User:Thedailyplanet1938/Full Metal Jacket

Casting Through Warner Bros., Kubrick advertised a casting search in the United States and Canada; he used videotape to audition actors and received over 3,000 submissions. Kubrick's staff screened the tapes, leaving 800 of them for him to review.[11]: 461

Former U.S. Marine drill instructor Ermey was originally hired as a technical advisor. Ermey asked Kubrick if he could audition for the role of Hartman. Kubrick, who had seen Ermey's portrayal of drill instructor Staff Sergeant Loyce in The Boys in Company C (1978), told Ermey he was not vicious enough to play the character. Ermey improvised insulting dialogue against a group of Royal Marines who were being considered for the part of background Marines, to demonstrate his ability to play the character and to show how a drill instructor breaks down individuality in new recruits.[11]: 462  Upon viewing the videotape of these sessions, Kubrick gave Ermey the role, realizing he "was a genius for this part".[20] Kubrick incorporated the 250-page transcript of Ermey's rants into the script.[11]: 462–463  Ermey's experience as a drill instructor during the Vietnam War proved invaluable; Kubrick estimated Ermey wrote 50% of his character's dialogue, particularly the insults.[23]

While Ermey practiced his lines in a rehearsal room, Kubrick's assistant Leon Vitali would throw tennis balls and oranges at him, which Ermey had to catch and throw back as quickly as possible while saying his lines as fast as he could. Any hesitation, slip, or missed line would necessitate starting over. Twenty error-free runs were required. "[He] was my drill instructor", Ermey said of Vitali.[11]: 463

Eight months of negotiations to cast Anthony Michael Hall as Private Joker were unsuccessful.[24] Val Kilmer was also considered for the role, and Bruce Willis turned down a role due to filming commitments of his television series Moonlighting.[25] Kubrick called Ed Harris on the phone to offer him the role of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, but Harris declined it, a decision which he later called "foolish".[26] Bill McKinney was also considered for that role. Denzel Washington wanted to be in the film, but Kubrick did not send him a script.[27][28][29]

Filming Kubrick filmed Full Metal Jacket in England in 1985 and 1986. Scenes were filmed in Cambridgeshire, the Norfolk Broads, in eastern London at Millennium Mills and Beckton Gas Works in Newham, and in the Isle of Dogs.[30] Bassingbourn Barracks, a former Royal Air Force station and then British Army base, was used as the Parris Island Marine boot camp.[20] A British Army rifle range near Barton, Cambridge, was used for the scene in which Hartman congratulates Private Pyle for his shooting skills. Kubrick worked from still photographs of Huế taken in 1968; he found an area owned by British Gas that closely resembled it and was scheduled to be demolished. The disused Beckton Gas Works, a few miles from central London, was filmed to depict Huế after attacks.[23] Kubrick had buildings blown up, and the film's art director used a wrecking ball to knock specific holes in some buildings for two months.[23] Kubrick had a plastic replica jungle flown in from California but once he saw it dismissed the idea, saying; "I don't like it. Get rid of it."[31] The open country scenes were filmed at marshland in Cliffe-at-Hoo[32] and along the River Thames; locations were supplemented with 200 imported Spanish palm trees[19] and 100,000 plastic tropical plants from Hong Kong.[23]

Kubrick acquired four M41 tanks from a Belgian army colonel who was an admirer.[33] Westland Wessex helicopters, which have a much longer and less-rounded nose than that of the Vietnam era H-34, were painted Marine green to represent Marine Corps Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw helicopters. Kubrick obtained a selection of rifles, M79 grenade launchers, and M60 machine guns from a licensed weapons dealer.[20]

Modine described the filming as difficult; Beckton Gas Works was a toxic environment for the film crew, being contaminated with asbestos and hundreds of other chemicals.[34] During the boot camp sequence of the film, Modine and the other recruits underwent Marine Corps training, during which Ermey yelled at them for 10 hours a day while filming the Parris Island scenes. To ensure the actors' reactions to Ermey's lines were as authentic and fresh as possible, Ermey and the recruits did not rehearse together.[11]: 468  For film continuity, each recruit had his head shaved once a week.[35]

While filming, Ermey had a car accident and broke several ribs, making him unavailable for four and a half months.[23] During Cowboy's death scene, a building that resembles the alien monolith in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is visible, which Kubrick described as an "extraordinary accident".[23]

During filming, Hasford contemplated taking legal action over the writing credits. Originally, the filmmakers intended Hasford to receive an "additional dialogue" credit but he fought for and eventually received full credit.[22] Hasford and two friends visited the set dressed as extras but was mistaken by a crew member for Herr. Hasford identified himself as the writer upon whose work the film is based.[21]

Kubrick's daughter Vivian, who appears uncredited as a news camera operator, shadowed the filming of Full Metal Jacket. She filmed 18 hours of behind-the-scenes footage for a potential "making-of" documentary that went unmade. Sections of her work can be seen in the documentary Stanley Kubrick's Boxes (2008).[citation needed]