- What's up GQ, I'm James Laporta,
I'm the former U.S. Marine infantryman
and this is the breakdown.
[upbeat techno music]
First up, "Jarhead".
I don't even know how many
"Jarheads" their up to now,
but it has nothing to do
with the original "Jarhead".
There's one "Jarhead".
All the others are bull****,
for a lack of a better term.
So this is one of the
more accurate movies.
- [Drill Instructor] You
are no longer black or brown
or yellow or red!
You are now green!
- Before I've even started,
I'm seeing things that
are standing out to me.
His haircut is correct.
When guys enter bootcamp,
the first thing you're doing
is you're getting your head shaved.
The uniform is good,
it is accurate in terms of the
time period, so early 90's.
What is absolutely ugly is the back.
Barracks are, especially recruit barracks
are not that white.
It looks like they're in a mental ward.
The blankets are usually green,
they're like these wool green blankets
that look like they're straight
outta like, The Cold War.
So that is what stands out to me.
What is accurate is, yeah,
the bunks are made
and that is exactly how
you would hang your towels.
Usually some guys, they
wouldn't even get under
their bed because when
you're getting woken up
at like, 3:30, four in the
morning by drill instructors,
you don't have a lot of time.
Everything is sort of,
on a countdown, and so,
they don't even get out of the covers,
they just sorta sleep on top of their bed.
You know, so it's already made
and they just have to,
sorta straighten it up.
- You are now green!
You are light green
or dark green,
do you understand?
- Sir, yes sir!
- Go back.
Okay, so that is all accurate.
That's called standing on line.
You have to do that a lot.
I used to hide behind a stanchion.
If you're lucky, your rack is near one,
and so when the drill instructor
is looking down the line like that,
you can, sorta, like lean back and hide.
In this they don't have those stanchions
but that is accurate
in terms of guys of both
sides staring at each other,
not moving and you're
just sorta hoping nobody,
a drill instructor doesn't see
you glancing down the line.
- Do you have a girlfriend Swofford?
- Sir, yes sir!
- Guess again mother******
Jody's banging her right now!
Get on your face and gimme 25
for every time she gets...
- Okay, pause it.
In terms of the yelling, that's accurate,
it sorta depends on the person.
So because there's been
so many, sort of incidents
that have happened.
There's a lot of oversight
in terms of the behavior
of drill instructors.
Like drill instructors are
not supposed to be cussing.
So a lot of drill instructors,
you'll hear them get
around it like "God dawn",
or something like that,
but usually a drill
instructor would look around
to make sure like, no
higher ups were there
and they would, you
know, they'll still cuss.
- Guess again mother******
Jody's banging her right now!
Get on your face and gimme 25
for every time she gets ****** this month!
Down on your face!!!
- Oh, go back.
Jody is a real thing.
Jody in the marine corps is
almost like a urban myth.
Jody is like a person to where,
if you're deployed,
or you're at bootcamp,
or you're out in the field training.
Jody is the guy who's back home
taking your wife out on a date
or having sexual intercourse
with your girlfriend.
- That is a pile of dog ****!
- Sir, the recruit's never
been good at drawing sir!
- Why the **** are you my scribe then?
Isn't my scribe supposed
to know how to draw?
- In terms of him being a scribe,
that's a real thing,
there's also artist recruits
and so they draw all the art.
The drawings are always something
to deal with either war or death,
that's what they tend to draw
for the drill instructors,
cause' they look cool.
- Can't think when I'm
giving you a few love taps?
How the **** are you
going to fire your rifle
when grenades are going off in your face?
What the **** are you even doing here?
- Sir, I got lost on
the way to college sir!
- Yeah, that's happened,
again, not commonplace amongst both bases
and not commonplace
amongst drill instructors,
they actually have a card,
in terms of how long they can
make a recruit do push-ups,
make a recruit do sit-ups.
There's a lot of regulation but,
I mean even in perfect worlds
where there are systems in place
to not allow things to
happen, things happen.
Like a drill instructor
slamming someones head
into a board.
[reggae music]
Stop right there.
This is, even though this is very subtle,
this is incredibly accurate.
So this is what is known as a boot drop.
So basically what has occurred is
these marines have
graduated boot camp right,
from there they'll have like a week off,
I think it's like 10 days,
and then from there they'll
go to the school of infantry.
But the reason I wanted
to pause this is because,
there is a fear in all these marines
and it's the same fear that I had.
Those marines standing on the catwalks
of the upper decks
are looking down at these brand new guys.
You can imagine, some of them
are already veterans themselves from war,
and so, you're just staring at these guys
who are going to eat you alive.
I was severely hazed
when I first showed up
to my first unit.
It took me many, many years
to realize after that,
that it was, that they
were dealing with things
that they probably should
have been in therapy for,
it wasn't because, me being the new guy,
it was because they had just come back
from seeing their friends die in Iraq.
- ♪Don't worry, be happy♪
- Boom mother******!
- ♪Don't worry, be happy♪
- That is accurate.
It's one of those things
that is not commonplace
across the entire marine corps,
but has it happened?
