Y’all were laughing early on in the basic training scene and I kept thinking , “You’re not going to be laughing in a few minutes.”

Stanley Kubrick was the cinematic genius of his day. His movies have been studied and pondered for years. Besides "The Shining", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Dr. Strangelove" and "A Clockwork Orange" are some of his most watched movies, but everything he made was brilliant.

Thank you for reacting. I am a Vietnam era man who resisted the draft and did not serve. A very dear friend did serve a tour of duty. Fortunately, he returned home safely. He was a different man after serving. He would not talk about it. He was jumpy around loud noises. It took about a year for him to seem his old self. The good news is that he used the GI Bill to pay for his schooling at Palmer College of Chiropractic. I miss him every day.

What happened to Private Pyle with the soap was called a "Blanket Party", and though it never happened in my unit, it was definitely a real thing. Great movie and a Great reaction!

My Dad was a Vietnam Marina and says that this is exactly what his boot camp experience was like - exactly…

Bit of trivia: the Vietnamese sniper wasn’t actually using a Kalashnikov. It looks very similar, but her rifle was actually a Czechoslovakian rifle called the vz.58. It has a similar appearance and fires the same cartridge as the AK-47, but is quite different mechanically.

Lee Emery was not only a real drill instructor, he was a war veteran. During Vietnam, Marine boot camp was cut down from 13 weeks to 8. They had to be this mean. Emery stated everyday he checked to see if his former recruits were dead. They are responsible for teaching those men everything from making a bed correctly to surviving a war.

I graduated from Marine Corps boot camp in Parris Island in 1986, drill instructors never run out of that material. This movie was actually filmed in England. This was an anti-war film by Stanley Kubrick, he did do The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey and many others.

Full Metal Jacket refers to the metal casing on the rifle bullets. A bullet has two main parts, the shell and the bullet itself. Shells are normally made out of brass, while the bullet (the part that gets fired out of the gun) is usually made out of lead. Lead is very soft. It tends to quickly gum up the inside of semi-automatic guns and cause them to jam. Lead bullets also won't penetrate objects as well. So bullets for assault rifles, as well as some handgun bullets have a metal "jacket" on the bullet.

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

1:20 -- My dad was stationed at Quantico in the late 60s, and he assures me that this Gunny was *very* typical of dudes in that line of work.

A small snippet of trivia. Kubrick is the guy holding the camera, and shooting the tracking scene when they're all lined up, sitting against the wall.

Such an awesome movie! That entire bootcamp section is incredibly done.

You can see the different personalities between who was drafted and who volunteered in this movie. The writer, director, and the actors did very well at representing that. The ones who volunteered were there to kill, and those drafted were there only because they were forced to. They didn't want to kill as much as survive, but many of them became killers anyway because of the emotional trauma.

I have never seen it specifically stated by Kubrick anywhere, but Private Pyle is a clear representation of a real program that the Defense Department ran in the 1960s. It was called "Project 100,000" and it was a test to see whether the mental and physical parameters for serving in the US military could be widened to make the pool of potential service people larger. Between escalation in Vietnam and all the other military commitments of the Cold War in those days, the military was concerned about a shortage of people to serve. So they started testing whether recruits who were normally just a bit below the normal standard for IQ, or emotional stability, or physical fitness could be turned into effective military personnel. The same program would have led to Forrest Gump being recruited and serving in Vietnam. ✌💯

Just like the helmet and pin, this movie is a dichotomy. The universe as a cold, heartless mishmash of meaninglessness, humor and tragedy. Brilliant

Enjoyed your reaction. Another very good Vietnam (anti-)war movie is "Platoon" (1986) by Oliver Stone with Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger.

Kubrick didn't do many films but they're all on a different level, starting with "Paths Of Glory."

The gunner in the chopper was supposed to be the drill Sargent. A real life drill Sargent took the job from him.

