Our armed forces are so regimented that the nuts and bolts of military life become ingrained in service members for life. That’s why those who falsely claim a false service record will be called out by someone who’s been there. That’s also why veterans tend to nit-pick war movies. Unless it was produced by the military with a full cast of veterans, a movie production will never be entirely accurate. However, some movies come closer to reality than others, particularly when you separate the component parts of a film. John Renehan, who served in Iraq, says, “No movie gets all of it right, but some of them get little parts of it perfect.” And he tells us about them.
Best Depiction of Boot Camp: "Full Metal Jacket" (1987)
An obvious choice, sure, but it hasn't been topped. Because R. Lee Ermey has made a career essentially playing himself since his star turn in "Full Metal Jacket," it's easy to forget how revolutionary his performance was as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Many know the story of how Ermey, a former Marine, was merely a technical adviser to the film until Stanley Kubrick realized he had hired the wrong man to play his fearsome drill instructor. Ermey was unleashed to do the role his own way - improvising lines and writing his own dialogue - and an iconic, convincing character was born. Ermey did something that no one had tried before: He took the timeworn, fundamentally ridiculous role of the screaming drill instructor and played it with a straight face instead of as a cartoon caricature. (He had actually played one nearly a decade earlier, in the little-remembered 1978 film "The Boys in Company C.") He understood that drill sergeants are regular sergeants playing a character, and he played his character that way. The result was funny and terrifying and totally convincing. Like Daniel Craig's current incarnation of James Bond, Ermey's performance left all that had come before and most that have come since looking hokey and dated.
Other categories are Best Depiction of Helplessness, Best Deployment Phone Call Home, Best Portrait of Lost Innocence, Best Depiction of Facing Your Own Certain Death, and more, in an article at Word & Film. -via Digg