 starring Jim Neighbors It was pretty funny Not sure how well it would hold up today? I haven’t seen an episode in decades- Might be fun for you to explore it just for nostalgia

I was in the Army. The basic training is spot on accurate. R. Lee Ermy was a drill instructor for the Marines in real life. He insisted on making it real to life. You have to realize a drill instructor’s job is to get men ready for war. Military life is no joke.

10:17 this is called a “blanket party”, yes it did happen back in my day (Cold War Era, 1983-1986), it wasn’t condoned by the Drill Sergeants, but we weren’t punished for it either. They “look the other way” as long as the recruit isn’t seriously injured.

There was no leaving, those boys were drafted, Hartman had 6 weeks to get them ready to go into battle. He had to be hard or they'd be soft and that would get them or their fellow soldiers dead.

I graduated MCRD in August 1987 and I saw this the night I got out. This is the most accurate representation of Marine boot camp I have ever seen.

Basic Combat Training has two purposes: 1: to increase physical and emotional stress on the recruit to prove to the recruit that they actually can perform under a level of stress that a civilian would believe to be absurd, and 2: to find the occasional recruit that cannot, in fact, operate under that level of stress. In today's military, they're sent home with a "Thanks for trying!" discharge. In the Vietnam era and the draft, you stayed in unless you were utterly broken.

This is the most accurate depiction of Marine Corps boot camp I've ever seen! I went through Paris island bootcamp in 1969 and this is exactly what I went through. Marine training is harsh, very harsh. At least it was. The pressure was to weed out people that can not handle stress and pressure. If they could break you down mentally in the safety of bootcamp then you probably would break down in the heat of battle, get yourself killed as well as some of your buddies. Most of what you see here was from the program at that period.

1:26 i joined the Army as an infantryman in 1999. It was almost as bad as this except they werent allowed to touch you although the drill sgts got pretty creative. i personally saw on 2 different occasions a guy's fingers stepped on as they walked by and another guy kicked in the ribs as both were doing pushups. There were other crazy incidents that occured during the 3.5 months i spent in bootcamp, but generally the in-your face nastyness gradually subsided as the weeks wore on.

According to a couple of my uncles that were Marines during Vietnam, that is definitely how boot camp was. Nowadays I’m sure even the Marines no longer allow the direct physicality, since that aspect was no longer a thing when I joined the Navy. I was in boot camp in summer 94 (one of the final few classes to attend recruit training in Orlando), and our company commanders were very much still in your face and would discipline the entire company for the mistakes of an individual, although we were explicitly told that blanket parties were forbidden.

Kubrick is required viewing. The Army screened this for us right before we started basic training in 1988, and no, basic training was nothing like portrayed in the film. I was probably the only person in the theatre who knew who Stanley Kubrick was. Great reaction Sir.

R. Lee Ermey wasn’t even supposed to have this role. He was originally brought on as a consultant to choose and coach the actor for the Drill Instructor. In the end, he convinced Stanley Kubrick to give him a shot. Kubrick was not one to admit mistakes, but he said he couldn’t believe it took him so long to realize he already had the right guy. Everyone I’ve talked to who went through Marine Corps Basic Training (from Vietnam to recently) have said this is pretty accurate for the most part because of Ermey’s dedication to the role. Most have told me, though, that the only difference would be there are usually three DI’s in your face instead of just the one. Obviously, for the sake of the movie’s dialogue, they couldn’t do that. But Kubrick and Ermey nailed the intensity.

This was extremely accurate, at least for it's time period, and I'm referring to the boot camp portion. The actor that depicted the senior drill instructor was a real Marine Corps DI. Former Marine myself here, too. Semper Fi.

