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January 8, 2006

Drill Sergeants in the Movies

Just a quick bookmark for an article I'm writing: The Guardian's John Patterson reviews the history of Hollywood representations of the drill sergeant. Not surprisingly, Full Metal Jacket's Lee Ermey, who had been a USMC drill instructor, gets high praise.

Patterson's article appears to accompany the British release of Sam Mendes' Jarhead, with Patterson speculating that the lowkey portrayal of the DI in Jarhead suggests the impossibility of matching Ermey's frightening DI. I'd argue that Kubrick's use of/commentary on the DI is intentionally far more pointed than Mendes' in Jarhead, in which the film seems far more interested in the tedium of the war and the apparent "obsolescence" of the ground troops in the first Gulf War (it's probably obvious that the Iraq War complicates the notion that ground troops are obsolete).

Posted by chuck at January 8, 2006 2:58 PM

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Comments

Ermey's persona as a consumable DI gets sustained once a year when he is a sort of honorary figure at the Marine Corps Marathon (race starter, maybe? I forget). The big race program we all get includes a "letter" from him in which he sort of modulates the tone for us er... psuedo-grunts running the 26.2.

Posted by: dave at January 9, 2006 11:50 AM

Wow--that seems a little strange to me, especially given Kubrick's scathing criticism of his character. But, as you suggest, he's also a "consumable" object.

Posted by: Chuck at January 9, 2006 10:49 PM

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