Development
In early 1980, Kubrick contacted Michael Herr, author of the Vietnam War memoir Dispatches (1977), to discuss work on a film about the Holocaust but Kubrick discarded that idea in favor of a film about the Vietnam War.[19] Herr and Kubrick met in England; Kubrick told Herr he wanted to make a war film but had yet to find a story to adapt.[12] Kubrick discovered Gustav Hasford's novel The Short-Timers (1979) while reading the Kirkus Review.[20] Herr received the novel in bound galleys and thought it a masterpiece.[12] In 1982, Kubrick read the novel twice; he concluded it is "a unique, absolutely wonderful book" and decided to adapt it for his next film.[20] According to Kubrick, he was drawn to the book's dialogue, which he found "almost poetic in its carved-out, stark quality."[20] In 1983, Kubrick began researching for the film; he watched archival footage and documentaries, read Vietnamese newspapers on microfilm from the Library of Congress, and studied hundreds of photographs from the era.[21] Initially, Herr was not interested in revisiting his Vietnam War experiences, but Kubrick spent three years persuading him, describing the discussions as "a single phone call lasting three years, with interruptions."[19]
In 1985, Kubrick contacted Hasford and invited him to join the team;[12] they spoke by telephone three to four times a week for hours at a time.[22] Kubrick had already written a detailed treatment of the novel,[12] and they met at Kubrick's home every day, breaking the treatment into scenes. Herr then wrote the first draft of the film script.[12] Kubrick worried the audience might misread the book's title as a reference to people who did only half a day's work and changed it to Full Metal Jacket after coming across the phrase in a gun catalogue.[12] After the first draft was complete, Kubrick telephoned his orders to Hasford and Herr, who mailed their submissions to him.[23] Kubrick read and edited Hasford's and Herr's submissions, and the team repeated the process. Neither Hasford nor Herr knew how much each had contributed to the screenplay, which led to a dispute over the final credits.[23] Hasford said: "We were like guys on an assembly line in the car factory. I was putting on one widget and Michael was putting on another widget and Stanley was the only one who knew that this was going to end up being a car."[23] Herr said Kubrick was not interested in making an anti-war film but "he wanted to show what war is like".[19]
At some point, Kubrick wanted to meet Hasford in person, but Herr advised against this, describing The Short-Timers author as a "scary man, a big, haunted marine," and did not believe Hasford and Kubrick would "get on".[19] Kubrick, however, insisted on the meeting, which occurred at Kubrick's house in England. The meeting went poorly; Kubrick privately told Herr: "I can't deal with this man," and Hasford did not meet with Kubrick again.[19]
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.[12]: 461
Former U.S. Marines drill instructor Lee 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 that 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 in order to demonstrate his ability to play the character and to show how a drill instructor attacks individuality in new recruits.[12]: 462 Upon viewing the videotape of these sessions, Kubrick offered Ermey the role, realizing he "was a genius for this part."[21] Kubrick incorporated the 250-page transcript of Ermey's rants into the script.[12]: 462–463 Ermey's experience as a drill instructor during the Vietnam War proved invaluable; Kubrick estimated that Ermey wrote 50% of his character's dialogue, particularly the insults.[24]
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, slowdown, slip or missed line would necessitate restarting, and 20 error-free runs were required. "[He] was my drill instructor," Ermey said of Vitali.[12]: 463 [25]
Eight months of negotiations to cast Anthony Michael Hall as Private Joker were unsuccessful.[26] Val Kilmer was also considered for the role, and Bruce Willis declined a role because of commitments to his television series Moonlighting.[27] Kubrick offered Ed Harris the role of Hartman but Harris declined it, a decision that he later called "foolish".[28] Robert De Niro was also considered for the role, although Kubrick eventually felt that the audience would "feel cheated" if De Niro's character were killed in the first hour.[29] Bill McKinney was also considered for the part, but Kubrick professed an irrational fear of the actor. McKinney was known for his role as a rural psychopath in 1972's Deliverance, most memorably in a sequence that Kubrick described as "the most terrifying scene ever put on film." McKinney was about to fly from Los Angeles to London to audition for Kubrick and the producers when he received a message at the airport informing him that his audition had been canceled. However, McKinney was paid in full.[30] Denzel Washington showed interest in the film but Kubrick did not send him a script.[31][32]
Filming
Principal photography began on August 27, 1985 and concluded on August 8, 1986.[33][34] Scenes were filmed in Cambridgeshire, the Norfolk Broads, in eastern London at Millennium Mills and Beckton Gas Works in Newham and on the Isle of Dogs.[35] Kubrick hired Anton Furst as the production designer, impressed by his work on The Company of Wolves (1984).[36] Bassingbourn Barracks, a former Royal Air Force station and then a British Army base, was used as the Parris Island Marines boot camp.[21] A British army rifle range near Barton, Cambridge was used for the scene in which Hartman congratulates Private Pyle for his shooting skills. Kubrick and Furst worked from still photographs of Huế taken in 1968. Kubrick 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.[24][37][38] Kubrick had buildings demolished and the film's art director used a wrecking ball to knock holes in some of the buildings over the course of two months.[24] Kubrick had a plastic replica jungle delivered from California, but once he saw it, he dismissed the idea, saying; "I don't like it. Get rid of it."[39] The open country scenes were filmed at marshland in Cliffe-at-Hoo[40] and along the River Thames. Locations were decorated with 200 imported Spanish palm trees[20] and 100,000 plastic tropical plants from Hong Kong.[24]
Kubrick acquired four M41 tanks from a Belgian army colonel who was an admirer of his work.[41] Westland Wessex helicopters, which have a much longer and less-rounded nose than that of the Vietnam era H-34, were painted Marines green to represent Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw helicopters. Kubrick obtained a selection of rifles, M79 grenade launchers and M60 machine guns from a licensed weapons dealer.[21]
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.[42] 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 that the actors' reactions to Ermey's lines were as authentic and fresh as possible, Ermey and the recruits did not rehearse together.[12]: 468 For film continuity, each recruit had his head shaved once a week.[43]
Modine fought with Kubrick about whether he could leave the set to be with his pregnant wife in the delivery room. Modine threatened to cut himself and get sent to the hospital himself to force Kubrick to relent.[44] He also nearly fought with D'Onofrio during filming the boot camp scenes after he taunted D'Onofrio while laughing with the film's extras between takes.[45]
During filming, Ermey was injured in a car crash and broke several ribs, leaving him unavailable for four and a half months.[24][46]
During Cowboy's death scene, a building that resembles the alien monolith in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is visible. Kubrick described this as an "extraordinary accident."[24]
During filming, Hasford contemplated 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.[23] 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 of the source material.[22]
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).[47]
