Full Metal Jacket

I'm not a big fan of war movies. In all honesty I think they kind of suck, not that they're bad in a filming sense but they just make me angry because of the nature of most wars, and because of how disgusting soldiers in war can be. Anyway I like this movie well enough it was interesting to see more than just the action and shooting. The first part of the movie is training bootcamp. The first 20 minutes or so mainly involves the drill instructor Hartman, yelling at the recruits. It was funny to hear all the different ways so many words could be put together in such creative ways. From the beginning you see Hartman as the superior force, including a popular shot of the camera looking up into his face as he is pointing and yelling. Following the narrator, Private Davis "Joker", we watch as an overweight, slow witted recruit, Pyle, is subjected to the brunt of Hartman's wrath. At first Pyle seemed to just be a character their for laughs but as time goes on he seems to more or less symbolize something else, like the toll war takes on you mentally. This all ends with him killing Hartman and then himself as Joker watches. I think how Pyle is portrayed helps to see the horrors soldiers can face even before they go to war, and how their spirits can be broken. Now the second half of the movie opens up with a Vietnam hooker talking to Joker and Rafterman. This whole second part of the film is pretty separated from the first part and could be watched on its own without much confusion. Joker is a writer for a newspaper, and the place were they are gets attacked showing the first real action in the movie. Joker and Rafterman travel to meet up with some other soldiers to write and get picture of their attack on Hue. The scene while they travel in the plane made me pretty mad, because its accurate and makes me angry at the Americans  that did that type of crap. One of the soldiers they meet is called Animal Mother and he reminds me a bit of Pyle. Throughout the rest of the movie we see more warfare and death. Including the death of Joker's friend Cowboy. At the end of the movie Joker gives the merciful shot to kill the sniper that killed at least 3 of their men and at last stares of with the thousand yard stare.
Throughout the movie I thought it was interesting how they carried on the description of being in a world of shit, repeating it many times throughout the movie. They also focus on the fact that they are killers. Most war movies try to spin it in a favorable way to america and make it patriotic but this movie focused on the the truth in what they were doing.
I'd give this movie a 6.5/10