10 years before Full Metal Jacket

[DaveBB]

There was a movie that was almost exactly the same, even starring R.Lee Ermey.  It follows a marine company from basic training to Vietnam.  I think the basic training scenes are as good or better than Full Metal Jacket.

The Boys in Company C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0H1JBE-ZmU

[Guppy35]

Saw it in the theater as a teenager in the late 70s.  That and Go Tell the Spartans were two of the first films done about a Vietnam postwar.  Coming Home and The Deer Hunter also showed up around then if memory serves. 

[Oldman731]

The Deer Hunter

Saw "The Deer Hunter" on a rainy Sunday afternoon in November.  There have been very few more depressing days in my life since then.

OTOH, most every day looks better by comparison!

- oldman

[Vraciu]

Brings back memories...   That first DI nailed it.      I had a squad leader as a plebe with the same accent.   I laugh now.   Scared me to death then.   

The boot with the knife is Stan Shaw who played Toomer in THE GREAT SANTINI (one of the best films about Marines ever made, based on the semi-biographical novel which was outstanding in its own right).