Full Metal Jacket Notes:

 Singing “Goodbye my sweetheart, hello Vietnam.”

 Young men getting hair shaved off.
 “You will be a minister of death trained for war”
 General is cruel, and demeaning
 Paris Island, South Carolina, the United States Marine Core Recruit Depot.
 Lots of talk of lack of woman.
 “My rifle is my best friend… without my rifle I am useless”
 Rigorous training
 General talks of religion, and giving your heart to Jesus.
 “The Marine Core does not want Robots, it wants Killers”
 A mistreated, overweight Calvary man shoots the general, and then himself.
 Prostitute approachs marine in Vietnam.
 Vietnamese man steals marines camera.
 Marine talks about how the men are trying to help the Southern Vietnamese and
they are disrespectful.
 The war is not particularly popular.
 Men are celebrating, and are ambushed.
 “The enemy has very deceitfully taken advantage of the ceasefire, to launch an
offensive all over the country”
 “In Saigon, the US embassy has been overrun by suicide squads”
 Solider in a helicopter kills civilians as they run away with a machine gun
 Lots of dead body’s in a trench covered in white “lime”
o They were told to show up for political reeducation, whoever showed up got
shot or buried alive.
 Call Vietnamese “Gooks”
 Palm trees, dirt and patches of grass line the area.
 Lieutenant shot at the “Ville” while marines are walking with tanks forward.
 Shot at from a tall building.
 2 dead marines are honored by there fellow marine
o Semper Fi
o Were mean marines
o At least they died for a good cause, what cause was that? Freedom? You think
we waste gooks for freedom? This is a slaughter!
 A soldier says he thinks they’re “shooting at the wrong gooks”
 Soldiers seem to lack womanly interaction
 “The NVA pulled out to positions across the Perfume River. Our squad is sent on a
patrol to check out the report”
 Soldiers get hit by landmines
 Always the sound of guns going off, and bombing etc.
 Soldiers got lost between checkpoints after the squad leader dies
 Soldier ignores squad leader to help a downed ally, who then gets shot.
 The new general gets shot and dies.
 They all have nicknames; Joker, Eightball, Doc
 Young Vietnamese girl, 14 or 15, is the sniper
 Helmets say “Born to Kill”
 Girl asks to be shot.
 They call dying being “wasted”

Saturday Night Fever Notes

 Stayin Alive- The Bee Gees

 Bell Bottoms
 Night Fever- The Bee Gees
 Farrah Fawcett Poster
 Jet Li Poster
 Vodka- Underage drinking
 Reckless driving
 “Sharp as you can look without being a Nigger, or a Spick”
 Records, Disco Ball and light up floors in the club.
 Fog on the dance floor
 Poster of Al Pacino
 Anti Gay behavior
 Smoking in buildings
 Brother, Frankie left the priesthood
o “One day you look at a crucifix and all you see is a man dying on the cross”
o “All I had was their image of me, that was all”
 Drugs

A Very Long Engagement

 Saturday 6th, January 1917 5 condemned soldiers were escorted to Bouchavesnes

o Drafted from the Seine Area, wearing the boots of a dead German and tag
number 2124, originally named Bastoche, he was a carpenter
o Tag number 2007 from the Seine Area, a welder for the state railways in
Bagneux, his name was Francis Gaignard, nickname; Six-Sous
o Number 1818, was brave and killed his own officer for kicking the dead, no
one ever found out. Benoit Notre-Dame was a farmer from Dordogne
o Number 7328 recruited in Corsica, Angel Bassignano, he was a liar and a
cheat, they enlisted criminals to “beef up regiments melted in the fires at
Verdun”
o “Cornflower” nickname for the class of ’17, five months shy of 20, hes afraid
of everything, but he used to brave storms for light house keepers Manech