It is the drill instructors job to create a high level of stress during boot camp so they get used to stress and become desensitized so that when then soldiers come in contact with the stress of war it is not a complete shock. Drill instructors are not permitted to hit you anymore(not to say it doesn’t still happen) but they do still get up in your face and scream

One of the major goals of Basic training, is to strip away (sometimes forcibly) a lot of the individual characteristics of the troops, and then rebuild them. Because in combat, hesitating to follow an order can be deadly. So there's a fair bit of "you're always wrong" that gets employed, both as an excuse to exercise the unit, and as a psychological tool. In the scene about Virgin Mary (8:10), Modine's character basically says, I know you're going to say I'm wrong, regardless, so I won't play that game any further. And that is why he gets made Squad leader. As harsh as he is in that film(and that's very similar to Army Basic in the early 90's), the Drill Sargent's job isn't to weed out perse, but to strip down and rebuild roughly 50 people in 8 weeks, while teaching them a host of other skills. It's harsh by necessity

From a 70’s Army vet - the boot camp scenes are very accurate!! I’ll be watching you !! 🇺🇸

Gomer Pyle was a character from the Andy Griffith show back in the 60's.

Army vet here. I swear that the drill sgts had to go to a comedy class in drill instructor school….So of the stuff they would say was actually hilarious…As long as it wasn’t directed at you. One memory I had was we got smoked one day (exercised until you puked and then some) then we had to climb the ropes. 40 foot tall ropes, had to climb, hit the top cross log and then back down again. The very first guy to climb got to the top and his arms gave out. He fell 40 feet right on to the sand and knocked himself out, snoring. The ambulance came to take him to the hospital and he finally woke up on the stretcher. The drill Sgt walked up to him and asked “ are you ok?” And the Private said “yes drill Sgt”..To which the drill Sgt fired back “THEN WHY’D YOU LET GO DICKFACE!” And slammed the ambulance door shut.. We laughed about that one for years.

The drill sergeant in this movie was a Marine drill sergeant and was highly sought out to play these roles as he was an expert consultant for military roles in movies. In the timeframe that this movie was supposed to be taking place, the military had to churn out thousands of civilians through boot camp to ship them out to war in Vietnam. Our Marines are the toughest group of servicemen around and drill sergeant’s in general do not have the luxury of time to break 18 years plus of bad habits that have been engrained in civilians. Drill instructors have about 12-16 weeks to mold you into what the military wants you to be for discipline and survival. Please review the movie The Boys from Company C. This is a much older Vietnam film with the same drill sergeant “Lee Ermey” who was much younger but you really get to see the connection he has to make with our young American men to get them ready for Vietnam. He is famous in the Marine Corps. RIP Lee. The container on the helmet was mosquito repellent. In Vietnam, mosquitoes were horrible; yellow fever and malaria was running rampant. This war killed so many of our troops and really messed up their mental and physical health. Our troops had to deal with a war that we were not supposed to be in to begin with, booby traps, drugs, diseases, constant death, exposures to chemicals to deforest the jungles, getting captured, tortured as POWs, and then returning home to be outcasted by our own people here in America and poor medical care/job transitioning. Based on what we saw in this film, can you imagine the help these guys would need for normalcy when they returned home? Good review my brother and please review more.

I went to Coast Guard boot camp in 1978. This is exactly what it was like when the Company Commander came walking through the barracks.

The drill instructor In this movie was originally hired to train the actor that got the part. Every actor that they tried couldn't handle the stress and quit; so, he got the part.

That was a bottle of LSA (Lubricant, Small Arms) which was distributed in the same kind of bottle as school glue, but in OD green and clear on the lid. Smart soldiers know you need to keep your rifle well lubricated to keep rust, dust, and dirt from shutting down your rifle. They learned that the hard way in Vietnam. LSA was issued until the 80's or so when they replaced it with Breakfree CLP (Cleaner, Lubricant, Protectant) reducing the amount of stuff a soldier needed to clean his weapon. LSA is still good, you just can't use it by itself to clean your gun. You have to use solvent to actually clean it and oil to lube and protect it. CLP does all three.

Its gotten better in recent times from what i hear but they still scream in your face and physically train you for EVERYTHING 😊😊👍👍

Great review! I forgot a lot of scenes in this movie. The bottle on the helmet was most likely bug repellant. They were in the jungle and mosquitos were brutal.

