Blank Check — Patreon: Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free)

Published 2022-11-06; 2:32:16 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David (Patreon)” and the episode “Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free)”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims, Ben Hosley. Guests: Jon Gabrus.

Subject films: Full Metal Jacket (1987).

On the transcript: No speaker labels; many speaker attributions are low-confidence guesses from context. Some segments are garbled (Jarhead sequel titles, Oscar lists), and Ben Hosley barely speaks so he has no personality entry.

Films that came up

Claims (42)

people (typecasting shorthand): Full Metal Jacket → R. Lee Ermey. Anyone who casts Ermey assumes the audience has seen the film and is either paying homage or pulling the rug out.
“anyone who uses him in a movie is like, well, you've seen full metal jacket. So we're either doing an homage to that or kind of pulling the rug out from that.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:08:16 · Jon Gabrus (0.70 sure it was them)
people (performance parallel): The Silence of the Lambs → Full Metal Jacket. Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs is a similar case of a performance that explains a whole career.
“Hopkins and Silence of the Lambs is like a similar thing.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:10:34 · Jon Gabrus (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (boot camp shadow): Full Metal Jacket → The Inspection. The Inspection is set in basic training and knows not to mess with Full Metal Jacket's drill sergeant; the speaker says it is not a ripoff.
“But I think it knows because every movie knows that it's like, it's everyone knows full metal jacket.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:12:25 · Jon Gabrus (0.80 sure it was them)
people (drill sergeant casting): Full Metal Jacket → Hacksaw Ridge. Hacksaw Ridge gets around the Ermey shadow by casting Vince Vaughn, a different kind of motor mouth.
“But like Hacksaw Ridge is one of the only movies I think to get around this where it's like, oh, get Vince Vaughn, he's like a different type of motor mouth.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:13:25 · Jon Gabrus (0.80 sure it was them)
unmapped (subversion): Full Metal Jacket → Major Payne. The answer to how to subvert the drill-sergeant movie is to do it with children, as in Major Payne.
“Now, which your answer is do it to children.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:15:10 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (boot camp comparison): Stripes → Full Metal Jacket. Compared as boot-camp movies, though Stripes loses interest after basic.
“It's it's a little bit like stripes, except the differences.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:18:12 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (praise): Billy Wilder → Full Metal Jacket. Wilder is quoted calling the first 45 minutes the best movie ever made.
“I found some quote that like Billy Wilder said that he thought the 1st 45 minutes were the best movie ever made.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:20:09 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (adaptation): The Short-Timers (novel) → Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick's film is based on Gustav Hasford's novel and keeps its three-part structure.
“Stanley Kubrick's film, 1987, based on the novel, The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:25:08 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (same cycle): Platoon → Casualties of War. Platoon begins a late-80s cycle of Vietnam films that show the war as foolish and bleak.
“Like there's that this whole realm of late 80s movies about Vietnam”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:26:59 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (generational template): Full Metal Jacket → Jarhead. Jarhead is described as trying to be the Full Metal Jacket of the Iraq war generation.
“like jarhead feels like it's very much trying to be the full metal jacket.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:27:21 · David Sims (0.55 sure it was them)
theme (contemporary comparison): Platoon → Full Metal Jacket. At release critics said Platoon's visceral combat made Kubrick's sound-stage Vietnam look less real.
“Kubrick doing this on sound stages isn't the same.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:30:52 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
career (unmade project taken up): Stanley Kubrick → Steven Spielberg. Kubrick could not make A.I. because technology was not ready; Spielberg eventually did.
“which obviously Steven Spielberg eventually makes.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:35:14 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (wanted to adapt): Dispatches (book) → Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick also wanted to adapt Herr's Dispatches, which has no narrative.
“And that's like another thing that Kubrick wanted to adapt.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:37:34 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
people (co-writer carried over): Michael Herr → Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick kept Herr, the writer from one piece of material, to help adapt a different one.
“Yeah, so he sort of absorbs the writer from one piece of material to help them adapt a different piece of material.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:37:57 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
people (casting first choice): Stanley Kubrick → Anthony Michael Hall. Kubrick wanted Hall for Joker after seeing Sixteen Candles; eight months of talks broke down.
“He saw 16 candles. He was like this guy's an incredible actor.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:44:06 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (scheduling conflict): Aliens → Full Metal Jacket. Rico Ross had to choose between two tyrannical directors with overlapping holds and picked Aliens.
“And eventually it was just like, you're dealing with 2 different tyrannical control freaks.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:46:53 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (assistant): Leon Vitali → Stanley Kubrick. Vitali, Barry Lyndon's stepson, gave up acting to be Kubrick's executive assistant.
“Who plays like Barry Lyndon's stepson and was like a young actor who then gave up his entire acting career to be Stanley Kubrick's executive assistant for the rest of his life”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:51:38 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
programming (thematic pairing): The Woman King → Full Metal Jacket. Both films are about how much you have to break your brain to survive training for war.
“But it's the thing that like Woman King goes into a lot as well of like, how much you have to break your brain to survive an environment like this, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:56:40 · David Sims (0.60 sure it was them)
theme (character parallel): Black Hawk Down → Full Metal Jacket. Eric Bana's Black Hawk Down character is like Animal Mother: scary, but useful when the shooting starts.
“Eric Bana's character is sort of similar where everyone's like, look, that guy freaks me out,”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:59:03 · Jon Gabrus (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (considered for Hartman): Robert De Niro → Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick considered De Niro and Ed Harris for Hartman.
