from a grunt's POV. Oliver Stone had been an infantryman in Vietnam with 25th infantry division during 67-68. He had the cast and crew live in the Philippine bush for a few weeks before filming so he captured a lot of details of the environment and behavior very accurate. Unfortunately, he wondered off to a weird place towards the end of the movie as usual.

For the best example of what it was like for me the year following my freshman year in 324 West Eggleston, see the first half of "Full Metal Jacket" (forget the 2nd half). Every Marine from our generation immediately knew that R Lee Ermey had been a real Marine DI..actors couldn't do that. The only difference from reality was that there were 3 of them