Full Metal Jacket

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

Split into two halves, the first part of the movie follows the basic training of a group of Marine recruits during the Vietnam War era under the brutal command of drill instructor[?] Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (played by R. Lee Ermey). The drill, designed to wash away the recruits' personalities and turn them into killers, works for many of them, except for one, Leonard 'Gomer Pyle' Lawrence (played by Vincent D'Onofrio), who (after finishing the training) kills the drill instructor, then himself, using a rifle loaded with full metal jacket ammunition (from which the movie's title is derived).

The second part then takes place in Vietnam and follows one of the recruits, "Stars and Stripes" War correspondent (now) Sergeant J.T. 'Joker' Davis (played by Matthew Modine[?]), as he covers the Tet offensive[?].

Full Metal Jacket has been widely praised for accurately evoking the mood of the Vietnam War from the soldier's point of view. Recurring themes are the contradictions of war, a constant feeling of being out of one's depth, and the idea of combat in Vietnam being part of a different world, with its own rules and customs. The miasma of confusion and angst of the new world begins in boot camp, and spirals down into bloodshed before even landing in Viet Nam.

In the aftermath of this film a series of policy changes came about in what was considered acceptable behavior by a drill instructor in the United States Armed Forces. All references to one's family and striking a recruit is absolutely forbidden.

The movie was shot mainly on the Isle of Dogs in London; while this was reasonable for the urban nature of the Tet offensive, it was used because of Kubrick's aversion to travel, especially by plane.