My father was drafted(lucky for you younger people nowadays>

I remember my recruiter telling me to watch this movie cause it was the training brochure for Marine Corps Boot Camp. Best times of my life. 100% accurate and so very worth every second

I was 7yrs old when I met R. Lee. Camp Pendleton. My Mom was a Corporal at the time at SOI. And he was there yelling at fresh marines who took to long getting out the pool after their drop. That was in '90 I believe? Maybe '91. Dude was not a hollywood marine. He was the real deal.

“I’m no longer shocked because I expect it to be like this” Yeah pretty much

100% accurate for the time period. I'm from a Marine family and served from 1997 to 2013. There is a reason the drill instructor does everything he does to the recruits.

Instead of filming the movie in a tropic region, it was actually filmed in an abandoned factory outside of London, England. That is why the sky is overcast

Boyd explaining that eskimo p**** would be warm was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.

Lee Army was a Gunnery Sergeant in the US Marine Corps he was originally supposed to be the coordinator for the movie but the actor who was supposed to play the gunnery sergeant dropped out of the movie last minute so they put the technical advisor Lee Army in the movie and they let him a bleb all the parts

One of the things about boot camp is that the drill instructors intentionally do funny shit, so that you can be disciplined for laughing. They will test you constantly. Depending on your experience, your Drills may give you an opportunity to perform your best impersonations of them when you're close to graduating.

I served in the U.S. Marine Corp's and that Boot Camp Scene was spot on, I trained at Parris Island during the early 1980s, however, and understanding the time constraints making the movie, the positive end of Recruit Training is not shown, there were many postive and motivating moments during Recruit Training. That Guy playing the Drill Instructor is R. Lee Ermy, he was in the Marine Corp's and he was an actuall Drill Instructor, they are just like that, all of them. As for the racial overtones the belittlements, the mind games through odd questions, that is done to break down the Recruits individualities, Racial Identities and to mold them into U.S. Marines, a Team, a band of brothers. The title Marine is earned. When a Marine graduates Recruit training he is no longer what ever color, he is not this or that, He is a United States Marine. A liberal once quipped that the Marines were too radical, then some else replied, thank god we have such radicals to face our nations enemies.

He was a former Drill instructor and was consolidating on the film the actor couldn’t yell for that long so he stepped in and most of his lines were he words! He’s a bad ass! RIP

The fact the whole movie was filmed in London and a few other places in the UK is mind blowing.

People don't understand that this is set during the Vietnam War and the D.I. is trying to get the recruits ready for combat.

Back in the early 1980s, when video tape machines were first coming out, my submarine pulled into Subic Bay Naval Station in the Philippines. Right outside the main gate was the city of Olongapo, which was about 20x20 square blocks of bars and hookers. Beers were 10 cents, girls were $10 all night (you negotiated with Mama-san and she gave you a written receipt) and air conditioned hotel rooms were $8 a night. The girls would stand on a balcony and yell down "I love you no shit, buy me Betamax".

