Historicize, my young friend! A clearer "prototpe" is surely John Wayne's Sargeant Stryker in _Sands of Iwo Jima_ (1949). And there are earlier examples, too, I'm sure (think of Victor McLaglen in Ford's _Fort Apache_, also with John Wayne, made around the same time as _Sands_,) but the Duke's character entered American consciousness perhaps more than earlier avatars and,I would have thought, remained there. David >A friend and I were discussing the strereotypical, loud mouthed drill >sargeant--the prototype would have to be Louis Gossett, Jr. in AN OFFICER >AND A GENTLEMAN. > >Would ya'll be willing to list other examples of this character on the screen? > >Off the top of my head, I can name two more. The hilarious basic training >sequences in Woody Allen's LOVE AND DEATH, and also the sargent in FULL >METAL JACKET. > >Could anyone else help me out? _____________________________________ David Desser,UIUC Cinema Studies 2109 FLB/707 S. Mathews, Urbana, IL 61801 217/244-2705 ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]