Daily Dialogue — August 18, 2014

“It looks to me like the best part of you ran down the crack of your momma’s ass and ended up as a brown stain on the mattress!”

— Full Metal Jacket (1987), screenplay by Stanley Kubrick & Michael Herr & Gustav Hasford, novel by Gustav Hasford

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Smack Talk.

Trivia: It is a common misconception that much, if not all, of R. Lee Ermey’s dialogue during the Parris Island sequence was improvised. In several interviews Ermey himself has stated that he worked closely with Kubrick to help mold the script so that it was more believable, all while retaining certain dialogue crucial to Kubrick’s vision. While filming the opening scene, where he disciplines Pvt. Cowboy, he says Cowboy is the type of guy who would have sex with another guy “and not even have the goddamned common courtesy to give him a reach-around”. Stanley Kubrick immediately yelled cut and went over to Ermey and asked, “What the hell is a reach-around?” Ermey politely explained what it meant. Kubrick laughed and re-shot the scene, telling Ermey to keep the line.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This is some damn serious smack talk, but with a purpose: To establish Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) as an authority figure and start the process of breaking down the recruits… in order to build them up as killers.

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