R. Lee Ermey, (Sgt. Hartman), as will be mentioned a hundred times in every reaction video to Full Metal Jacket, was a read Drill Sergeant during Vietnam. As people say, it was a different time. Now we have a military made of volunteers who want to join up, you can quit at any time during training, they can't afford to be rough to you, but they also have to put you under stress and duress because whoever we go to war with aren't going to be as polite. During Vietnam, they had a lot of people who DID NOT want to join, especially the Marines. Only the Billy bad asses with a chip on their shoulders joined the Marines for the most part. Snowball, Joker, Cowboy, and Gomer were probably the "nice" guys who joined the Marines because their grandfathers or dads were Marines or they wanted to prove themselves. The vast majority of guys who ended up in the Marines were the people who didn't have the intellect or demeanor to be assigned to the other branches. The Marines were the last branch of the military to not require a high school diploma as late as the 90's (most branches won't accept you without an AAS if you just have a GED). This is why the Marines have the reputation of being dumb crayon eaters. The recruits that Ermey/Hartman had to deal with were draftees who did not want to be there and thought if they were disruptive enough, they would get kicked out, so they got beaten down and broken and built up again. A lot of guys in the 50's, 60's, and 70's were often there under court order. They were given a choice between joining the Marines with a misdemeanor to get straightened out or going to prison with a felony. The average guy who joined the Marines at that time were not nice guys, they were there for a reason, usually a bad one. So they got "tough love". Marine drill instructors at the time were allowed to be rough on recruits as long as they didn't hospitalize or kill them, because the Nazis/Chinese Army/Viet Cong would be a lot tougher on them. Their fellow Marines and other US soldiers' lives depended on them being disciplined and well trained to complete whatever task or mission they were assigned. One of my friends went to Parris Island right before the movie came out. They screened FMJ at Parris Island and my buddy watched it alongside his DI's. After the movie, they had a pow wow where the DI's, who were recruits during Vietnam or the 70's talked about their training during that time period, how accurate the movie was. At a certain time during Basic training, everything "clicks" and your DI is no longer your enemy, but a coach. It's like when you realize your disciplinary principal or least liked teacher really weren't that bad, they were just having to deal with a bunch of asshole kids. :)

For some more good war movies - Platoon, We Were Soldiers, Hamburger Hill, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Thin Red Line

My dad and uncles are Vietnam vets and all said that is accurate basic training. Ermy was not the original actor, he was brought in as a technical advisor and given the job because he was the very epitome of the era. Those men were headed straight to Vietnam and the meat grinder. Kid gloves and feelings were far from what they needed.

I have watched this movie I don't know how many times, and never noticed that he didn't have a magazine in his rifle in that scene. Great catch!!

The entire second half of the movie was actually filmed in England. Kubrick hated flying so he looked for a suitable site in the London area. It was a factory area that was scheduled to be demolished. He had the palm trees flown in for the scenes.

The gunny was actually a really nice guy. He had his own show on the History Channel. Yeah the one-liners in this movie are epic . I'm a dork but I used to play World of Warcraft and I had early roomies one-liners from this movie Mackro"ed lol . I really dug the the brown stain on the mattress that one always crack me up

I was in Parris Island in the summer of 1967. This is 100% accurate, as I heard every curse Lee Ermey shouted personally. The 3 drill instructors punched recruits in the chest, in the jaw, squeezed their Adam's Apple while they poked the eyes of the recruit. I was nearly killed in Vietnam less than seven months later by mortar fire.

this is one of those movies I consistently go back to - I absolutely love it

the bottle in the guys headband was Insect Repellant i believe

Ralph Lee Ermy, Semper Fi. He said that in the role he played as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, that he was playing a DI that had to get recruits ready for war as soon as they graduated boot camp. Vietnam was in full swing and it was already bloody.

Boot camp is how the military breaks down the individual person and indoctrinate them to become a soldier that is part of a unit. This is done through both physical and mental stressors. Famously, Marine boot camp is at another level compared to the other US branches. This is an accurate portrayal of Marine boot camp (at least for the time period). As many others noted, that actor was an actual Marine drill sergeant.

This is actually pretty tame compared to my Boot Camp Experience... but I was also "Trailer Trash" and got the full experience... My Rack Mate was from Puerto Rico, and spoke no English... so, without being able to talk, and not knowing any Spanish, I had to teach him enough English to get through Boot Camp... And if he messed up, the Drill Instructors would inflict some Emotional Damage on him by making him watch as they "Punished Me" until he got it right. But, that also led to one of the most emotional moments of my life. We had a brief moment alone in the woods with no Drill instructors around... And with tears in his eyes he said to me, "Thank You. You have changed my life and opened up every opportunity now that I know I can speak English." Edit: I have never seen this movie before, and the situation I described about me and my Rack Mate was a real Jelly Donut Situation.

