Quotes
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: You had best un-fuck yourself or I will unscrew your head and shit down your neck!
Trivia
Ermey was convinced that the scenes in boot camp wouldn't be believable unless the actors were actually frightened of him. So the other actors in the film only saw him as the Gunny Hartman character. He never spoke, ate, or fraternized with any of them unless it was during a scene. Much to Ermey's pleasure, the fear you see on the screen is real. Many times in the shooting the actors would become so flustered by Ermey that they would blow their lines. Ermey recalls that he's seen the other actors in the film around Hollywood from time to time, and they still won't speak to him. See more...
Movie Mistakes blog
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Full Metal Jacket (1987) - 41 mistakes
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Adam Baldwin, Arliss Howard, Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio (add more)
Continuity: In the opening scene, Gunnery Sgt. Hartman is making his speech and passes by Privates Cowboy and Joker on his way to the other side of the barracks. On his way he passes Private Pyle standing to the right of Private Joker. Later in the scene, when he rushes over to confront Private Joker and then moves on to Private Cowboy and then Private Pyle, Private Pyle is on the left of Private Joker.
Continuity: When D.I. Hartman dumps the contents of Private Pyle's footlocker on the floor, in the next few shots the layout of the clutter on the floor changes. Note that after Hartman confronts Pyle with the jelly doughnut and turns away, there is a clear path through the clutter for Hartman that disappears in subsequent shots.
Continuity: In the fire fight in the city near the end of the film, one of the men is firing a M-16 around a corner. As the camera angle changes he is seen firing left handed and right handed. Back and forth several times. Also in the same sequence the magazine in his gun keeps vanishing. One shot he has it and in the next there is no magazine in the gun and yet he hasn't moved.
Continuity: During the graduation parade, if you look at the background you can see many large squad bay buildings with a few single trees in front of them, this scene seems to be shot at the actual Paris island. However when they show a close up of Joker's platoon in parade, the background changes to mostly trees, with only two or three small buildings behind them.
Visible crew/equipment: When Cowboy, Joker, Rafterman and the other soldiers are running across the buildings to get to Animal in the final sniper scene, watch the foreground. If you freeze the movie right as they reach Animal, you can see they run by a boom mic and a crew member. A bicycle is also there (just to help you out).
Continuity: During the drill scene when Sgt. Hartman is asking Private Pyle if he knows the difference between his left and his right, watch the positioning of Pvt Pyle's cap. After being struck the first time, the cap is slightly cocked. After the shot returns to Pyle and before he gets struck for the second time, the cap is obviously cocked further over.
Continuity: In the part of the death of Cowboy, before he looks through the corner of the building to see the position of the sniper, there is a wall in good condition behind another wall which is broken. Later, when he goes back and starts to give orders, the wall that was in good condition is now broken without any reason for it to be and now the sniper can see Cowboy so she can shoot him.
Continuity: When Gomer Pyle is in the toilet with his rifle and after shooting the drill instructor, Pyle sits down on the fourth toilet seat from the back of the room. In the next shot where Pyle kills himself, he is sitting on the third toilet seat. You can see this already from the front shot of Pyle when he kills himself because there is a rise in the wall next to the third seat, which is visible through the whole scene. It is more obvious in the following shot where you can see the row of toilet seats and Pyle sitting dead on the third one.
Factual error: When 8-ball gets shot, in the shot which shows the platoon ducking near a wall with Cowboy, Joker and Animal Mother in the front, there are two weapon related errors. Cowboy's M-16 has a nickel (silver colored) firing assembly and Joker's M-16 has an A2 type pistol grip. The A2 types were introduced somewhere around the 80s, and nickel plated assemblies are rarely used (and were invented after Vietnam, too). The nickel assembly is visible at the beginning of the shot, and you can see the A2 grip when Joker is changing magazines (while Cowboy shouts cease fire).