Also, I had a friend (recently passed from Covid) who was a platoon Sgt. in Vietnam, decorated, purple heart, brought back a pistol and belt from an NVA officer with documentation. He said the battle scenes in Hua were very realistic.

I saw this in the theater when it came out. After it was over, we all walked out just stunned. It was the most intense film I had ever seen at the time. It blew away every war film that I had seen before it. Then I saw Saving Private Ryan....

1. There are always more than one CC in boot camp (at least in the Navy) where partially recruits can't be abused. Verbal abuse is one thing but physical was a NO GO. 2. Vincent D'Onofrio played the Bug in MIB and had to put on 50lbs for this role 3. Hardman was out of control. Others outside his recruits would have noticed and he would have been held accountable. 4. "I don't know, but I've been told. Eskimo pussy is mighty cold." was used in my Navy recruit company in 1981. 5. In the US Navy real live ammo was always accounted for, and Pyle wouldn't have had it on his person in the head. 6. The lights in the head are always lit. (lighting I suspect). 7. "Blanket parties" were a real deal. We didn't have one because we didn't have a Gomer Pyle. 8. The hooker in Saigon is just distracting them so the motorcycle guys can steal the camera. I saw that happen in the Philippines. 9. "I wouldn't shit you, you're my favorite turd" I've used that. 🤣 10. Even by Hollywood standards, Kubrick went overboard with excessive bloodletting.

I went through Parris Island in 1980, two of the Drill instructors, including the Senior, had served in Vietnam and were the real deal when it came to hardasses, and R. Lee Ermey nails it perfectly. The Pvt. Pyle character, most likely in real life, would have long since been "Recycled", that is forced to repeat beginning training all over again with a new platoon until he either got it or was discharged as being unfit.

I loved your reaction to this war classic, Joy & Marian. It really is hard hitting. R Lee Ermy played the Drill Instructor and he was a real life DI, originally on set as a technical advisor but Stanley Kubrick was so impressed with his demonstration of what he was about that he cast him as the DI and most of his dialogue was improvised. The most impressive military performance I've ever seen. I recommend seeing him in The Boys In Company C (1978) - which is like FMJ, but just during Marine training.

You should watch "Private Benjamin". It's a 1980 comedy about women in the Army. It stars Goldie Hawn.

Marian.. Joy.. thank you so much for another great job! You are among the very best reactors that I have been following for the last couple of years. Looking forward to more..

Both your accents are just awesome. Love the way you take your time drilling into the movies. Authenticity is king in reacting & both you have it. Keep it up.

I went through Parris Island. MCRD, South Carolina in 1969 and I can tell you with authority that this is the closest depiction of Marine Bootcamp that I have ever seen! Many of the events seen here actually happened in my platoon! Blanket party on a sub-par recruit, being hit with fist, open hand, and in one case the butt of a M16 rifle. One recruit tried to commit suicide but when his attempt failed the Senior Drill Instructor turned it into a school lesson on how to correctly commit suicide! "If this private had read his field manual and done it properly I would not be standing here now holding his sorry ass arm in the air. He would be dead." Marine training was harsh. The Marine Corps felt that if they could mentally break you down in the relative safety of training then you most likely would break down under the stress of actual combat, get yourself killed and probably some of your buddies as well. I can also tell you with great pride that there was no greater sense of accomplishment than standing on that Parade deck during graduation and FINALLY been called United States Marines. We were most definitely cocky!

'Platoon' (1986) and 'Apocalypse Now' (1979) would be good Vietnam war movies for you to react to, they were both filmed in the Philippines.

Fun fact: Emery addlibbed the whole drill instructor scene.

Just found your channel and I'm loving it! Keep up the great work

US Marine here, One Tenet of the Corps is that Every Marine is Riflemen, No Matter what MOS (Job) you have, Marines are Always Ready to Pick up a Rifle and Fight! Semper Fi.