It was a factory that was under demolition in England, you can see the steam in their breaths when they exhale, Kubrick had them suck on ice so there wouldn’t be so much steam. they were at that wall where eightball was killed for several months, shooting those scenes.

The first half hour of the movie is the best part

I love how Joker reports a possible attack and is completely dismissed right before the tett offensive.

Gomer Pyle comes from an old television show that ran from 1964 to 1969, so it would have been on TV when these soldiers were in basic training. Jim Nabors played the title character. He wasn't very bright and had a lot of little quirks. The character was originally introduced in the Andy Griffith Show and they gave him a spin off series. The door gunner on the helicopter was the original actor who they had picked to play Sgt Hartman, the drill instructor. After Ermy impressed Kubrick so much, they gave the actor this role to play instead of the huge role of Hartman.

11:05 this movie is set during the Vietnam War, they were drafted, he can’t leave unless they (USMC) deem him unfit for service (4F) or crazy (S8, a.k.a. section 8), he’s stuck.

Basic training has changed a lot now days. One thing my DI would want us to say was this " Thank You For Conditioning My Mind, Body and Soul Feel Free To Drop Me Any Time." They would say Anytime and we would all scream out Anytime and knock out 50+ more push ups.

As a veteran, this is pretty close! I watched 2 drill sargents kick my best friend after he fell into a ditch during a road March. He had a heart attack, and had died.. and they're kicking him...sad.

This movie should be shown in every (American) university to give those students perspective on what is offensive and what is not. Without trigger warnings.

Lee Emory gave an interview he said no drill instructor was as mean as the movie character but this "type" of thing happened from time to time in boot camps. A single drill instructor would ultimately be tasked with readying literally thousands of young men to go into the Vietnam jungle and survive the war. There simply wasn't enough time, if someone was fucking up you could stop for 50 pushups or you could punch the guy up in the throat for it and move on.

Kubrick was a goddamn genius.

The motto was your either gonna break or make it either way they had to prepare you for war

I heard that Kubrick had the peace symbol on Jokers helment slowly turns away from the camera showing Jokers transition from peaceful journalist to another cog in the machine.

There's literally no way to quit. This was during the draft. Some of these men committed minor offenses & were given the choice go to jail or go to war. Didn't matter if you were cut out for service or not, you were going to serve.

This is during the Vietnam war. He was most likely drafted. If they let every non hacker out there wouldn’t be enough left to fight the war.

We also had a private that could not stop smiling. He got "extra" attention, in that every time any one else would get in trouble, he also would have to go and PT with them. He was called our "airplane pilot" because he was on "automatic pilot" in that he was to automatically run to the quarterdeck to get punished whenever someone else got punished. Boot camp was EASY compared to other things I had experienced. There was so much waiting around in line, such as waiting in line to get into eat, or waiting in line behind 150 people to get a haircut. There was a LOT of actual classroom time. The actual training time was limited. Do you know how long it take for 300 people to run the obstacle course? I went like first (because I always did), about a 10-minute course, and then you sat on the ground for a couple of hours waiting for the rest of the group to go through it. A LOT of "dead time".

Vincent D'Onofrio (pyle) is an awesome actor. i was hype to see him playing as Kingpin in the MCU especially in The Punisher show

I was in the Navy and Ive seen 3 people take their lives. One was right after chow (lunch). I was on the 3rd floor of our barracks and one of the recruits had just a towel on and ran faster than hell to the balcony and dove over the railing. Ive seen 2 other but it would take a while to explain but this was during boot camp and our school there in San Diego

"He's silly and he's ignorant, but he's got guts and guts is enough." Meaning it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you have the strength to gut it out.

I was a Navy brat, born on a Marine Air Base in NC. The Navy and Marines are related. Anyway, I had an interesting childhood. I look back on it with fond memories. I mean, we lived in Hawaii when I was a teenager in the 80s, how cool is that?? But Ill tell you this, if your new girlfriend has a father who is a drill instructor...dude... your ABSOLUTE(!!!) best behavior. EG: lots of "sir", solid eye contact, posture, no jokes, and tuck your shirt in. Thats just to get in the front door of her house!

