The American Marines in Vietnam.

Rating: Null/10 (16 April 2013)

I clearly remember when this movie came out, and I avoided it because of the title, the mental image of the title, seeing someone wear a full metal jacket. Now that I am a gunman I understand the reference, ammunition with a soft metal core, commonly lead, jacketed with a harder metal, like brass. Interesting title, it was extracted from a line spoken in the script.
The story is split roughly into two almost equal parts. The first takes a rag-tag band of new Marine recruits and follows them through basic training where they become skilled killing machines. Matthew Modine is Pvt. J.T. 'Joker' Davis, gaining his nickname for his tendency to look for humor in almost any situation. Vincent D'Onofrio is overweight and out of shape Pvt. Leonard 'Gomer Pyle' Lawrence , given his nickname for his general ineptness. R. Lee Ermey, who also happens to be an ex-Marine Sgt. is Gny. Sgt. Hartman. He had originally been hired as a consultant but was so good he was hired in the role.
The second half of the story has the men in Vietnam in the 1960s. Joker ends up as a reporter, while the others are infantry. There they meet up with bad-ass Adam Baldwin as Animal Mother . He ends up being instrumental in a rescue and flushing out a sniper.
Some critics have complained that the story isn't cohesive, but that didn't bother me. It seemed to offer a very realistic view of basic training, and some idea what the American soldiers experienced "In Country." A bit of battle, a bit of street prostitutes, a bit of interviewing for views on the war. I could have been there, I was drafted in 1968, but ended up staying in the USA. A good friend of mine was on the front lines, shooting and being shot at.
SPOILERS: Each half of the movie ended with very dramatic events. 'Gomer Pyle' had been humiliated and pushed so hard that in the end of basic went a bit crazy, at night in the latrine area, right before graduation, he shot and killed the drill Sgt. then put the gun in his own mouth and killed himself. Then the climax of the second half was an encounter with an unseen sniper who killed two of the soldiers. When they finally surrounded the building it turned out to be a young Vietnamese woman, probably a teenager. She is shot, and lying on the floor strewn with rubble, is in obvious pain and saying over and over, 'shoot me, shoot me.' Joker puts her out of her pain and the movie ends with the Marines marching and singing the 'M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E' song.