# Question about 'Full Metal Jacket'
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 20, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448 "2013-03-20T14:37:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/1 "2013-03-20T14:37:18Z")
At one point in the boot camp portion of the movie it shows Gunny Hartman marching the recruits in formation and it sounds like he’s saying ‘Hail Colic, Hail Colic’ which I know isn’t right :). What is he actually saying?
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/2 "2013-03-20T15:20:34Z")
I _think_ what you are talking about is the very stylized rendering of “left, right, left, right” that you get from drill sergeants.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/3 "2013-03-20T15:42:04Z")
Yep. Just Hartman showing of his DI “accent.” You also get things like “Heydle die” and “Yettle roy.”
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### Author:  [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/4 "2013-03-20T15:47:03Z")
I think it translates closer to “On your left, on your left, on your left, right, left”
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### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/5 "2013-03-20T15:51:03Z")
It’s in the beginning of this [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVtixuOSbTU) when the words are on the screen. So it’s just nonsense words and phrases?
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### Author:  [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/6 "2013-03-20T15:51:35Z")
> [@Spoke](#):
>
> I _think_ what you are talking about is the very stylized rendering of “left, right, left, right” that you get from drill sergeants.
_“Hey, we’re walking!”_
Oops, wrong movie.
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### Author:  [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/7 "2013-03-20T16:09:17Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#):
>
> It’s in the beginning of this [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVtixuOSbTU) when the words are on the screen. So it’s just nonsense words and phrases?
That is “Forward (pause(tells someone to get their hand down)) march, left right left right left, double time, march”.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/8 "2013-03-20T21:50:13Z")
There was only one actor in that movie, and only one movie in that actor.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/9 "2013-03-20T21:54:46Z")
[The Boys In Company C.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077270/)
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### Author:  [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/10 "2013-03-21T04:15:33Z")
He says, “Left, right, left, right left. Double time, I love working for Uncle Sam.”
It is a cadence, a beat to step to, that can only be parsed out by other Marines. They created the diction such that when they are training with us Army guys, we are always looking to find the TIN HUT!
SFC Schwartz
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### Author:  [@Nom\_de\_Plume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nom_de_Plume)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/11 "2013-03-21T06:58:57Z")
SFC Schwartz, congratulations on the promotion.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/12 "2013-03-21T07:02:01Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#):
>
> There was only one actor in that movie, and only one movie in that actor.
I thought he was great in American Beauty.
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### Author:  [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/13 "2013-03-21T07:20:53Z")
I never liked Law and Order but he was on it a long time so it must have been successful.
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### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/14 "2013-03-21T18:57:57Z")
OK, now that it’s been pointed out, I can pick out the ‘left, right, left right’. Thanks!!
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/15 "2013-03-21T19:15:29Z")
Left, left, left, right, left…
A-left, a-left, a-left, right, a-left…
HAY-left, hay-left, hay-left, rattle, left…
And so on until you get the ‘D.I. accent’.
.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/16 "2013-03-21T20:03:40Z")
My father was a Marine (Parris Island Class of 45) and he was very impressed by how accurate the Boot Camp portion of the movie felt. Of course thats because R. Lee Ermy was a DI. He wrote most of his dialogue.
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### Author:  [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/17 "2013-03-21T20:43:59Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> My father was a Marine (Parris Island Class of 45) and he was very impressed by how accurate the Boot Camp portion of the movie felt. Of course thats because R. Lee Ermy was a DI. He wrote most of his dialogue.
One of the few people ever allowed to improvise lines in a Stanley Kubrick movie.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/18 "2013-03-21T20:51:51Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#):
>
> One of the few people ever allowed to improvise lines in a Stanley Kubrick movie.
And not coincidentally, it was the most interesting part of the film.
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### Author:  [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/19 "2013-03-21T21:06:52Z")
We called that the “Marine Yodel”.
"Left, right " becomes “HAYl, hay”
Then they throw a few extra syllables in so you hear “HAYl hay, hiddle hay, haddle hay hef ida leff”
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-full-metal-jacket/653448/20 "2013-03-21T21:19:01Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> My father was a Marine (Parris Island Class of 45) and he was very impressed by how accurate the Boot Camp portion of the movie felt. Of course thats because R. Lee Ermy was a DI. He wrote most of his dialogue.
And, of course, he was famously hired as a coach for the original actor, but it became his first role instead.
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