Full Metal Jacket to have his head shaved once a week. At one point during filming, Ermey had a car accident, broke all of his ribs on one side, and was out for four-and-half months. Cowboy's death scene shows a building in the background that resembles the famous alien monolith in Kubrick's "" (1968). Kubrick described the resemblance as an "extraordinary accident". During filming, Hasford contemplated taking legal action over the writing credits. Originally, the filmmakers intended for Hasford to receive an "additional dialogue" credit, but he fought for and eventually received full credit. The writer took two friends and visited the set
Full Metal Jacket episodes of the film. For instance, the climactic episode with the sniper is a conflation of two episodes in the book, from Parts II and III. Jenkins thinks the film presents this passage more dramatically but in less gruesome detail than in the novel. The film often has a more tragic tone than the book, which relies on callous humor. Joker in the film remains a model of humane thinking, as evidenced by his moral struggle in the sniper episode and elsewhere. He works to overcome his own meekness, rather than to compete with other Marines. The film omits the