Full Metal Jacket

In the scene were Pvt.

Pyle is on the range, the bandage on his keeps changing between being on his right wrist (close-up, when shooting) and left wrist (camera pulled back, re-loading).

When Cowboy has finished asking for tank backup on the radio, he makes the common Hollywood mistake of saying "over and out" rather than the correct "out".

"Over" means handing over to the other party to receive their transmission.

"Out" means you have finished the conversation.

After Doc Jay and Eightball are killed by the Vietnamese sniper and Animal Mother yells to Cowboy that it is okay to move up the squad, Cowboy calls for Stunt, Dolon, Rock, and No-Doze to follow him while Joker and Rafterman choose to follow him on their own, a total of seven Marines, including Cowboy.

In the shot that follows, however, only six Marines are shown moving ahead.

In the side shot, just before they meet up with Animal Mother, there are only five.

When they crouch down by the first wall, there are six, including Animal Mother.

When they move away from the wall, there are eight.

When they search the building, Animal Mother order two marines off in one direction and the two reporters to follow him, making a total of five (plus Cowboy), and the same number gather around the fallen sniper; however, it is conceivable that the two missing marines are searching a different part of the building.

When Doc Jay is in the far back of the squad yelling to Cowboy that he is going to bring Eightball in, his mouth doesn't match up to what he says.

Pyle's hat when he is being slapped by Hartmann.

When Hartmann slaps Pyle during the drill & comp scene, the second marine in formation behind Pyle is played by two different actors between cuts of Hartmann slapping Pyle with his right hand and Hartmann slapping Pyle with his left hand.

At the beginning when the Marines are being lectured and/or questioned by Hartmann by their bunks, Cowboy's, Joker's, Pyle's and I believe Snowball's bunks change position relative to one another.

In fact, it seems that this is a constant continuity problem when the Marines are depicted in the barracks.

When crossing the crossing bars, the recruits are told that it should take no less than ten seconds to navigate this particular obstacle.

He should have said that it should take no more than ten seconds.

It is doubtful that Marines would identify themselves by their nicknames when asked by a superior to state their name.

This error happens more than once.

Road markings indicate the filming location (England), not Parris Island.

The shape of Private Joker's flashlight beam as he enters the head to confront Pyle.

Upon the initial attack at Hue City, many of the soldier's "bullets" are inconsistent with the actual line of fire.

Sometimes the buildings show bullet impacts before the weapons are fired, while at other times, the weapons are fired with a clear line to the buildings, yet no impact craters or impact damage and smoke is seen - evidence that the soldiers are firing blanks.

When Crazy Earl holds his rifle up after the initial attack on Hue City, the magazine disappears between shots.

Before Private Cowboy's squad moves up to search for the sniper, Joker reloads his rifle.

Between the scene where he reloads his rifle to the scene where he prepares to shoot the sniper, he doesn't take any shots with his rifle, but when he attempts a shot on the sniper, there is no ammunition in his magazine.

While some people claim that Joker's M16 was out of ammunition when he attempted to shoot the sniper, in fact it was jammed, which was a common problem for the M16 in Vietnam.

When Eightball ducks behind the debris to inform Cowboy of their misdirection in Hue City, a handle on his back pack is seen leaning against his gun in one shot.

In the next shot, the handle is nowhere to be seen.

Animal Mother's M60 changes position between the shots where he tries to get the squad to help Eightball and Doc Jay.

Palm trees move unexpectedly.

Animal's aimless shots blow away parts of the "My Toan" sign, but it is later seen intact.

A modern communications tower is visible in a shot of a helicopter taking off after they enter the city and it is being strafed by the tanks.

Occurs during the scene of them being filmed by the film crew while they are sitting down waiting for orders.

When Hartman discovers Private Pyle's unlocked footlocker and throws Pyle's belongings on the floor, the position of the thrown items changes between almost every shot.

When Hartman inspects Private Pyle's rifle, he opens the chamber twice.

Throughout recruit training, Joker wears wire framed glasses instead of government issue glasses like Cowboy's (although it is true that recruits with special prescriptions may have to wait for spectacles to be supplied).

On several occasions, the word "repeat" is used while speaking on the radio.

In the Marine Corps, the use of the word "repeat" on the radio is reserved solely for talking to artillery units to request a repeat of the last fire mission.

The term used would be"say again your last" or "I say again.

" Animal's ammunition belts change length and position between shots during the initial sniper confrontation.

