Imagine it: National Service has been reintroduced. Youre going to become part of the military, then probably go to war, and theres nothing you can do about it. Unless, that is, youre in line to the throne or rich enough to bribe government officials which, lets face it, you probably arent. To make things much, much worse, you start to recollect all those damaged film soldiers, all those crackpot movie military men that always made the job seem utterly abominable. According to the movies, being in the army is scary as hell. Movies, of course, show us an exaggerated version of the world. The war genre is not war as it is film tends to portray life as a soldier in a hyper-real way, with what its like to be in a combat situation far removed from the truth. But if the nightmare scenario of the return of National Service were ever to occur, and everyone the chavs, the emos, the Gleeks included was called up to serve their country, the following ten chaps might be at the forefront of your mind, reminding you why National Service is a very, very bad idea. If you were to base conscription on how the soldiering life is portrayed via these characters and their respective movies, chances are youre going to be absolutely terrified.
10. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) - Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Maybe National Service wont be so bad, youll think, optimistically. Then you meet your drill instructor, and its Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Played with feral intensity by R. Lee Ermey, Sgt. Hartman makes the bit before war happens appear just as bad as the war itself. In training, recruits are subjected to extreme bullying by the awful man, including regular bouts of racism, vicious beatings and being made to eat jam doughnuts while your fellow soldiers do press-ups, which is way more psychologically damaging than it sounds. Along with all that, Hartman turns a host of regular Joes into bloody-minded kill-droids after months of exposing them to harsh assault courses, rifle fetishism and some truly, truly awful war songs. That the obligatory fat kid and whipping boy kills Hartman after a long course of mental torture is not a good review of the Sergeants people skills.