Full Metal Jacket might be the greatest movie about the Vietnam War. The movie follows the journey of Private Davis, who happens to be a smart-aleck, witty soldier, as he joins the Marines. Davis quickly earns the nickname "Joker" after he cracks a joke and his foul-mouthed, tough drill sergeant hears and deems the nickname. As they go through the rigors of basic training and the cruelness of the sergeant, Joker meets another guy named Leonard Lawrence, who's nicknamed "Gomer Pyle," but Leonard struggles with the physically exhausting activities. Leonard soon grows angry after the other soldiers played a trick on him, and he takes a frightening, twisted detour, but Joker and everyone else graduates. 
 Joker goes off to Vietnam as a journalist, and his main goal is to document the war, but he has to make it look like the United States is winning. However, this proves to be a difficult task, because as the war looms on, it seems that it's not winnable. Joker loses some friends and learns that being in the action is nothing like he imagined when he participates in the Battle of Hué.
 The movie is essentially a dark comedy, because it showcases one of the most controversial wars in history, but it also has some witty scenes. Parts of the movie are twisted, and some parts of the movie are cruel, but the movie accurately depicts how odd and dark the war really was. In one part of the movie, a soldier guns down several innocent people, solely, because they were Vietnamese. The way some of the soldiers treated Leonard show how tough and grueling the Marines can be. Watching the drill sergeant yell at the other soldiers is hilarious because of the extensive, creative vocabulary he used. Some of the nicknames he invented are quite comical and original. 
 Joker's combination of wearing a helmet that says "Born to kill" and a peace sign button show the duality of Americans in the war. Although we were trying to help fight Communism, we ended up fighting and killing some innocent people. We ended up losing the war and having lots of soldiers die in the process. The visual effects are nothing to brag about, but the dialogue that occurs between characters more than makes up for this. The ending is good, but parts of it are predictable. There are more than enough life lessons in this movie and the war itself, and this movie truly shows what being in the war was like, so this movie is easily the best movie to ever be made about the Vietnam War.