“So Kubrick considered a number of actors to play Gunner Sergeant Hartman, Robert De Niro, which is interesting to imagine, Ed Harris, who probably would be good.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:04:56 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (technical advisor): R. Lee Ermey → Apocalypse Now. Ermey advised on Apocalypse Now and other Vietnam films before Full Metal Jacket.
“Arlie Ermy had been a technical advisor in Apocalypse. Now, Purple Hearts, Boys and Company C, a lot of these Vietnam movies.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:05:20 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (source of the dialogue): R. Lee Ermey → Full Metal Jacket. Per the dossier Hartman's insults came right from Ermey, whom Kubrick had write down what he screamed.
“No, obviously this guy is perfect and would write down everything he said because all the insults came right from him”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:05:50 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar snub theory): Lou Gossett Jr. → R. Lee Ermey. A drill-sergeant Oscar win a couple years earlier may have cost Ermey a nomination.
“Lou Gossett Jr. had just won an Oscar a couple years... So maybe it was kind of like, eh, drill sergeant, we've seen that.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:12:30 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
people (front-loaded performance): Mark Rylance → R. Lee Ermey. Rylance in Bridge of Spies is a comparable case of owning the first 45 minutes and being snubbed or split.
“Like, I was thinking about Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:19:01 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
people (casting echo): Full Metal Jacket → The Frighteners. Ermey plays the ghost version of the drill sergeant in The Frighteners.
“he plays the ghost version of this in the Frighteners.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:20:08 · Jon Gabrus (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (weight-gain record): Raging Bull → Vincent D'Onofrio. D'Onofrio's weight gain is claimed to top De Niro's in Raging Bull.
“There was sort of the victory lap of like he gained 10 more pounds than De Niro in Raging Bull.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:21:09 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if casting): Ted Levine → Full Metal Jacket. A speaker thinks Ted Levine would work in this film.
“Ted Levine would work in this.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:30:14 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (direction note): Lon Chaney → Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick told D'Onofrio before a scene to be Lon Chaney big, as relayed in a D'Onofrio quote.
“Apparently, before one scene, Kubrick said, I want you to be big. Lon Cheney big.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:30:27 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (performance model): Lon Chaney → Vincent D'Onofrio. D'Onofrio studied Lon Chaney throughout and built his performance on him.
“Dnofrio was like studying Lon Channing the entire time, like that was the guy he was sort of trying to build his performance off of”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:31:03 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
verdict (humor ranking): Dr. Strangelove → The Shining. Strangelove ranks lower for the speaker than Barry Lyndon, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut among Kubrick's funny films.
“I, I, I rank Strange Love lower in the pack of movies I find funny by him.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:36:54 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
people (comedy handed to the actors): Peter Sellers → Dr. Strangelove. Kubrick by his own admission let Peter Sellers figure out the comedy.
“I will let Peter Sellers figure this part of the movie out.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:38:28 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (same location instruction): Stanley Kubrick → Ken Adam. Kubrick told Ken Adam to find every location within 20 miles of his home, as on Barry Lyndon.
“Which was basically the same thing he told him for Barry Lyndon”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:39:02 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar attention): A Clockwork Orange → Full Metal Jacket. Clockwork Orange got Oscar attention, but The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut were ignored.
“obviously, the shining full metal jacket and eyes wide shut are all basically ignored by the Oscars.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:00:28 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
people (pseudonymous composer): Vivian Kubrick → Full Metal Jacket. The score is credited to Abigail Mead, who is Kubrick's daughter Vivian.
“the score is credited to Abigail Mead, but that is Kubrick's daughter.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:02:41 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (same song elsewhere): The Trashmen → Back to the Beach. The speaker first fell in love with Surfin' Bird in Back to the Beach, not Full Metal Jacket.
“I 1st fell in love with that song in Frankie and Annette's back to the beach”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:04:27 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (unused score): Vivian Kubrick → Eyes Wide Shut. Vivian also wrote an Eyes Wide Shut score that was not used; Pook scored it.
“Vivian Kubrick did a score for eyes wide shut that wasn't used, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:04:40 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (protege): Pook → Vivian Kubrick. The speaker calls Pook the protege of Kubrick's daughter.
“was sort of... the protégé of his daughter.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:04:48 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (preceding electronic scores): Wendy Carlos → Vivian Kubrick. The Full Metal Jacket synth score follows two Wendy Carlos electronic scores for Kubrick.
“And it's coming off of like Wendy Carlos delivering 2 of the best electronic scores ever.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:05:12 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (same actor, opposite bodies): Full Metal Jacket → Adventures in Babysitting. D'Onofrio is Pyle and a Thor-lookalike beefcake in two films opening the same summer.
“Dino Frio is on, you know, different screens in your multiplex in completely different bodies.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:15:07 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
people (writer then director): Chris Columbus → Gremlins. Columbus wrote Gremlins and The Goonies before directing Adventures in Babysitting.
“And he wrote The Goonies, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:15:24 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (regular hairdresser): Leonard Lewis → Stanley Kubrick. Leonard always did Kubrick's hair credits, which is why Hair by Leonard shows on many of his films.
“His name is Leonard Lewis. He was the world's first celebrity hairdresser.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:23:22 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (least hair): THX 1138 → Full Metal Jacket. Fewest hairs in any covered film since THX 1138.
“this is like almost the least hair in any movie we've covered since THX. 1138.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:23:42 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items (21)

