funny thing, while fmj has some landmark moments, like all the shit the sargent says, and vincent d’onofrio is an amazing actor and so good at going bananas, that movie as a whole doesnt quite work for me. i mean from beginning to end. i dont know if it came too late after apocalypse now and platoon or what, but i always forget the events and significance of whatever happens beyond the barracks and basic training. i mean sure, there was a great line that was sampled for and inspired a classic hiphop track, and there are flame throwers in buildings, but what was all that about? i swear i cant say. to me the movie was over earlier when pvt pyle poisons himself with lead. anyway, yeah, if somebody could explain i would appreciate it.

Yeah, FMJ sort of falls apart after the basic training stuff. A definite case of first half, great, second half, remind me.

Really? I mean... it’s definitely like two movies in one, sure, but I still struggle to imagine how a director could envision and execute a film with such different halves... basically two entirely separate arcs.

I have never had a problem with the second half. I think it’s just as definitive in some ways as the first. “Born to Kill,” “World of Shit” and whatnot.

The first half is a necessary thematic predecessor to the second, I think, as it starts the dehumanization theme and makes it something we as viewers can follow from boot camp to the Shit.

Shrug.

I think the second half is supposed to be kind of a clusterfuck, and I think the narrative is supposed to devolve. I see it as part of the story. But the first half informs the second, and again the theme of the effects of war on the average (ok he may have been a little busted in the first place) Joker and on humanity are the real focal point.

I guess I forgot it was post-Platoon. Platoon is probably a stronger, if less cerebral, account of the Vietnam War, but FMJ is simply one of my favorite movies ever.

Haven’t seen it in years though

i guess it devolves so much i cant recall it

see, kubrick was sort of famous for often using “bland” actors.

i dont even know the name of the guy in 2001 (sorry guy)

ryan o’neal with barry lyndon

tom cruise in eyes wide shut has all of 2 facial expressions

in a way due to pure genius peter sellers in dr strangelove. apparently the man had no personality outside his characters. he blended perfectly.

one can reason fmj was pvt joker’s story from beginning to end. but matthew modine’s “bland” qualities are completely overshadowed by d’onofrio’s intense performance.

d’onofrio steals the movie and breaks it in half when he’s gone. emotionally, the movie feels like it is about pyle, and with him gone, i’m nowhere.

that’s my take.

i still cant remember the rest...

I can't think of many better films about soldiers in basic training but in terms of ones about soldiers actually in battle, I'm not sure it's even on the radar. Weird because if there's one director I'd have thought would really come into his own in a big war sequence it's surely Kubrick.

But obviously Severian finds something in it that we don't which is how a favourite film usually works. Few of my very favourite movies are without flaws but they somehow manage to connect, sometimes in spite of those flaws and sometimes even, in part, because of them.

Speaking of flawed, I watched Street Trash last night. It starts out sort of ok, in an 80s straight to video kind of way (it feels like a Troma film but isn't) but sort of grinds to a halt about halfway through. Although it does have a guy dissolving into a toilet and then coming back up as the monster from Basket Case, so all is not lost.

Apocalypse Now defines the US involvement in Viet Nam better than anything else in fiction. Hearts and Minds is the best documentary about it

Fuck I forgot about 2001.

God. I need to re-watch all of these (even AI don’t @ me), because there’s just so much greatness.

I see FMJ as a systematic revolution of humanity story. It hits home before it goes abroad. Shows the different stages of the “disease” of war and violence and cultures based on idealizing those concepts.

You’re not wrong that Vincent D. Is the most captivating part, but I still say the movie works as a whole.

Maybe if it was cut up... back and forth, with the movie staring in nam and flashing back periodically to basic training, giving the Pyle stall scene a spot near the end... maybe that would work better?
But for whatever it’s worth, I love both movies shoved up Full Metal Jacket.

vincent d and r. lee ermey holy mother of fuck that was one of the greatest film duos ever



no pvt pyle without sgt hartman. now that i think about it hartman is even more memorable than pyle.

just look at that face

he was brilliant in it

Agreed.

that face is about all I remember from the film, tbh.

What the fuck man?
If that’s all you remember you should go watch it again before you talk smack! ;)

Seriously, how is this not the thing you remember?

hartman went beyond the movie to become a pop culture icon unto himself

—

eta same thing with dirty harry. what the fuck was that movie about? a killer and a caroussel or something?

but everyone knows

“go ahead. make my day.”

and

“you feel lucky, punk?”

Zero fucks given: Piranha


So bad it's good, plus plenty of spring break debauchery

are you talking about the original or one of the new ones? never seen the old one but piranha 3dd was hilarious and i’d watch it again

—

truffaut’s stolen kisses



hilarious and often absurd, shot smack in the middle of may 68 (how?), and i appreciate the great dialogue. which apparently was improvised, so—great!

not the most technically accomplished of movies but highly entertaining

fans of lesbian vampire trash masterpiece “daughters of darkness” or sleepy insufferable “last year at marienbad” will recognize the mesmerizing delphine seyrig in a crucial role here

ok, daughters of darkness is not trash. it’s eurotrash lololol. no, it’s a.. what is it? not exactly a b movie. they wantd a soft porn i think. what is this i dont know but it was pretty bad and also strangely good. how to explain... but i digress.this whole thing was meant to be about truffaut.

The new-ish one from 2010 with Jerry O'Connell losing his penis. I've seen Piranha 3DD as well, but not watching that one as well.


I'm following up with Scream 2, so it's an accidental O'Connell night.

Anyone interesting in this new Predator movie besides noisereductions who won’t clear out his goddamn PMs and has vanished?

Not me.

Was never into the old Predator, so no.

And there was me thinking I respected your taste in films.

Outraged on a Severian level.