Absolutely.
So they'll take literally an iron
and they'll bend it to spell out U.S.M.C.
And they will brand people.
Now, again, this is not
a commonplace thing.
I did not see it in my time
and I started from 2006 to 2014
but I've seen pictures of it.
That is accurate for the early
90's and even into the 80's.
I mean, I wasn't branded
but something similar in terms
of sort of the gang mentality.
We we're training in the field,
I'm still a new marine.
Someone had found out
that I had huge fear of snakes.
I had the six senior guys hold me down
and they found these
snakes out in the woods
and I mean, I was
fighting, tooth and nail.
It was at least one
that he put on my chest
and I was freaking out you know,
and then someone said
"Hey guys, knock it off,
"we have a briefing to go to".
You know, in the field,
before we were supposed
to run our range.
So again, I didn't get branded,
but that sorta mentality of like,
the senior guys ganging up on
a new guy, that's accurate.
- Next up, "Stripes".
- Left, right, left, right, left, right,
you stay in place, left,
right, left, right,
left, right, left, right, left, fall in!
- All right, let's rewind that.
So in marching you're supposed
to start on your left foot.
Everything has some sort
of meaning behind it,
you're judged down to the inch you know,
in terms of badges and ribbon
have to be at a certain inch,
the guy in front of you
is supposed to be 40
inches from your chest.
So everything has a structure to it.
But it takes a while for some people
to get the hang of marching.
Drill instructors have a couple of tricks,
because at boot camp,
it's not just the recruits
that are getting judged,
the higher command authority
is actually judging the
drill instructors themselves.
So drill is a huge part of that.
So far everything is accurate,
there is a comedic element.
Guys looking around, like laughing
and stuff like that,
there'd be drill sergeants
probably screaming at them.
- Left, Left, left, right, left,
left, left, left, right, left.
[Soldier starts singing]
- Pause it.
While a funny scene,
no guy is gonna just start singing.
The drill sergeant is in charge of that
and if some random recruit
just started singing
in the middle of his formation,
he wouldn't be singing for long.
Do we sing?
Yes, singing is common in the military,
across the military services.
You wouldn't belt out
if the right senior enlisted soldier,
or marine, or officer is standing around
because it is incredibly vile.
All right, let's fast forward.
[orchestral music]
Pause.
God, this is very much
like a director, like,
"so let's make it look like
a really active military base
"where there's you know,
formations going every which way".
It happens but it's like,
it just comes off as fake to me.
All these tanks driving by
and all these formations and you know,
all at the same time.
Cause' you gotta think about it,
bases themselves are also small cities,
there are tons of civilians
that work on base.
Yeah, Overall they got
the basic idea right
but they are taking, what we
would call, artistic liberties.
Next up, "Hacksaw Ridge".
It's a true story, Desmond Doss, yeah,
Medal of Honor recipient World War 2.
He served as a combat medic
but at that time combat medics
didn't carry weapons, they
just tended the wounded.
They wanted to put him on the frontlines
and be in the infantry
and he was a conscientious objector
and went to a court marshal, but he won.
Constitutionally they were,
the army were violating his rights,
but he went on to earn the Medal of Honor.
Yeah so real story
and a crazy story.
- Come on, ladies, move it, move it,
I wanna see some fire here!
A little hustle!
Show me something!
Run like you mean it, down, down, down!
- [Drill Instructor]
Come on move it, move it!
- Those obstacles, I've seen them.
It really depends on the
base but those are common,
even you know,
where they have to climb up and go down.
These are specifically
called circuit courses
or this could even pass for the o course
which is an obstacle course.
So yeah, especially if
it's like a timed event,
you know, you have this long
to get through the obstacle course.
So he's got a clip board right there,
it's a timed event.
So yeah, people are racing
to try to get the best time.
[laughs]
- Oh "Heartbreak Ridge" yeah.
What kills me about this,
the one thing I've never been able
to live down about this movie is,
if I remember correctly there's supposed
to be a Camp Lejeune.
There is not a single mountain near
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Obviously they're in California.
That ruins it for me.
[gunshots]
Accurate.
This is not bootcamp,
they're already in the fleet
and they're shooting M-16A1's,
came outta the Vietnam War.
A lot of people don't know
that the lower half of
an M-16A1 in Vietnam,
is plastic and actually it
was developed by Mattel.
So this is all accurate,
this is a regular firing range,
it's common in boot camp and in the fleet.
So what's not accurate is,
you'd have way more people
because, you know, shooting guns,
safety is paramount
and things can go wrong when
people start shooting weapons.
So that's why there'd be way more people.
That's accurate.
So this is called the pits
and actually that one guy,
one person just put up a lollipop,
there are these carriages
down there in the pits,
you can see them, there's
marines down there,
they're putting targets up,
those are point targets and
they're bringing them down.
So someone shoots, they'll bring it down,
they'll mark where the shot
was, and they'll put it back up
and show where the shooter shot.
But, that's all accurate.
There's a red line in the pits
and if you stay behind that
red line, you won't get shot,
however I was on the range once,
a drill instructor got shot in the leg.
