Summary: Description: Today we talk with Ray Christian of the What’s Ray Saying Podcast. Ray is a retired member of the United States military where he was a drill instructor. Now Ray is an educator and a story teller. We will get a very unique perspective on this fascinating movie from an incredible story teller. You can learn more about Beyond the Big Screen and subscribe at all these great places: http://atozhistorypage.com/ email: steve@atozhistorypage.com http://rss.acast.com/beyondthebigscreen Agora: www.agorapodcastnetwork.com https://www.patreon.com/papacy On Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/Beyondthebigscreen/ https://twitter.com/BigScreenBeyond Learn More About our Guest: Ray Christian http://whatsraysaying.libsyn.com/ Agora Podcaster of the Month: Advertise with Agora Agorapodcastnetwork.com Music Provided by: "Crossing the Chasm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Begin Transcript: 00:00:00 Today we are joined by Ray Christian of the What's Ray saying podcast we are going to have a conversation about the military boot camp life and storytelling through the 1987 movie Full Metal Jacket. This movie shows the life of a recruit through U.S. Marine boot camp. The Tet Offensive and finally the battle of Hue during the late 1960s Vietnam War. Thank you so much for coming on Ray it's it's a honor to have you on. And bingeing on your show is and I just love it. Well let me tell the audience let me tell you a little bit about Ray. Ray Christian is a storyteller. He escaped the urban slums of Richmond Virginia by joining the United States Army at 17. He served primarily as an infantry man paratrooper with the eighty second Airborne Division among others. And two years as a drill sergeant as a combat veteran he earned in the Bronze Star and retired after 20 years of service he went back to school earned the a bs and history and an MA in public history and has a doctorate of education and education leadership. 00:01:08 And he's also pursuing a doctorate. Ray also teaches part time at Appalachian State University courses the soul of black folks an examination of African-American social culture and storytelling life and the narrative a course that explores the historic and contemporary use of storytelling and oral history in America. Ray shared his stories on the Moth main stage in the US and Canada and their stories of appeared in Reader's Digest. One of the best stories in America edition and the most recent July August 2017 edition of now and has been featured in the Moth Radio Hour SNAP JUDGMENT the resk pod cast and backstory. 00:01:53 He's also a competitive storyteller. Moth story slam and a moth story Slam champion. So I mean I really want to dig into this movie because your stories are going to be great and I think it's going to be wonderful to hear your story as reflected through this popular movie. Just really quickly to get people set up on the movie it was directed and written by Stanley Kubrick and it's 116 minute run time and it was actually filmed. It was supposed to take place at the Marine recruit center and Parris Island South Carolina. But it was actually filmed in southern England. Ray tell us a little something about the context of this movie and how it fits in or mirrors your life experience in the military and as a black person in the military. 00:02:46 I think one of the prim...
