I first saw FMJ on the bus to Wainwright for my GMT. I don't know if the more "experienced" soldiers on the bus were trying to scare us - but I loved it! When I got to Wainwright, the staff were quoting some of the "tamer" lines by the good Snr Drill Instr Gnry Sgt Hartman - modified to reflect CF training and wpns - it almost made me laugh sometimes!
Seeing the movie first, and knowing training was much softer than it used to be, made Basic training a breeze. And then having staff butcher lines from a movie to make them apply - hilarious!!
As for quality of the movie - in military movies, some show training, some show war - it showed both and the relationship and development of characters with respect to both. So I found it to be excellent.
WRT the drug usage portrayed - it wasn't just morphine "procured" through the medical supply system - a jungle is an excellent place to grow marijuana, etc. Let alone that illicit drugs are NOT a North American phenomenon. BC is not the only world supplier of weed and mushrooms, Los Angeles is not the only world suppler of LSD, Columbia is not the only world supplier of cocaine, and Afghanistan is not the only world supplier of opium.
Soldiers on tour are not cut off completely from the local economy and black market Vietnam was a time of massive drug experimentation in the USA, when Led Zeppelin started doing LSD it was so new that it wasn't even illegal yet. Every movie I've seen, book I've read, Vietnam vet I've spoken to has mentioned often excessive illicit drug usage occurring there. So, all that said, I imagine that, even if exaggerated, it did occur. No, I don't want someone who's high next to me in a trench... but same thing for drunk, insane, or suffering from critical incident stress - but that happens too.
cliffy