In most scenes, the movement of Animal's machine gun and the ejected casings indicate that he's holding down the trigger, but the sound indicates that he's firing short bursts.

Blood disappears from Cowboy's face after he is shot.

Prior to the killing of Cowboy, you see the hole that the sniper shot through is covered.

The cover is removed after "Cowboy's peek".

When Animal Mother peeks out from the wall and the sniper takes her first shot at him, the squib in the wall (to simulate the bullet impact) goes off before the muzzle blast is seen.

When Joker is on fire watch (where he finds Pyle in the head) he's using a 1980s Mag-Lite brand flashlight.

When Animal calls to Cowboy to bring the squad in and find the sniper, Rafterman turns to Cowboy and speaks a complete sentence, but the sound has been cut and replaced with a comment by Cowboy.

When the Marines are training and going over the obstacle with the two bars, Joker goes first and Pyle goes next.

But if you look behind Joker when he starts, Pyle is not the next Marine in line.

When Hartman shuts off the lights for the first time in the barracks, he uses the four switches beside him.

But when he enters to awaken the privates using the garbage can, he uses the single light switch outside the barracks room.

The mud on Pyle's back changes when he's trying to navigate the obstacle in which he has to go up the parallel bars.

When the men are running forward and singing "eskimo pussy is mighty cold" a crew members shadow is briefly visible in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

When Joker and his photographer travel in a Sikorsky UH-34 helicopter to report on the action at the front, there are several exterior shots of the trees rushing by underneath them.

During these shots, the shadow is of a Bell Jet Ranger, a different, newer helicopter.

The direction of the smoke from the burning buildings changes between shots in the ruins of Hue.

When Hartman is reading out the Marine placements after the graduation march, several of the Marines change positions between shots.

At the conclusion of the Colonel's questioning of Joker in front of the mass grave, the Colonel salutes Joker.

Apart from being improper for an officer to salute an enlisted man, salutes are not rendered in a combat operations area, due to snipers actively seeking officers as targets.

When Rafterman shoots the sniper to save Joker, some blood goes on her face, but in the close up when she's dying, the blood is gone.

When Pvt.

Pyle shoots himself in the head, the safety on his M-14 is on, there is no muzzle flash and no smoke, and no recoil.

Furthermore, the tile behind his head is not shattered.

Pvt.

Pyle sits down on the fourth toilet to shoot himself in the head.

It's the one right from where the toilet paper is.

In the close-up that follows he's on the third toilet, left from the paper holder.

When Joker and Rafterman meet Lt.

Touchdown, camera shadow is visible in the lower left, on the road where the tanks go by.

When the helicopter lands with Joker and Rafterman, the door gunner is gone.

When Private Pyle is on the firing range shooting at the targets, the sergeant in the background walks up, then bends at the waist checking on accuracy.

The next scene is an over-the-shoulder shot of Private Pyle.

The next scene shows the sergeant further away walking up to his location in the first scene.

The flak jackets worn by the characters were M1969 Fragmentation Vest, while USMC in Vietnam wore M1955 Jacket, with a rope ridge on right shoulder and plates of ballistic nylon visible in lower torso.

When Touchdown is shot he lands with his rifle lying on the ground by his right hand.

In the next shot, when members of his squad move in to tend to him there is no rifle to be seen.

In the "Eskimo pussy is mighty cold" running scene, the squad runs past a red on white Yield sign.

At the time this movie is set the Yield signs were the black lettering and outline on a yellow background.

In one scene in the movie, Sgt.

Hartman is telling recruits that "Today is Christmas" then begins telling them about Christmas services.

During the running scenes throughout their training sequence along the camp roads and through the woods, you can see the trees and other vegetation are in full bloom.

Since their training is 8 weeks long, even in South Carolina during the December and even November, the tree's and vegetation would be bare and the grass would be brownish and it would be cold enough that the soldiers would be wearing their field jackets.

The movie appears to be set most likely in the Spring or Summer.

When the sniper has been alerted to Joker's presence and is firing her Czechoslovakian VZ.

58 rifle at him, no shell casings are being ejected as would normally be the case.

When Sgt Hartman asks Private Joker if he believes in the Virgin Mary, he is holding a billy club.

A few seconds later, he strikes Private Joker with an open hand, the same hand that held the billy club a moment earlier.

But he never dropped the club.

When Sgt.

Hartman confronts Joker over his 'John Wayne (I)' (qv) imitation, Cowboy's shirt front is crumpled from Sgt.

