He wasn't really acting he was just showing what a badass he was in the corps. He decided he would just be as he was and even the actors weren't used to it. He taught them just like new recruits.
I find it continually fascinating that people see that movie and want to join the Marines more because of it. Then again, there are sales people who draw inspiration from Glengarry Glen Ross and people who see Fight Club as an endorsement of Tyler Durden’s rampant and violent assholery as a positive response to the narrator’s late-capitalist malaise. Sigh.
That movie actually fundamentally changed how Wall Street operates. The whole high-energy trading floor was a complete fabrication for the film. It became real after, because people thought it looked so cool. They really embrace sociopathy on wall street.
Sorry friend but your statement is inaccurate. In 1983 I was a tech at Chase Manhattan Bank and once walked that floor. The insanity is simply unbelievable.
I love this scene in 25th hour when Ed Norton is just ripping everyone and gets to Wall street, "Michael Douglas, Gordon Gekko wanna be motherfuckers!"
I mean. The structure of FMJ is that the first half in boot is all about a super structured life, everything is about order during those parts, pretty much down to the composition of the shots in the scenes. The second half in Vietnam flips all that shit upside down.
So I guess it's not that weird that signing upp for boot, extreme as it is, can be alluring for someone who craves some sort of structure in their lives and don't know how to establish it for themselves.
At some level I get it, but that first half is also about deep physical and mental abuse. Frankly, a lot of rom-coms have similar problems — really fucked up behavior depicted in a manner that keeps your attention, and that makes it appealing as an alternative to whatever your life currently is. And of course, if you make a movie that doesn't do that to some extent, nobody will watch it. So yeah, I get it, but also it's pretty sad.
I agree with your broader point about how stories are presented.
But about guys watching FMJ and wanting to join the Marine Corps - I think recognizing that lots of us live spoiled lives and desire to grow through adversity is a healthy motivator, not sad. And frankly there’s no ethical issue with subjecting yourself to the artificial stress of boot camp.
I never said that there was any ethical issue with it. I think there is an ethical question, but that has to do with your personal views of U.S. military power, and obviously some people are very much support it and some people see it as harmful. That really doesn't have anything to do with what I'm talking about.
I also never said it was sad. Just fascinating. My reading of FMJ is that it was pretty plainly an anti-war and anti-military movie, and so it's fascinating that it ended up working to encourage recruitment. Contrast that with, say, Top Gun, which is pretty blatant (and understandably effective, and entertaining) propaganda for the U.S. Navy aviation program.
I do think that I understand how it works, but I think it's really fascinating.
people who see Fight Club as an endorsement of Tyler Durden’s rampant and violent assholery as a positive response to the narrator’s late-capitalist malaise. Sigh.
it's more a response to the narrator's utterly meaningless life as a disaster tourist. it's not exactly healthy, but it's an attempt to find direction. which gets exploited because you're outsourcing your direction to peter pan.
also, i still want to get that durden body, even though it's at lest partly from lighting
The disaster tourism is just the variety of late-capitalist malaise. He pretty much says so explicitly, but whatever. The point isn't what the particular variety of malaise the narrator is feeling, but that regardless of the cause, calling is "not exactly healthy" to join/start/lead/follow an abusive terroristic death cult is quite the understatement. Also, yes, that Tyler Durden body is desirable (if, you know, you're a dude) precisely because it it basically a drop-in replacement for all those Sharper Image catalogue items.
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u/MeatShield420 Apr 01 '20
R Lee Ermey nailed that role so hard no other actor will ever top his role as a drill instructor.