Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Based on the semi-autobiographical novel “The Short-Timers” written by Gustav Hasford, who served as a combat correspondent during the Vietnam War, Full Metal Jacket follows a platoon of fresh Marine Corps recruits undergoing training and then being shipped off to Vietnam.

In the first segment of the film a group of young volunteers undergoes brutal and humiliating boot-camp training under the verbally and physically abusive drill Sergeant Hartman, by the way played by R. Lee Ermey, a real-life US Marine drill instructor during the Vietnam War at Parris Island. While most of the young men quickly adapt to their new life, the main character J.T. 'Joker' Davis and especially Leonard 'Gomer Pyle' Lawrence have an extremely hard time which subsequently results in tragedy.

The second segment of the film plays near Hue in Vietnam at the time of the Tet Offensive seen through the eyes of the thoroughly indoctrinated marines. Joker, now a combat journalist and bullied for his lack of real war experience, is thrown into combat with all its horrors and has to decide if he really is made for killing.

Directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket received mixed reviews. While the first segment of the film and here especially the performance of drill instructor R. Lee Ermey and Vincent D'Onofrio, who played Leonard 'Gomer Pyle' Lawrence, were highly praised, the second half of the film was often criticized for being lame and unoriginal without a continuous storyline.