Hartman's grabbing it.

Cowboy is standing at attention.

Just after Hartman strikes Joker, the shirt front is smooth again, even though Cowboy has not moved.

During the beginning of the sniper scene Cowboy tells members of his squad that they're moving up to Animal Mother to kill the sniper.

As they approach, the camera follows them from behind, then switches to a side view tracking shot.

In some versions of the film, about 5-8 seconds into this sequence, a member of the crew wearing jeans can be seen ducking low.

When Joker talks to Lt.

Cleves at the mass grave, he introduces himself as "Sergeant Joker".

However in an earlier scene (the editing meeting for Stars and Stripes) Joker wears the rank insignia of a Corporal on the collar of his shirt.

During the Vietnam half of the movie, Joker's hair is much too long for Marine Corps standards.

In a real situation, such excessive hair length would never have been tolerated by a Marine's superiors.

Just before Hartman is shot by Pyle, you can see the outline of the blood packet prop under his white t shirt.

Joker, Animal, and the helicopter door gunner all occasionally fire very long bursts from their M60 machine guns.

Real Marines are taught to fire automatic weapons in short bursts to prevent overheating and jamming, and to conserve ammunition.

In one of the Boot Camp scenes, the platoon is shown running in formation.

Several of the major characters are at the head of the formation, including Private Pyle.

However, the farthest right position (which would become the column head after a right face) is reserved for squad leaders.

There is no way that Private Pyle would have been in the position of squad leader, and he would therefore have been further back in the ranks.

In the head (toilet area), Pvt.

Pyle says his ammunition is "seven-six-two millimeter, full metal jacket.

" Although 762mm is about 30 inches, and what would have been strictly correct is "seven-POINT-six-two millimeter", or about 30 caliber, which is the NATO standard ammunition, it is generally understood by military members that the reference "seven-six-two" implies that he's talking about a 7.

62mm rifle round, as is the case with 5.

56mm ammo (generally referred to as "five-five-six") (at around 1h 15 mins) Crazy Earl has been shooting right-handed.

When the second group of NVA run between the buildings, he is shown from the rear shooting left-handed.

Afterwards, he is shown from the front holding his rifle right-handed again, just before "The Bird is the Word" starts playing.

The platoon is shown in service uniforms marching in their graduation ceremony, then the toilet scene between Joker, Pyle and Hartmann follows.

In reality, graduation marks the final day recruits are on the Depot, so the toilet scene should have occurred prior to graduation.

When the Drill Sergeant walks down the row of recruits during his opening speech, Pvt.

Pyle can be seen standing at the end of the row to Joker's right.

Later, after Joker mouths off, the Drill Sergeant moves down the line to Joker's left, eventually coming to Pvt.

In one scene the ammo in Animal Mother's bandoleer can be clearly seen to be blanks.

When the Marines are on the rifle range for the first time, there is a drill instructor checking a weapon.

However, he fails to keep the weapon pointed DOWN range, which is a major safety violation.

In the barracks scene, as Sergeant Hartman punches Private Joker with his left fist, the camera angle changes and Sergeant Hartman's left hand is seen open while his right fist is punching Private Joker.

The Doorgunner ('Tim Colceri (I)' (qv)) is wearing a tank crewman's crash-helmet, not a helicopter crewman's crash-helmet.

It's much smaller, is not the correct color (it should be white), and it lacks a retractable glare visor.

When Joker is talking to the colonel about his peace badge, in the middle of the conversation the badge disappears and then reappears in the next scene when he is walking along with Rafterman.

Recruits were initially issued M14s.

Until attending the rifle range they were issued M1 Garands.

All of the palm trees look exactly the same with manicured trunks and a few wilted palm fronds coming out the top.

When Gunnery Sgt.

Hartman is talking to Pyle and he is laughing there is a 180 break.

Its goes from over Hartman's left shoulder in one shot and in the next shot the camera is over Pyle's left shoulder.

In the me-so-horny scene, just before Rafterman gets his camera stolen, in the background you can see a busy road.

But you can also see that it is the same 3-4 vehicles, going around in circles.

In the first shot of the graduation from the Parris Island one can see tall trees and buildings in the background, but during the close shot there are only small trees with no buildings.

It's because the first shot was an actual shot from the graduation and the second one was shot in London.

In numerous scenes marines are seen wearing stateside black leather boots.

The jungle boot, with its green nylon and cleated sole was more suited for tropical weather and humidity.

