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Director Stanley Kubrick's bleak but compelling Vietnam War film follows a group of raw recruits, including Matthew Modine, as they're put through training before being sent to war

Director Stanley Kubrick's bleak but compelling Vietnam War film follows a group of raw recruits, including Matthew Modine, as they're put through training before being sent to war.

In the film's first half, former real-life sergeant R Lee Ermey puts the youngsters through their gruelling paces, barking out orders and foul-mouthed insults at machine-gun rate until all traces of their individuality are stamped out.

The action then follows them as they're thrown into combat at the height of the Tet Offensive.

Always uncompromising and at times disturbing, this doesn't make for easy viewing, but it's worth staying with.

It was filmed partly in London's Isle of Dogs and Kubrick and his crew convincingly re-create the swamps, jungles and heat of South East Asia.