Interesting Facts About Full Metal Jacket

A fan favorite and usually a safe bet to make it to the “all time best” lists, Full Metal Jacket continues to be an enduring classic to this day. For those looking for a deeper dive into the film, here are 3 interesting facts about Full Metal Jacket that you may not have known about.

It was based on a novel. Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece was actually adapted from Gulf War veteran Gustav Hasford’s novel The Short-Timers. Written in 1979, The Short-Timers is different in tone and structure than Full Metal Jacket, but is served no less as the inspiration for Kubrick’s 1987 film.

A new title. Although Kubrick was a big fan of The Short-Timers, he decided against using the same title for the movie. The term “full metal jacket” doesn’t actually appear at any point in Gustav Hasford’s novel. Kubrick came upon the term, which describes the metal casing of a bullet, in a gun catalog.

Full on weight gain. Vincent D’Onofrio (Pyle) packed on a considerable amount of pounds for his role at the request of director Stanley Kubrick. D’Onofrio gained nearly 80 lbs for the role in 7 months, and it would take him another 9 months to drop the weight after filming. The weight gain came with some consequence, however, as D’Onofrio tore ligaments in his knees on the obstacle course due to the extra weight.

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