This still remains a very haunting memory. Stanley Kubrick's take on the Vietnam War was divided into two segments -- almost the first hour of the film is the story of the men being trained to become Marines and the second half is the hell they experience in Vietnam. The transition scene is this dark scene where the disturbed Private Pyle, having had to take the abuse of not only the platoon seargeant but also his fellow Marines, finally breaks down on the last night they are on the island before they ship out to Vietnam, where the real hell is supposed to lay. But this scene illustrates the hell and the "world of shit" they were already in. Joker, played by Matthew Modine, finds him in the bathroom and tries his best to calm him down. Instead, the seargeant hears Pyle, and approaches him, only to be shot. Private Pyle follows this up by sitting down on the toilet, pointing the rifle into his mouth, and shooting himself in the mouth. It's a very gory scene, but its impact remains long after the Vietnam portion of the film.