History Characters / FullMetalJacket

** Despite being the TropeCodifier of the DrillSergeantNasty in cinema, [[UnbuiltTrope Hartman is the trope gone wrong]]. His non-stop insults and abuse wear down the psyche of Private Pyle, whose signs of mental instability go unnoticed by Hartman. When Pyle finally snaps and waves around a loaded rifle, Hartman continues to shout at him instead of calling on other officers to detain him. Pyle promptly shoots Hartman before killing himself.
** He's also a poor example of a Senior Drill Instructor. Drill instructors, at least in modern times, are supposed to be nasty ''except'' for the Senior DI who is [[GoodCopBadCop supposed to be the good cop to the juniors bad cop]]. The senior is supposed to act as a harsh, but fair father figure guiding his recruits on the correct path. On top of that, Leonard is a fat body. Making him sit out exercises as punishment is counterproductive.

* UnbuiltTrope: While he's undoubtedly one of the most iconic and influential fictional takes on the DrillSergeantNasty trope, he also demonstrates what happens when a Drill Instructor doesn't know other people's limits and takes things too far. [[spoiler:He ends up pushing "Pyle" past his breaking point, driving him insane, and pays for it with his life when Pyle shoots him dead.]]

* FirstNameBasis: Joker is the only one who regularly calls him "Leonard."

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: As Sgt. Hartman is delivering his [[ThisIsGonnaSuck initial]] [[NewEraSpeech speech]], "Joker" feels the need to stand out and producing a snickering remark about John Wayne, out loud. This gets him labeled as a fucking comedian before being harshly disciplined by Hartman.

A Viet Cong child soldier who fires on the Lusthog Squad in the film's climax

* CompositeCharacter: There were two different snipers encountered in ''The Short-Timers''. -
* DarkActionGirl: Is able to take several well-aimed shots that wipe out no less than three troops, including Cowboy.

* NoNameGiven: The Viet Cong Sniper is never identified by name, and dies before she could be identified.
* OhCrap: She looks completely terrified once she realizes the squad found her.

* AdaptationalHeroism: In the original book ''The Short-Timers'', Sergeant Gerheim is a heartless monster who merely tortures recruits out of sadism. By contrast, Hartman (due to input on the character by Creator/RLeeErmey) is a slightly more reasonable figure whose torment of the recruits serves the purpose of making them more suited to the battlefield. He's just doing his job, albeit doing it badly. His main failure is his inability to recognize that Pyle is unfit for service and should be sent home. R. Lee Ermey himself stated that Hartman is a poor DI who often does things that are unethical and counterproductive. The book version is nonetheless vastly worse. Ermey, on the other hand, was recognized for his outstanding service as a DI and received the Marine Corps Drill Instructor Ribbon.

** R. Lee Ermey was an actual Marine Drill instructor in the sixties and his performance is TruthInTelevision; Marine drill instructors regularly use very similar hilariously over-the-top instruction in an attempt to get officer candidates to [[{{Corpsing}} smile, laugh, or otherwise break attention]]. Originally brought in to advise the actor playing [=GySgt.=] Hartman[[note]] Tim Colceri was supposed to play Hartman but was later given the part of the door gunner[[/note]] how to be more convincing, he recorded a videotape of himself yelling insults at a group of British Royal Marines. Ermey's performance was so impressive that he got the role instead. Ermey was allowed to write or ad-lib many of his own lines by acknowledged ControlFreak Creator/StanleyKubrick and [[{{Defictionalization}} later got promoted to Gunnery Sergeant]] - in 2002, 30 years ''after'' he had already been discharged, one of the few men in Marines history to ever get that honor.

* LaughablyEvil: As heinous as his actions are, his casual, unapologetic delivery in response to Joker asking how he can shoot women and children is actually ''so'' good that it ends up [[CrossesTheLineTwice crossing]] into ComedicSociopathy territory: "Ha ha ha! Ain't war hell?! Ha ha ha!"

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/MatthewModine

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/ArlissHoward

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/AdamBaldwin\\
'''Dubbed by:''' Creator/DanielRusso (European French)

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/DorianHarewood

->'''Portrayed by:''' Kevyn Major Howard

->'''Portrayed by:''' Kieron Jecchinis

->'''Portrayed by:''' Jon Stafford

->'''Portrayed by:''' Gary Landon Mills

->'''Portrayed by:''' Sal Lopez

->'''Portrayed by:''' Marcus D'Amico

Another member of the squad

->'''Played By:''' John Terry

->'''Played By:''' Tim Colceri

->'''Played By:''' Creator/EdORoss

->'''Played By:''' Ian Tyler

->'''Played By:''' Bruce Boa\\
''"It's a hardball world, son. We've gotta keep our heads until this "peace craze" blows over!"''

->'''Played By:''' Creator/RLeeErmey

->'''Played By:''' Creator/VincentDOnofrio

->'''Played By:''' Peter Edmund

->'''Played By:''' Ngoc Le

-> ''"Can I quote LBJ? I will not send American boys eight or ten thousand miles around the World to do a job that Asian boys oughta be doing for themselves."''

-> ''"Anyone who runs is a VC [Viet Cong]! Anyone who stands still is a well-disciplined VC! Ha Ha Ha! You guys ought to do a story about me sometime!"''

-> ''"It seems the NVA came in with a list of gook names. They went round their houses real polite and asked them to report the next day for political re-education. Everybody who turned up got shot. Some they buried alive."''

[[folder: The Colonel]]

* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: He fatally pays Sergeant Hartman back for the verbal and physical abuse and humiliation he suffered under him by putting a bullet through his heart.]]

* ForgottenFallenFriend: He's never mentioned or alluded to again after his death, likely because to the rest of the recruits he was TheFriendNobodyLikes for being TheMillstone for constantly getting them all in trouble, and therefore they (at best) seemingly don't really care about him afterwards or at worst are glad he was gone from their platoon... [[TakeAThirdOption or]] would likely feel disturbed talking about the recruit who [[spoiler: snapped and killed their drill instructor]] and avoid remembering him for their psyche. Still, Joker quoting him (and/or Hartman) in his parting narration implies that this incident did indeed leave an impact on his psyche.

* PreppyName: Leonard Lawrence. {{Lampshaded}} by Hartman, who declares "Only faggots and sailors are called Lawrence."

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Despite being the TropeCodifier of the DrillSergeantNasty in cinema, Hartman is the trope gone wrong. His non-stop insults and abuse wear down the psyche of Private Pyle, whose signs of mental instability go unnoticed by Hartman. When Pyle finally snaps and waves around a loaded rifle, Hartman continues to shout at him instead of calling on other officers to detain him. Pyle promptly shoots Hartman before killing himself.

* SanitySlippage: The stress of Marine training and GySgt. Hartman's abuse slowly takes a toll on his mental health. [[spoiler:It ultimately drives him to kill Hartman and then himself.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: As Sgt. Hartman is delivering his [[ThisIsGonnaSuck initial]] [[NewEraSpeech speech]], "Joker" feels the need to stand out and producing a snikering remark about John Wayne, out loud. This gets him labeled as a fucking comedian before being harshly disciplined by Hartman.

The protagonist. He works as a combat correspondent in Vietnam.