You have to remember that many of these guys were drafted into the military back in those days. They did not volunteer.

When I was in Marine Corps Boot Camp, the verbal was the same, the physical was not allowed in the 80's when I enlisted. I sit and laugh at this part with tears coming down my face. Gunny Hartman is portrayed by R. Lee Ermey who was a Drill Instructor in the Marine Corps at San Diego, Ca. During the Vietnam era this was common the verbal and physical did occur.

Having graduated from Boot Camp 36s years ago, I sure do miss life in the Corps. I was a best job I ever had. Unfortunately, it was also the worse job I ever had

My Dad (who was drafted into the Army during Vietnam) always said this is the most accurate portrayal of Boot Camp that he’s ever seen in any movie, TV show, etc.

He had a bit part in Apacalypse Now and he did a fantastic part in a very old movie, The Boys in Company C! Back before the 90s, D.I.s job was to get u out of the military, not keep u. So they attacked all weaknesses, could cuss at u, put hands in u. Today's recruits could not take a guy like this. I went to basic in 84, was active duty until 91, and got several I.R.R. call backs, all the way until 2010. And I can clearly say, our military is on life support.

In an interview, Lee Ermey explained that, a DI putting hands on a recruit was absolutely against USMC policy. Did it happen anyway? He went on to say that it would happen in certain circumstances, but if a DI was reported for doing that, he would be facing major trouble including court martial, reduction to lowest grade, and possibly incarceration. He explained that in Full Metal Jacket, although not addressed in the film, recruit training in those days was reduced to six weeks in order to send troops to Vietnam quicker. This put more pressure than usual on Drill Instructors, and recruits.

It was an age of discovery. Sarge discovered a doughnut in Pvt Pyle's foot locker. Pvt Pyle's M-14 discovered Sarge in the latrine.

Private Pyle couldn't resign, he was probably drafted, but even if he enlisted, you don't just quit. He was also probably one of "McNamara's Misfits". "Project 100,000" was a program instituted during the Vietnam war by the US Defense Department to recruit soldiers who would normally have been unable to enlist due to being mentally or medically unfit for service.

6:28 - One thing I never thought about till your comment was "wait...this was during Vietnam. Pvt Pyle probably got drafted and didn't even want to be there" then the bathroom scene happened.

The "me love you long time" was sampled by 2 Live Crew in the 80s in their record "Me So H0rny." It was very controversial at the time and the group was prosecuted with obsenity charges. Very culturally relevant song in history of rap/hip hop.

Yah, it's what really happened in boot up until a few years ago. Also, R. Lee. Ermy WAS a drill instructor in his beloved Corp.

9 year marine veteran here. It's TRUE. Went in 38 years ago.

He's doing his job. He's breaking them of all their bad habits and breaking them down completely before building them back up again into Marines who can survive combat.

I met a Army National Guardsmen from Alaska (he was also an Eskimo). During bootcamp his Drill Sargent was singing the cadence about Eskimo pussy being cold. This recruit shouted in formation "Bull Shit!" The whole platoon was slammed for that.

Gomer pyle originated in 1964 from a tv show called "Gomer pyle, u.s.m.c" My dad showed me that show when I was a kid along with this movie lol

21:15 the bottle on his helmet is probably mosquito repellent.

It's very close to the real thing and R.Lee Ermey was a real U.S.Marine drill Sergeant instructor this is why he play this part so well

Originally the helicopter door gunner was supposed to be the Drill Sargent & Gunny was just the technical Director . But when they saw & heard Gunny unload a barrage of insults & orders they gave the role to him

At this point in the war, most of these guys were drafted, and they had to churn out new recruits ASAP. Aside from any medical conditions, Bootcamp was the actual selection process: Break them down, then rebuild them into Marines