In boot camp, the name on the back of Joker's sweatshirt is: *J.T. Davis.* On, 22 December, 1961, SP4 James T. Davis became the first US causality of the Vietnam War when he was killed in a Viet Cong ambush.

The rifle the sniper is using is not an AK it is a Czeh VZ58 an unusual choice but interesting for this movie.

If you want to watch a strange Kubrick then try, "Eyes Wide Shut". It was released after he had died. Absolutely bizarre! He never made a bad film. Another one is, "The Killing" Y'all be safe.

My uncle was drafted and sent to Vietnam and told us alot of draftees would stay high on marijuana or heroin to keep their minds off of being killed out in the jungles from an ambush or stepping on a booby trap or being blown up .I don't blame them for gettin high to not think about being killed

Pyle had unrecognized learning issues.

1:28 That drill instructor...I saw where the directors of the movie were talking about how he constantly had all of these on-the-fly one-liners that were hilarious insults that really hit home and he never seemed to run out of them.

My best friend was a squad leader in the US Army 10th Mountain Division and he did multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and you can tell it heavily affected him. He drinks a lot, and has a very dark humor, and you can tell he has a hard time adjusting to civilian life. He was actually fired from our job for failing a psychological test (we're required to be armed). He's a really great guy though and definitely the life of the party - but you can tell that he's struggling with some demons.

They got off on the wrong foot at first. But the privates and the drill instructor become friends.

Just subscribed enjoyed ur discussion afterwards thank you for sharing your thoughts wish u guys the best

"Good morning Vietnam" (1987) with Robin Williams is also a good movie set in Vietnam. Mostly more on the funny side but not without serious scenes and themes.

I enjoyed both of you discussing the reasons for the wars. You both a have a very good understanding of why they occurred.

We only use real ammo. In training 7.62 mm full metal jacket. The rifles they used were M14 during training. In Vietnam we used M 16 with 7.62 full metal AK 47 were .45 caliber bullets, it had stopping power.

29:43 - I was waiting to see the two reactions.

Good take on Private Pyle! I've always noticed the irony of that. He was turned into a killer, alright. Sgt. Hartman was a little too good at his job. It backfired on him, quite literally! Also, Sgt. Hartman used Charles Whitman and Lee Harvey Oswald as examples of great marine training lol. Great foreshadowing, as well as a Kubrickian moment of pitch black humor.

notice at 8:17 pyle drops a mag w/ rounds in it - he was saving them for later - Sarge simply didnt catch that pyle didnt empty the mag

When he says I might make you a rifleman, that isn't great because they were always the first to die in the Vietnam war. Anyone on the ground in that war on the front lines had such a high chance of death.

More trivia: The guy shooting the machine gun in the helicopter was the original drill instructor, but R. Lee Ermey got his job in pre-production by appearing in casting videos doing the drill instructor bits.

you two are the ONLY ones who weren’t surprised at the horrors of war. Thank you. There comes a time, especially in wartime, where you find out what you really are. There are still vietnam vets who are still messed up.

I think the city the Marines are fighting through toward the end is Hue. During the Tet Offensive the Marines fought a bloody battle through the city to retake it.

Great reaction. Your comments and observations were acute.

Apparently the reason for wrapping a soap bar in a towel is because it leaves no visible marks and bruises the inside not the outside.

he was a real drill instructor as he add-libbed all his lines in the movie

Joy: *”Finish Her!”*

...it's true about suicide in basic training...in '72 we were at the rifle range and all of a sudden one trainee jumped into a fortified position and killed himself with his M16...

They didn't lower the standards. They just stop the physical beatings. Turns out yelling and making one do immediate pt works well. Also, alot of drill instructors went on power trips and would assault recruits for no reason.

Nice reaction. That's it, game over. Cheers.

I was ex hardcore Army back in the day. Back then, everything this di did and said to them, I saw it all!