fun, about R. Lee Ermey: TV shows reveal a character's father is Ermey as shorthand for why the son is wound so tight.
“several TV shows using the reveal of, oh, and our lead character's father is Arly Ermy, and you understand what that means in shorthand.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:08:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Gustav Hasford: Kubrick insisted on meeting the scary Marine author, then passed Herr a note at dinner saying he could not deal with him.
“there was a dinner during which Kubrick passed her a note saying, I can't deal with this man.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:41:52 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Anthony Michael Hall: Kubrick's first choice for Joker; eight months of talks collapsed for reasons Hall keeps vague.
“he really wanted Anthony Michael Hall to play Joker.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:43:51 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Aliens: Rico Ross had to pick Aliens over Kubrick's film because of overlapping holds.
“Kubrick had an 8 week hold on him, and there was one week of overlap between aliens and full metal jacket”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:46:41 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Matthew Modine: Modine got engaged, married, had a kid and celebrated its first birthday during one shoot.
“Modine got engaged, married, pregnant and had their kid and like celebrated the kid's 1st birthday all while shooting full metal jacket.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:47:39 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about R. Lee Ermey: A car accident left him unable to film for four and a half months and explains the arm he does not move.
“Arlie Ermy got in a really bad car accident and couldn't film anything for 4.5 months”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:47:51 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Full Metal Jacket: The 3000 open video auditions produced a viral clip of a man at a Sears with a ladder saying hello Mr. Kubrick.
“This was an early case of letting people submit auditions through videotape, like having a pretty open audition because they needed young people and they got 3000 submissions.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 0:50:18 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about R. Lee Ermey: Legend: Kubrick saw a video of Ermey rattling off insults while being pelted with tennis balls and oranges, never breaking.
“There's like this legend that there's this video of Arli Ermy that Kubrick saw of him rattling off all these like insults and scream while being like pelted with tennis balls and oranges and never and never breaking.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:06:37 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Full Metal Jacket: The opening head-shaving was shot months after wrap, so the actors' misery was real.
“The opening of all of their heads being shaved was shot like 4 months after they thought they had wrapped.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:11:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Vincent D'Onofrio: A former Hard Rock Cafe bouncer who taped his own audition, mailed it to England and put on a record amount of weight.
“Vincent DiNofrio, as we said, he was a bouncer, right, at the Hard Rock Cafe, I think.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:20:28 · Jon Gabrus (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Vincent D'Onofrio: Weight gain claimed to be a record, 10 more pounds than De Niro in Raging Bull.
“it has long stood as like the claim of the most weight an actor has gained for a role.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:21:09 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Adventures in Babysitting: A kid thinks D'Onofrio looks like Thor, and he is presented as the ultimate beefcake in the same year as Pyle.
“the little girl in that movie is obsessed with Thor, Marvel's Thor, and she thinks he looks like Thor.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:22:59 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Vincent D'Onofrio: After the third take Kubrick gently rubbed his fist against D'Onofrio, an approval he never forgot.
“after the 3rd take, Stanley took his fist and gently rubbed it against Vincent DiNofrio.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:30:35 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Vincent D'Onofrio: He listened to No Woman No Cry between takes.
“Dnofrio says he's listening to no woman, no cry a lot in between takes on his headphones”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:31:31 · Jon Gabrus (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Matthew Modine: Modine's joke to Kubrick: Spielberg meets a bearded man in heaven who thinks he is Kubrick but is God, and Kubrick liked it.
“And Modine says, Stanley liked that joke.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:33:15 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Full Metal Jacket: The battlefield was Beckton Gasworks, a huge plant scheduled for demolition, so the crew could blow it up.
“They're shooting at what's called the Bechton Gasworks, which was the largest gas plant in the world and was basically scheduled for demolition.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:43:19 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Adam Baldwin: Baldwin won one chess game out of fifty against Kubrick and was told Kubrick only blundered from disrespect.
“the only reason you won, Adam, is because I have so little respect for your game that I made a blunder.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 1:47:43 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Full Metal Jacket: The score was credited to Abigail Mead (Vivian Kubrick) and disqualified from Oscar consideration for being too short, about 22 minutes.
“It was disqualified from Oscar consideration.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:02:59 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise: A Revenge of the Nerds remake was shot for about a week before the campus and Fox pulled the plug.
“they started filming Revenge of the Nerds remake and like a weekend of filming were just like, what are we doing here?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:08:46 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Leonard Lewis: The closing credits end with a Hair by Leonard card on a film with almost no hair.
“It just says hair by Leonard because he does like the classic Kubrick end of credit shit”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:23:03 · Jon Gabrus (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about R. Lee Ermey: Ermey says they used animal shears on the recruits' heads for bigger chunks of hair on camera.
“Ermy Ermy in the commentary says they use animal shears because they needed it to get like the bigger cinematically get bigger chunks of hair”
Blank Check — Patreon · Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free) · 2:23:56 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loves Kubrick's dark, mordant comedy and the Barry Lyndon, Shining and Eyes Wide Shut run, and tracks the casting and production legends behind Full Metal Jacket. Reads the dossier closely, likes award-season trivia and box office games.
David Sims (host): Film-historian type who places the film in the late-80s Vietnam cycle and the Oscar race, and reads Herr and Hasford material aloud. Likes the film's structure and its dark comic cuts.
Jon Gabrus (guest): Action-movie guy from Action Boys who loves war films, 80s actioners, Michael Mann and synth scores. Has rewatched the film at different ages and now prizes the journalism section; can't stand the Iraq war cash-ins.

