First a brand new Differences Between, then a new Raiders of The Lost Media, later a new Is It True?, and now this. I sure am doing a lot of new things for segments I've been putting on the back burner for quite some time...feels nice actually. Anyways, let's get started. Here are somethings you probably didn't know about this Stanley Kubrick classic.
1. One scene that was cut from the entire movie was the Marines playing soccer, only to reveal they weren't using a typical soccer ball, but a human head.
2. Vincent D'Onofrio tore two ligaments in his knees on the obstacle course because of all the weight he put on.
3. To create a realistic effect for the Vietnam battle scenes, Douglas Milsome experimented with a camera with a shutter thrown off sync. This same effect would later be used for another classic war movie, Saving Private Ryan.
4. During filming, a family of rabbits were accidentally killed. Stanley Kubrick (who was an animal lover) was so devastated by this that he canceled filming for the rest of the day.
5. All of the Vietnam sequences were shot first, then the Parris Island basic training scenes were all filmed second. The opening shot of the streets of Da Nang with the local prostitute was the very first scene to be filmed, while the shot of the Marine recruits marching during their graduation was the very last scene to be filmed.
6. Denzel Washington was originally considered to play Eightball, but he declined because he couldn't read the script before auditioning. He's said that this is the role he regrets missing out on.
7. This was Stanley Kubrick's first movie to be edited by a computer when all of his previous films were linearly spliced.
8. There was going to be a sex scene between Pvt. Joker and the prostitute but it was later cut. This was because Kubrick thought it would've detracted from the cold mood of the film.
9. Shooting is a critical skill for Marines to learn, therefore the discipline is typically more relaxed than any other training exercise. This explains why Hartman is less harsh during this time even going as far as tolerate jokes.
10. In some parts of Canada advertisements for the movie were censored. This was because at the time, Canadian censors didn't know if the phrases "it sucks" or "this sucks" were considered obscene.
11. Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to play Animal Mother, but turned it down in order to star in The Running Man.
12. There is no background information given about the characters, nothing is known about them before they joined the Marines. We're only given small things like Joker wrote for his high school newspaper, Cowboy is from Texas, and the lieutenant that was interviewed played football at Notre Dame.
13. Each recruit had to have his head shaved every day, this was so continuity didn't look so questionable in some scenes.
14. Stanley Kubrick had nothing but praise for R. Lee Ermey for his skills as a performer. Kubrick was going to write dialogue for Ermey's character himself, but he was so impressed with Ermey's improv he decided against it. So he simply just let him ad-lib, something very unheard of in a Stanley Kubrick film.
15. According to Vincent D'Onofrio, the production schedule was so drawn out, that lead actor Matthew Modine got married, conceived a child with his wife, then the kid was born, and turned 1 year old...all during the course of filming.
Well, I'm all done here. Come back on Thursday, Aug 24th, for a Cinematic Disasters review about a documentary about a Stanley Kubrick film. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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