10 Best Performances In Stanley Kubrick's Films

R. Lee Ermey uses his real-life experience as a drill sergeant to give us an equally hilarious and intimidating force of nature in Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Even though Hartman’s not the focus of Full Metal Jacket, he dominates the first half of the film, and we feel his absence when he exits the story.

Ermey’s time in the marines lends authenticity to the boot camp section of the film. He delivers all of his dialogue with maximum energy and rattles off colorful insults, many of which he improvised, at rapid-fire speed. These put-downs are so outrageous and perfectly timed that they end up making for some of the film's most quotable lines. You wouldn’t want to get on Hartman’s bad side in real life, but you can’t help but laugh at the many ways he berates Pvt. Pyle for being a “disgusting fat body.”

Like most drill sergeants, Hartman is putting on a performance. It’s his job to break recruits and build them back up as cold-hearted killers, so he must embody the psychological horror of war. We never get a hint of what Hartman’s like outside of recruit training, but Ermey’s full-throttle performance lets us know he’s a red-blooded zealot who lives and dies by the Marine Corps.