Daily Dialogue — July 16, 2016

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your senior drill instructor. From now on you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be “Sir”. Do you maggots understand that?
Recruits: [In unison in a normal speaking tone] Sir, yes Sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Bullshit I can’t hear you. Sound off like you got a pair!
Recruits: [In unison, much louder] SIR, YES SIR!
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian shit! Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps. Do you maggots understand that?

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

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Info Dump suggested by Will King.

Trivia: Stanley Kubrick had nothing but praise for R. Lee Ermey’s skills as a performer. Kubrick originally was going to write dialogue for Ermey’s character himself, but he became so impressed with what Ermey improvised, that he decided it wasn’t necessary. He just let him ad-lib, something practically unheard of for a Stanley Kubrick film. Ermey’s performances were so faultless that Kubrick only needed 2–3 takes to get his scenes filmed, also extremely rare for a Kubrick film. The only instance Ermey had to film more than 2–3 takes was in the Jelly Doughnut Scene — which he claims was filmed in 37 takes, to the point his voice kept disappearing from time to time.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Another way to handle an info dump? Give the information to a charismatic character to deliver with some searing dialogue.