CW: lots of 1960s racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic language but the real horror is the dehumanising effect of war
Not having seen this for years I had a sudden urge to watch it.
It's famous for the first chapter, set in boot camp where the recruits are abused into shape by their Drill Instructor (Lee Ermey). For almost 40 minutes there is next to no dialogue but the torrent that pours from his mouth at breakneck pace or which is a direct response to it. It's so striking that it's shaped the public's mental image of what the US military is like.
Most of the recruits are sketchily portrayed except for unexpected squad leader Joker (Matthew Modine) and seemingly untrainable incompetent Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) who he attempts to help.
This first chapter is a tragic and chilling portrayal of how the recruits are dehumanised to make them ready for war. One of the great bits of modern cinema.
Once the setting moves to Vietnam it gets a lot more pedestrian and could be almost any moden war movie with a vaguely anti-war protagonist. It's competent but just doesn't go anywhere much. Where the first chapter defined the modern take on the boot camp cliché, the rest is just made of other war movie clichés.
Watch the first chapter it's 10/10, don't feel obliged to watch the rest.