Full Metal Jacket

[CKDragon]

Just got done watching one of my favorite movies, FMJ... just hearing all the great lines made my weekend. I'm curious, though, some of Stanley Kubrick's film titles (Dr. Strangelove or..., A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, etc.) have some rather interesting meanings.

I'm wondering out of all the lines in the movie, why he chose 'Full Metal Jacket' as the title? I can take a few guesses, but nothing conclusive.

CK

 

[HappyPuppy]

You must have watched the movie with the volume turned off.

 

[thereds]

the magazine

full metal jacket

 

[CKDragon]

<< You must have watched the movie with the volume turned off. >>



Well, obviously I heard Pile say the line, but I'm thinking there has to be something deeper... isn't there?

CK

 

[NFS4]

Didn't Private Pile have a "full metal jacket" when he ripped a new hole in the drill seargent's chest?

 

[GTaudiophile]

Maybe he should have called it "The Golf Ball and the Garden Hose" or "The Adventures Privates Snowball and Joker."

 

[CKDragon]

<< Maybe he should have called it "The Golf Ball and the Garden Hose" or "The Adventures Privates Snowball and Joker." >>



My personal vote would go to "The Legend of Mary Jane Rottencrotch"

CK

 

[b0mbrman]

<<

<< You must have watched the movie with the volume turned off. >>


Well, obviously I heard Pile say the line, but I'm thinking there has to be something deeper... isn't there?
CK >>


Hmmm...you know what it means to have a "full metal jacket?"

 

[CKDragon]

<< Hmmm...you know what it means to have a "full metal jacket?" >>



I inferred from the movie that it was the type of ammo in the gun... seemed like just a material thing. It wouldn't seem to affect the plot whether he shot him with a 'full metal jacket' or a 9mm bullet, which is why I thought there had to be a deeper meaning.

I'll guess from the answers that I'm probably way off base which is why the titling of the movie seems odd to me.

CK

 

[Mookow]

<< Maybe he should have called it "The Golf Ball and the Garden Hose" or "The Adventures Privates Snowball and Joker." >>



I'd replace snowball with cowboy. Other quotes I liked from that film:
"I will gouge out your eyeballs and skull-#$%& you!"
"Me so horny. Me love you long time."
"I do not look down on awesome people, kykes, wops, or greasers. Here you are ALL equally worthless"
"I admire your honesty. Hell, I like you. You can come over to my house and fsck my sister."
"You had best unfsck yourself or I will unscrew your head and sht down your neck"

 

[zod]

Just got finished watching Paths of Glory with my homies. Good flick.

The title of FMJ? Not sure.
Supposedly, a FMJ bullet was designed to be more humane. The idea is for the bullet to pass through an opponent, leaving a cleaner wound and less suffering. The bullet yields deep penetration and can pass through one target and into the next.

Read into that what you will

Maybe it was a tragedy that a guy like Private Pyle even knew what a FMJ bullet was.

 

[CKDragon]

<< Just got finished watching Paths of Glory with my homies. Good flick.

The title of FMJ? Not sure.
Supposedly, a FMJ bullet was designed to be more humane. The idea is for the bullet to pass through an opponent, leaving a cleaner wound and less suffering. The bullet yields deep penetration and can pass through one target and into the next.

Read into that what you will

Maybe it was a tragedy that a guy like Private Pyle even knew what a FMJ bullet was. >>



That information can easily be read into... I appreciate it. The idea of the bullet passing through a person makes a lot of sense now because of the way the training affected and attempted to turn everyone into 'killing machines.' I think I'm starting to understand now.

CK

 

[zod]

Or we could be reading too much into it.

"According to screenplay co-author Michael Herr, Kubrick picked the title after reading the phrase in a gun catalog, finding it "beautiful and tough, and kind of poetic."

 

[Cyco]

The movie was adapted from the novel "The Short-Timers" can't remember who the author was. Just a little FMJ trivia.
-Cyco-
Edit: Found out it was by Gustav Hasford. The book appears to be out of print according to Amazon.com

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Maybe FMJ refers to the men as well. After all, they are human beings. They are family men -but the time came when they had to set that aside and do things that they never would have done at home. They had to be hardened, molded on the outside to be affective.

eh?

nik

 

[CKDragon]

<< Or we could be reading too much into it.

"According to screenplay co-author Michael Herr, Kubrick picked the title after reading the phrase in a gun catalog, finding it "beautiful and tough, and kind of poetic." >>



I certainly couldn't say for sure. I always thought of Kubrick's films as being very complex and I always feel as though there's something I'm not quite understanding... some message I'm not quite picking up. The title of this has bothered for some time just due to the fact I couldn't imagine Kubrick named a film after a simple, interchangeable, material object. I figured I'd throw it out to ATOT and you guys would help me out, so thank you for your insight.

CK

 

[b0mbrman]

"Get some, get some...Ha ha ha...Get some"
"This is a fine specimen of Alabama darksnake, but it is not too beaucoup..."
"You got girlfriend Vietnam?"
"I am already in a world of sh*t"

 

[yakko]

<< If I'm gonna get my balls blown off for a word, my word is poontang >>




A full metal jacket round is a lead slug covered with a copper jacket.

 

[kylef]

If ANYTHING in life could toughen someone to the point of giving them a "metallic shell", it was the sh!t of Vietnam. Just to keep sane, you needed something like that around you to protect you. That's what the drill sergeant was forcibly creating around each of the recruits at the beginning of the movie, and by the climax of the movie when Joker shoots the sniper, the jacket is finally complete.

Of course, I wasn't even alive during Vietnam, so I can't speak from experience...

 

[Mookow]

<< "This is a fine specimen of Alabama darksnake, but it is not too beaucoup..." >>



It should be "its not too god-damn beaucoup"

Also the
Q: "How can you shoot women and children"
A: "Its easy. You just dont lead them so much"

 

[Triumph]

<< Or we could be reading too much into it.

"According to screenplay co-author Michael Herr, Kubrick picked the title after reading the phrase in a gun catalog, finding it "beautiful and tough, and kind of poetic." >>


Sounds good to me. FMJ is probably his least-fuxored movie, when you compare it to completely incomprehensible stuff like Eyes Wide Shut. FMJ is a more 'obvious' flic, i guess you could say.

"Get up there. One for the Corp. Pull! I guess the Corp don't get theirs...Next! Get up there, Private Pile...You gotta be sh1tting me, Private Pile! You mean to tell me you can't do ONE STINKING PULL-UP!? YOU ARE A WORTHLESS PIECE OF SH1T PRIVATE PILE! NOW GET OUTTA MY FACE!"
God I love that.