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong

Black Jack / a shy with black check = Blank Check
John Gaberus / Gabrus = Jon Gabrus
Arli Ermy / Arley Army / Arlie Ermy / Early Army = R. Lee Ermey
Dnofrio / DiNofrio / Dino Frio = Vincent D'Onofrio
Kuprick / Cooper / Stanley Cooper / Krubrick = Kubrick
Michael Hare / her = Michael Herr (author of Dispatches)
Lon Channing / Lon Cheney = Lon Chaney
Major pain = Major Payne
Kindergarten cup = Kindergarten Cop
Mena Black = Men in Black
Metawan = Matewan
Vincent Gardinia = Vincent Gardenia
Scott Atkins = Scott Adkins (Jarhead 3)
Devin Sawa = Devon Sawa (Jarhead 4)
high NS Nagor = Haing S. Ngor
Bechton = Beckton (the gasworks)
Leon Vitale / Liam Vitelli = Leon Vitali
with gear (American Gigolo) = Richard Gere
Hasford Dooley = Hasford, do-lee (garbled)
Jerry Shhatsburg = Jerry Schatzberg (speaker unsure)
Charlene / Charlene Mead are noise; Tim Kulseri kept as transcribed

Blank Check — Patreon: Full Metal Jacket with Jon Gabrus (Ad-Free)

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (1)

anecdote (4)

passing (78)

compared (14)

recommended (1)

Claims (42)

Fun items (21)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong