Superb basic military training scenes

Rating: 9/10 (22 February 2000)

I had first seen this movie in the theaters and I thought that I was the only one laughing through the basic training scenes. True when I went through basic in 1980 it was no laughing matter and there was no physical contact between the DI and the recruit, but most everything else hadn't changed. R. Lee Ermey does an excellent job as Gunny Hartmann, although he had no special training for the role other than previously being a DI in real life.
Having never seen combat I can only suspect that the war scenes were as accurate as a special effects department can do and also from what the lifers in my unit had shared with me. But as it should be, it paints the war as brutal and savage as war really can be. I had heard that the USMC was ready to endorse the movie up until the scene where Gunny Hartmann strikes the recruit. However repulsive or violent it may appear to the average "civie" it barely scratches the surface to what a young man must do to prepare himself for the rigors and horrors of actual live combat!
Hoorah!