My brother's and brother in law's were in the Marines 68, 69,70's... many of the incidents actually happened in boot camp and in combat.Battle for Hue:

When you said if you have one guy that feels empathy can ruin it for the unit reminded me of the movie Casualties of War. On that movie it doesn't quite go the way you mentioned.

The movie is based on the book "The Short Timers," by Gustav Hasford, who was Joker. At the end, he says I'm alive and "short," meaning he has very little time left in his enlistment.

Great reaction guys, and yes Marian I agree with what you said, the movie shows that deep in a war often there is no glory in it, or less than we might think at least.

Going hardcore, the deep end. I like.👍

I was at Parris Island in December 1977. Several years after this so I missed Vietnam. But with two exceptions, (we had M16 instead of M14's and the DI's weren't allowed to hit us) this was EXACTLY what boot camp was right then. Uniforms, squad bay, drill, confidence course, DI's everything. Btw we didn't train with females but sometimes went through their area. They talked the same way to the females. I felt bad for them

Kubrick is a master director and all his movies should be watched! How good was he? He cowrote or codirected or directed, Spartacus, Patton, Paths of Glory, the killing, Dr Strangelove, 2001, A Clockwork orange, all in his 20s or early thirties!!!😮😮😮 Also the drill sergeant, ad-libbed almost his entire part! He had a brief part in Apacalypse Now, and a very good roll in, the house of company C! He was a real soldier and marine drill sergeant!

When your brother is down, there is no time to let him die. You have no choice, you have to save your brother, your own life doesn’t matter. That is something you people will never ever learn. SEMPER FIDELIS.

I watched this with my Dad in the theater. I asked him if this was similar to his bootcamp experience and he told me it was. A little later I went to bootcamp to have a very similar experience. He went in 1968 and I went in 1992.

The helicopter door gunner was originally the drill instructor. Then in came R Lee. Recast!

In Vietnam the farmers were the VC. That's why the gunner was shooting them

A few things the reactors weren't clear about... the Vietnam War lasted from 1955-1975. North Vietnam was supported by Russia, China and other communist nations. Some of the reasons for protests in U.S. against the war... it was the first war where there was extensive television coverage of it in news. People seeing young American soldiers being killed as well as atrocities committed against women and children civilians made it highly unpopular. Soldiers returned mentally troubled with PTSD generally not known about by general public in past conflicts (though there was the term "shell shocked"). Also, though U.S. military knew the war wasn't going well and some said it was unwinnable, the American government wasn't telling the American public that and kept sending mostly drafted youth to their deaths.

Stanley Kubrick made another war movie Paths of Glory about WW1 which is also pretty dark. His war movies were strongly anti-war hence why there's no glory in it.

This movie inspired me to go into military school and it was the best choice I made as a young teen. Godbless this film.

This movie shows the machinery of war, and how it turns human beings into cannon fodder. Very powerful… I went through boot camp during the war, and it was just as frightening as shown here. For a factual description of the battle for Hue shown here, try “Hue 1968” by Mark Bowden. For a 1st-person diary-style description of the battle from a civilian’s point of view, please look for the remarkable book “Mourning Headband for Hue” by Nha Ca.

The USA weren't the only foreign force in Vietnam during the war, South Korea furnished troops and also my Country Australia served but seem to be forgotten about. There's a a recently made movie about a certain battle between Australian Soldiers and the NVA called Danger Close if you can get it check it.

American participation in the Vietnam War boiled down to a political calculation by the President at the time, Lyndon Johnson, who had inherited the office after the Kennedy assassination. Kennedy got criticized a lot for the failure of anti-Communist policies in Cuba, and Johnson wanted to look strong. His successor, Richard Nixon, who was an infamous psychopath, sabotaged Johnson's peace talks in order to keep it as a campaign issue, and then kept the war going years longer than neccessary to look strong when he finally felt like withdrawing American forces. That's pretty much it. Sixty thousand Americans died for that, and something like a million Vietnamese.