So the round hit the carriage,
like the left or right side
of the carriage that's holding the target
and ricocheted and hit him in the leg
despite him being behind the red line.
[gunshots]
- Nothing wrong with that
rifle, keep it tight.
- Sir, my weapons jammed.
[gunshots]
- First, I wanna know what, [laughs]
I would love to know
what yard line they're on
where he hit that.
So we shoot from the
200 yard line, the 300,
and the 500 yard line.
It's cause' I'm questioning that accuracy.
Putting that aside,
people flagging the line,
happens all the time
and it is scary.
They lack muzzle awareness,
they lack just common
sense, thinking of like,
I need to keep my weapon
pointed down range.
I mean they would be immediately
kicked off the range,
cause' that is incredibly egregious
and incredibly dangerous but
yeah, that happens a lot.
[footsteps]
- Profile is never gonna
make it back to the barracks.
- Powers is cold blooded, man.
- What is inaccurate right
there is, for as rough as,
and disciplined as Clint
Eastwood's character is,
and he's trying to instill discipline
into this recon platoon,
he would not have them
walking around without
their chin straps undone.
If you ever watched John Wayne movies,
he always had his chin strap undone,
middle of combat and somehow
his helmet never falls off.
All right next up, "Full Metal Jacket".
R. Lee Ermey was, there's a great story
about how he sorta, worked his way
into getting this role.
He was the military advisor
for Stanley Kubrick on this movie,
he was not meant to be in the movie.
But the actor that they had hired
to be the drill instructor
just wasn't that,
and R. Lee Ermey was in the marine corps,
was a staff sergeant,
and was a drill instructor in real life
and he just had that sort of rhythm,
drill instructors have a certain rhythm
to how they speak, how they yell.
Drill instructors are
putting on a character,
nobody is walking around
angry all the time like that.
- Private Pyle if there
is one thing in this world
that I hate, it is an unlocked footlocker,
you know that don't you?
- Sir, yes sir!
If there wasn't ****heads like you,
there wouldn't be any thievery
in this world would there?
- Sir, no sir!
- Get down!
- Well now, let's just see
if there's anything missing.
- That is no different from then
to when I went through bootcamp in 2006,
that is completely accurate.
There have been many a
people who have gotten,
their complete footlocker
wrecked by a drill instructor,
I've seen complete rooms
wrecked by drill instructors
for a towel being outta place
or a rack not being made correctly.
So if there's a footlocker
that was unlocked,
well we gotta see if anything is missing
and they're going to dump
your **** all over the floor
and then they're gonna give you
like 30 seconds to collect it all
and put it back in the same order.
Usually if it happens to one person
it's going to happen to
the rest of the platoon.
You do everything as a unit,
there isn't an individual,
everything is done as a team,
and so if one person is getting punished
at some point the rest of the
platoon is gonna get punished.
So you're only as strong
as your weakest link,
that's sorta the whole idea.
Drill instructors, it's actually a really,
it's a really hard
life, drill instructors,
their first cycle lose an
incredible amount of weight.
I knew one guy who lost
literally like 30 pounds
inside of three months.
I mean, because it was just non-stop,
you're job is really to make
everyone's life miserable
and just to go around
and yell all the time.
- You people have not given Private Pyle
the proper motivation!
- Pause
Absolutely accurate, when he says,
"You have not given Private
Pyle the proper motivation.",
there's a subtext to that,
he's speaking in code.
- And the way I see it ladies, you owe me
for one jelly doughnut!
Now get on your faces!
Open your mouth!
They're paying for it, you eat it!
Ready, exercise!
- [Soldiers] One, two, three, four!
- Pause.
Hazing will be disguised by other names,
such as training,
or motivation.
But what they really mean
is we need to haze him into compliance
and that's what he's really saying there.
I once got, I think it was
nine stitches under this eye,
I wasn't doing a push-up right
and I got kicked in the face by a private,
who I outranked,
but he had been to Iraq
and I hadn't, so despite
me outranking him,
I didn't in terms of the social hierarchy.
"Full Metal Jacket" overall is,
is accurate especially for the time.
So this is occurring during Vietnam.
"Full Metal Jacket" is
probably responsible
for recruiting tons of
marines into the marine corps.
It's the movie I watched.
When they where thinking about
going into the marine corps,
they look at "Full Metal Jacket" you know,
or they look at "Full Metal
Jacket" and they're like,
"well I'm not gonna go
to the marine corps,
"I'm gonna go into the
air force, or the navy"
you know, some other services.
There were some egregious moments
but most of what I saw
is taken from real life
and I think when service
members or veterans
are looking at T.V. shows or looking
at military movies.
That's sorta what were looking for,
even if that didn't happen to us,
as long as it falls into the realm
of something that could happen
or that realm of possibility,
we'll let it slide.
What we can't let slide a lot of times is
ribbons being outta place you know,
and that's where it's sorta like
why didn't you just do
a little bit of research
before you started writhing a script,
and that's where it drives us insane.
I'm James Laporta, thank you
for watching the The Breakdown.
