Full Metal Jacket trivia

[Richard Fangnail]

In the first scene in Nam, there is a billboard over Joker's head of
an Asian man with a weird face. I suppose it is a beer or soda ad.
The same face poster can be seen later, during a battle. I wonder if
that was from a real ad. I also can't read Vietnamese.

Joker's real name is Davis. It's written on the back of his shirt
during boot camp.

What do you call it when Hartman is singing but he's not really
singing words? One example is when they are marching and he goes
"You're bouncing."

I noticed in the "0300 Infantry" scene, Pyle is sitting front and
center, with his hands hanging down in a disturbing way. I'm talking
about the shots before the closeup of him.

Why do the end titles have a screen for each actor's name, for even
the most trivial actors? They usually do that for the big stars.

[dumb_n00b]

Post by Richard Fangnail
In the first scene in Nam, there is a billboard over Joker's head of
an Asian man with a weird face. I suppose it is a beer or soda ad.
The same face poster can be seen later, during a battle. I wonder if
that was from a real ad. I also can't read Vietnamese.

It looks to me like an world-war-II-era anti-Japanese propaganda
piece, like this one: Loading Image...

I'm sure I've seen it as such, anyway.

Post by Richard Fangnail
Joker's real name is Davis. It's written on the back of his shirt
during boot camp.

I believe that's in the book as well.

Post by Richard Fangnail
What do you call it when Hartman is singing but he's not really
singing words? One example is when they are marching and he goes
"You're bouncing."

Scat-singing? Scatman Crothers, or Dick Halloran in The Shining, got
his name from that art. Or it could be throat singing.

[Boaz]

Post by dumb_n00b

Post by Richard Fangnail
In the first scene in Nam, there is a billboard over Joker's head of
an Asian man with a weird face. I suppose it is a beer or soda ad.
The same face poster can be seen later, during a battle. I wonder if
that was from a real ad. I also can't read Vietnamese.

It looks to me like an world-war-II-era anti-Japanese propaganda
piece, like this one:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/AntiJapanesePropag...
I'm sure I've seen it as such, anyway.

Post by Richard Fangnail
Joker's real name is Davis. It's written on the back of his shirt
during boot camp.

I believe that's in the book as well.

Post by Richard Fangnail
What do you call it when Hartman is singing but he's not really
singing words? One example is when they are marching and he goes
"You're bouncing."

Scat-singing? Scatman Crothers, or Dick Halloran in The Shining, got
his name from that art. Or it could be throat singing.

It's commonly known in the service as "cadence." Hartmann was calling
cadence.

Boaz
("Ho Chi Minh is a son-of-a-bitch!"
"Ho Chi Minh is a son-of-a-bitch!"
"Got the blueballs, crabs and the seven-year-itch!"
"Got the blueballs, crabs and the seven-year-itch!")

[blue]

Post by Boaz

Post by dumb_n00b

Post by Richard Fangnail
In the first scene in Nam, there is a billboard over Joker's head of
an Asian man with a weird face. I suppose it is a beer or soda ad.
The same face poster can be seen later, during a battle. I wonder if
that was from a real ad. I also can't read Vietnamese.

It looks to me like an world-war-II-era anti-Japanese propaganda
piece, like this one:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/AntiJapanesePropag...
I'm sure I've seen it as such, anyway.

Post by Richard Fangnail
Joker's real name is Davis. It's written on the back of his shirt
during boot camp.

I believe that's in the book as well.

Post by Richard Fangnail
What do you call it when Hartman is singing but he's not really
singing words? One example is when they are marching and he goes
"You're bouncing."

Scat-singing? Scatman Crothers, or Dick Halloran in The Shining, got
his name from that art. Or it could be throat singing.

It's commonly known in the service as "cadence." Hartmann was calling
cadence.
Boaz
("Ho Chi Minh is a son-of-a-bitch!"
"Ho Chi Minh is a son-of-a-bitch!"
"Got the blueballs, crabs and the seven-year-itch!"
"Got the blueballs, crabs and the seven-year-itch!")

I always thought he was referring to his walking. Good to know otherwise.
I assumed it was something to do with the fact that soliders often have
to break march when they cross bridges as the combined weight of the
'bounce' can weaken the structure over time and cause the bridge to
collapse eventaully.

[Richard Fangnail]

Did you know Lee Ermey is in Apocalypse Now? He's one of the other
helicopter pilots flying with Robert Duvall.

[blue]

Post by Richard Fangnail
Did you know Lee Ermey is in Apocalypse Now? He's one of the other
helicopter pilots flying with Robert Duvall.

Really? No I didn't. I'll look out for it, thanks.

[M***@gmail.com]

Post by Richard Fangnail
In the first scene in Nam, there is a billboard over Joker's head of
an Asian man with a weird face. I suppose it is a beer or soda ad.
The same face poster can be seen later, during a battle. I wonder if
that was from a real ad. I also can't read Vietnamese.

Mao? Yeah, who is that?

Post by Richard Fangnail
Why do the end titles have a screen for each actor's name, for even
the most trivial actors? They usually do that for the big stars.

None of them were big stars. THey are all kind of given equal weight,
even Joker almost. Hartman and Pyle seem to stand out the most!

[Harry Bailey]

Post by Richard Fangnail
In the first scene in Nam, there is a billboard over Joker's head of
an Asian man with a weird face. I suppose it is a beer or soda ad.
The same face poster can be seen later, during a battle. I wonder if
that was from a real ad. I also can't read Vietnamese.

The poster [or rather, collage of advertising hoardings/postersis] is
not quite over Joker's head, but across the street from where
Rafterman and Joker are seated drinking bottles of 'biere' in a bar
ironically called 'Las Vegas': French, not 'Vietnamese', was the
official language spoken in Vietnam, the country having originally
been under French colonial rule for many years ('Indochine') up to the
American intervention beginning in the late 1950s.

But looking at that collection of ads, we can note that the guy with
the massive smile is showing off his white teeth, because the poster
is advertising 'hynos', a brand of Toothpaste. Next to it is a beer
ad: Con O Ben, an ad for an 'export biere' (the '33' referring to it
being a third of a litre) sold in a can, which must have been quite
novel back in 1968, when canned beer was something very new.

The next time we see the Smiling Man ad poster, the Marines are in a
war zone advancing on some Vietcong position, but this time there is
no corresponding 'biere' ad, it presumably having been blasted into
oblivion: Rafterman and Joker are now very sober indeed, nervous as
hell, Rafterman barely able to steady his new camera, but the smiling
man keeps on smiling ... [semiologists love examining this stuff, the
advertising hoardings providing an ironic subtext to the dominant
narrative].