I know a Viet Nam vet ( army ) his psychiatrist said sending him to Nan was like pouring gas on a fire. Some people just want to watch the world burn..

7:03 remember in A Few Good Men where the discussion was on Code Red well here it is. Code Red

Your guys talk after the movie was enlightening, some of the things you talked about I'm not sure how informed you are... But I would love to talk to you guys more about your take with the problems happening in the world right now

Story takes place from 1967 through Tet of 1968 .

The whole film was shot in England. They had to import all the vehicles and even palmtrees into the country. Kubrik lived in the UK and did not want to fly and go abroad. The city battle was shot in the as then abandoned Docklands area of london. The area was sheduled for demolition so they were allowed to use it. Its all upperclass apartments and rich offices now. Abigail Mead who wrote the soundtrack took R.Lee Ermy's cadence and turned it into a rap song which got to No2 in the UK charts. Called 'I wanna be your Drrill Instrctor' with extra lyrics. It's on you tube if you go look.

Thank you for your work.

great line my channel, i love thgis channel, tnks from brazil

Mathew Modine/Private Joker..one of his best movies is "Visionquest"

Recommendation for you to react: Exists (2014), this movie is underrated, but and good and tense.

Look for the Drill Instructor R Lee Emery (essentially) reprising his role in Toy Story and The Frighteners.

One person messes up in battle, many will die.

I went through Basic Training the year this movie came out.

Great reaction. Great review. Thank you for doing this movie! I am a veteran of Afghanistan (Canadian Military, Kandahar Province). Thank you for doing an Anti-War film.

A very hard hitting classic with a message.

Full Metal Jacket describes the type of ammunition Pyle was using. I copied this from Wiki in case you were interested. "A full metal jacket (FMJ) bullet is a small-arms projectile consisting of a soft core (often lead) encased in an outer shell ("jacket") of harder metal, such as gilding metal, cupronickel, or, less commonly, a steel alloy. A bullet jacket usually allows higher muzzle velocities than bare lead without depositing significant amounts of metal in the bore. It also prevents damage to bores from hard steel or armor-piercing core materials." If you're a non-American civilian you probably would have no reason to know that. I have seen reactions to this movie where the title confused them. Great reaction btw.

Great reaction. Great movie. Thank you.

im sure people in the comments have seen this but i just saw a movie mistake. at minute marker 14:23 on my end. There is a Marine sitting next to a dead Vietnamese soldier. When he says "Hey photographer!", what the actor playing the dead guy next to him. He swallows. lolol anyway just noticed it. enjoy.

I love the shirt. I subscribed. I love the logic. And the shirt. The last one I saw was Bobby. I’m about to watch Rambo. Not my first time but I want to see the reaction.

This isn't based on anyone but it's an accurate view of the training and the time. This movie made me want to join the marines. I asked my grandfather(he was a marine right before this time period. Between Korea and Vietnam wars.) He said it was exactly like that. Now they technically can't touch you. But the insults are the same from what I understand.

Pyle 0300 infantry YOU MADE IT!!

My favourite Kubrick film is " Dr Strangelove " - this director has such a range, see " Barry Lyndon " for example, or " 2001 A Space Odyssey. "

Blanket Party

Marian, you look like you served in the military (the haircut). If you did I wondered how you felt about this movie as a veteran. Joy, I love your blouse, I am a big fan of Winnie the Pooh and honey too. : ) This is a hard movie to watch. I saw it when it first came out on VHS and it shook me for sure. Stanley Kubrick is considered by many to be of of the greatest directors of all time and I agree. Kubrick made three great movies about war. Chronologically, they are Paths of Glory (a serious movie about WW1), Dr. Strangelove (a comedy about the Cold War, and this movie. I'd love to see you watch all three to get a real feel for what Kubrick thought about war. You should honestly watch all of his movies if you get a chance. Great reaction, and best wishes for you both and your wonderful channel.

Good reaction! 👍💥