Full Metal Jacket - 1987

Plot: A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow Marine recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting set in 1968 in Hue, Vietnam.

Story: A two-segment look at the effect of the military mindset and war itself on Vietnam era Marines. The first half follows a group of recruits in boot camp under the command of the punishing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second half shows one of those recruits, Joker, covering the war as a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, focusing on the Tet offensive.

Did you know: All the out door scenes during basic training were filmed at Bassingbourne barracks in Cambridgeshire. In WWII this was an 8th Airforce bomber base, home to the 91st Bomber Group. This was the Bomb Group that the Memphis Belle belonged to and the base is where all 25 of her missions were flown from. (Matthew Modine starred in the movie Memphis Belle as the pilot of the plane on its final mission.)