A superb ensemble cast falls in for action in Stanley Kubrick's brilliant saga about the Vietnam War and the dehumanising process that turns people into trained killers. Joker (Matthew Modine), Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin), Gomer (Vincent D'Onofrio), Eightball (Dorian Harewood), Cowboy (Arliss Howard) and more, are all plunged into a boot-camp hell pitbulled by a leatherlung D.I. (R. Lee Ermey) who views the would-be devil dogs as grunts, maggots or something less.

The action is savage, the story unsparing, the dialogue spiked with scathing humour. Full Metal Jacket, from its rigors of basic training to its nightmare of combat in Hue City, scores a cinematic direct hit.