Full Metal Jacket (1987)

In Stanley Kubrick's searing war film in two parts: first, the exploits of a recruited young Marine Corps soldier during dehumanizing South Carolina boot-camp training on Parris Island in the late 1960s, and second, the nightmarish, violent front lines within Hue City - a cool, unemotional look at urban warfare on the eve of the 1968 Tet Offensive at the turning point of the war:

• the striking opening credits sequence of Marine recruits having their heads shaved on Parris Island, to the tune of the country song "Hello Vietnam," performed by Johnny Wright
• 'Private Joker's' (Matthew Modine) voice-over narration throughout the film - and his helmet labeled "Born to Kill"
• the training scene of their first meeting with their foul-mouthed, brutal, demanding drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (real-life DI R. Lee Ermey) spewing one-liners: ("I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your Senior Drill Instructor. From now on, you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be: 'Sir!' Do you maggots understand that?...Bulls--t, I can't hear you. Sound off like you gotta pair...If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon, you will be a minister of death, praying for war. But until that day, you are pukes! You're the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human f--kin' beings! You are nothing but unorganized grab-asstic pieces of amphibian s--t! Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard, but I am fair! There is no racial bigotry here! I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless! And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps! Do you maggots understand that?...Bulls--t, I can't hear you...")
• Hartman's demands to Joker to show his "war face" and that the recruits go to bed with their rifles, and his recitation of a US Marine Corps love poem; also the sequence of Catholic-believing Hartman backhandedly slapping Joker's face when he said he didn't believe in the Virgin Mary - the impertinent Joker was forced to change his answer: "Now you do love the Virgin Mary, don't you?" - but Joker stubbornly refused to bend, stating: "The Private believes that any answer he gives is wrong, and the Senior Drill Instructor will beat him harder if he reverses himself, sir"; impressed by the courage and "guts" of his convictions, Hartman immediately promoted Joker to squad leader, but Joker's added duty was to become the personal instructor of overweight recruit Private 'Gomer Pyle' (Vincent D'Onofrio)
• the scenes on the extremely physically-challenging obstacle course, when Private 'Gomer Pyle' couldn't keep up due to his physical condition and weight; to ridicule him, Sgt. Hartman forced Pyle to walk behind the platoon with his pants around his ankles while sucking his thumb
• Hartman's speech about the great Marine marksmen of the past (including mass murderer Charles Whitman and JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald) - "Those individuals showed what one motivated Marine and his rifle can do"
• the gory scene of insanely-disturbed Private 'Gomer Pyle' going crazy in the barracks' latrine after being abused by Hartman and his fellow Marine roommates; in the middle of the night, he was ranting about his loaded M-14 rifle (with live ammunition) in the bathroom, while rehearsing one of his training routines: "This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend"; Sgt. Hartman heard the commotion and rushed in, asking Private "Joker" on duty: "What is this Mickey Mouse s--t? What in the name of Jesus H. Christ are you animals doing in my head? Why is Private Pyle out of his bunk after lights out? Why is Private Pyle holding that weapon? Why aren't you stomping Private Pyle's guts out?"; "Joker" replied that the gun's magazine was fully "locked and loaded"; Hartman demanded that Pyle surrender his rifle and then insulted him when he didn't comply: "I want that weapon and I want it now. You will place that rifle on the deck at your feet and step back away from it.(yelling) What is your major malfunction, numb-nuts? Didn't Mommy and Daddy show you enough attention when you were a child?"; holding his rifle at waist level, Pyle murdered Hartman (filmed in slow-motion) by blasting him in the chest at close range

Pyle Murdering Gunnery Sgt. Hartman

• shortly after, when Pyle had decided to not kill Joker, Pyle backed up, dropped down on one of the bathroom toilet seats, put the gun to his mouth, and suicidally pulled the trigger; he blew his head off, splattering the wall behind him with his brains and blood; the bloody death scene slowly faded to black
• the film's next second-half transition - the striking entrance of a hip-swiveling, mini-skirted Vietnamese prostitute/hooker (Papillon Soo) in Da Nang (viewed from behind as she walked down the Saigon street) to the tune of Nancy Sinatra's feminist song: "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" - and then propositioned two GI soldiers-clients at a cafe: ("You got girlfriend (in) Vietnam?...Well, baby. Me so horny. Me so horny. Me love you long time. You party?"); however, the prostitute was part of a set-up to distract Joker and his partner combat photographer Rafterman (Kevyn Major Howard) so that the latter's camera could be stolen by her accomplice (Nguyen Hue Phong)
• the scene of the combat unit's dangerous search for a deadly sniper amongst the ruins of factory buildings; when Joker located the sniper on an upper floor, his rifle jammed and he was trapped behind a concrete column; his pal Rafterman shot and lethally wounded the sniper who then begged "Shoot me!" - surprisingly, the VC Sniper was a teenaged female (Ngoc Le) (who moments earlier had killed Texan recruit "Cowboy" (Arliss Howard) who had died in Joker's arms); although hesitant, Joker was initiated into the exclusive club of those who exhibited the "thousand yard stare" when he performed his first kill - the mercy-killing of the sniper

The VC Sniper - and Joker's Mercy-Killing

• the final scene of the surviving troop members of the unit singing "The Mickey Mouse Club" theme song as they marched through burned-out ruins of flaming buildings