10 Most Important War Films Ever Made

Another entry directed by infamous perfectionist/ The Shining helmer Stanley Kubrick, 1987's Full Metal Jacket avoided both the operatic tragedy of Oliver Stone's then-recent Platoon and the trippy dream-logic of Coppola's Apocalypse Now.

Instead, the Paths of Glory helmer's film took a direct and clinical look at the fortunes of one set of soldiers from the moment they enlisted through the the end of their international adventure.

From the slow burn psychological torture of Vincent D'Onofrio's tragic Private "Gomer Pyle" in the film's unbearably tense opening half, to the cathartic nihilism of that subplot's shaggy dog denouement, through to the brutal straight-up nihilism of the film's closing half, there's no room for heroics, humanity, or even common decency in this regiment.

Amongst the darkest and most dehumanizing portrait of American soldiers in Vietnam alongside later release Casualties of War, Full Metal Jacket made it clear what most of the world knew by then but mainstream US cinema was just now realising for the first time: that they were the villains all along.