The stateside boot would have been impractical for the field and uncomfortable.

Only recently arrived marines from stateside would have worn them until issued the correct jungle boot.

Immediately after the "This is my rifle, this is my gun" scene, the recruits are drilling and it is obvious their shirt collars are unbuttoned.

In the Marine Corps, recruits do not unbutton their collars until they qualify at the rifle range.

Soon after, their collars are buttoned and remain so until after they qualify on the rifle range.

The dead NVA soldier that they're posing in a chair can be seen breathing throughout the scene.

Right after Cowboy dies, his head is pulled towards Joker and clearly blinks.

Freshly dead bodies can do this.

When private Pyle shoots himself in the head, the tiles on the wall behind him are not damaged as they would have been.

The helicopters are using gas turbine engines, the large exhaust outlet can be seen forward of the cargo door circled in red.

Twin turbines are used, with one exhaust on each side.

The nose was modified for the intake/compressor section of each engine.

The turbine engines are lighter and produce more power.

The UH-34D, as used by the Marines in Vietnam had a single reciprocating engine with a stack of several exhaust pipes, located on the left side, away from the cargo door.

At the distance Hartman is shot by Pvt Pyle, a 7.

62 would have easily passed through him, leaving a tell-tale impact in the head's wall.

None can be seen at the moment he's shot.

Rafterman carries spare 35mm film canisters on his helmet.

The canisters he is carrying are made of plastic.

In the 1960s film canisters were made of aluminum.

Many of the Marines who are advancing on Hue City have their index fingers on the triggers of their M16 rifles and M60 machine guns.

This is a violation of the first rule of firearms safety, which every Marine learns in boot camp"Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.

" When the full colonel approaches Joker and his friends at the open pit grave, all parties salute each other.

In reality, saluting is not done in combat areas, since it identifies officers as primary targets.

Also in this scene, the colonel's shirt is missing its required name tape and Marine Corps tape.

The film is set in 1967.

In the 1st shot in Vietnam Joker & Rafterman are sitting outside a Photocopy shop, the sign is visible in the long shot.

Such shops were not common until the 1980's.

Cowboy, as a Texan, would have been trained at MCRD San Diego, not MCRD Parris Island.

During the Vietnam segment most of the Marines are seen armed with the Colt Model 604, notable for its lack of a forward assist, this is incorrect as they were only ever used by the USAF.

The Marines should be using the M16A1 which was universally issued to the Army and Marine Corps in 1967, replacing the prototype XM16E1 and the M14.

When the camera pans up from the sniper's position at Hue City, a crew member is seen running towards the building The hands holding the enemy sniper rifle at Hue City are that of a man, yet we later see the sniper is a woman.

This is a masterpiece of Stanley Kubrick. The way in which the movie progresses from humorous tone to a serious one is simply superb.

The first 40 minutes of this movie is a solid 9+ performance. After the DI dies, this movie runs out of juice.

Like most people, I was impressed with the boot camp portion of the film and love the performances of R Lee Ermey and Vincent D'Onofrio, the latter of which creates a character that I think ranks among Buffalo Bill and Norman Bates in terms of being disturbing, and among Bambi and Hellen Keller in terms of being sympathetic. Kubrick uses a sparse amount of dialog in these scenes that isn't Ermey barking orders and insults to his recruits, creating an unnerving, almost lonely and inhuman feeling that is only amplified by the bootcamp sequences disturbing finale.

FULL METAL JACKET was a great movie when it came out, and it has only gotten better with age. Everyone has their own opinions about Vietnam and the war there, but none of that matters here.

"Full Metal Jacket" isn't one of those movies I can watch with any sort of regularity. I'm pretty sure it's been 15 years' time since last I watched this, and it'll be another 15 before the next time.

'Full Metal Jacket' was a film that I had been meaning to watch for a while after all the good stuff I had heard about it.It really is a film of two halves, unfortunately I didn't like the 2nd half.

Full Metal Jacket is a leftist oriented movie about a fictional group of Marines as they go through training and to Vietnam. It portrays Marines as "killers" who glorify killing, except for a few in whom the training doesn't take hold these are depicted as generally decent, smartass, sarcastic, skeptical, opponents of the war.

Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is part of a long string of classic films, such as Platoon and The Shining, that has made him a household name. A hardcore and satirical look into the experience of a group of military volunteers during the Vietnam War, Full Metal Jacket, takes the psychological aspects of war to another level.