The film follows a platoon of U.S. Marines through their brutal boot campΠtraining and thenΠinto battleΠduring the VietnamΠwar. Full MetalΠJacketΠstars Matthew Modine as Pvt. J.T. 'Joker' Davis, Vincent D'Onofrio (Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Men in Black) as Pvt. Leonard 'Gomer Pyle' Lawrence, R. Lee Ermey (Se7en and Toy Story) as Gny. Sgt. Hartman, Arliss Howard asΠPvt. CowboyΠand Adam Baldwin as Animal Mother. This fantastic war film was produced, directed and co-written by Stanley Kubrick who also wrote, producer and directed other fantastic movies such as A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining.ΠStanley Kubrick must go down in history as one of the greatest and most influential directors ever.ΠFull Metal Jacket is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford, andΠthe films title refers to the full metal jacket bullet used by infantry riflemen just in case you wanted to know.

The cast is strong and they all play there parts fantastically, you really feel for them in their boot camp. R. Lee Ermey is phenomenal in this movie, one of the best acting performances i have ever seen and i cant believe he didn't win any awards for this performance. R. Lee Ermey was actually in the US Marine Corps for 11 years and served 14 months in Vietnam. Which show-es as he brings this to the movie as the drill Sargent at the boot camp. The boot camp scenes have achieved legendary status with everybody quoting them and remembering them, the songs they sing are great and most quite funny, you will find yourself singing along at home.

The movie is quite dark and doesn't glorify War like some other movies which makes this seem more real. The start of the movie is great, getting to know all the charters and how they cope with the training. I think it goes a bit slow in the middle but really picks up again once they are in Hue in Vietnam and actually in the war. For meξI love this movieξI think its fantastic well worth watching if you haven't before, great acting and really well directed, a must for any War fan, just as good as Apocalypse Now and Deer Hunter.