Having been in that type of situation, I have to say the special effects took me back to a place I didn't want to go, so I thought they were pretty good. I could smell the cordite and hear the screams.
Hollywood has a tendency to under-develop characters in many instances, or to make them larger than life to emphasize a point, so I won't agree or disagree on that point.
The first half of Full Metal Jacket was as good a military movie as I have ever seen, but the second half sucked so bad, the overall rating gets no more than a C.
I saw flashpot explosions, klutzy looking anonymous gooks flailing in that B-movie way when they got shot, unimaginative camera work, too many of the standard war movie visual cliches.
As for the characters, it's hard to put into words exactly what made them cutouts rather than living and believable. It's kind of a subtle thing, like the difference in good writing and mediocre writing. You just sort of see it. Hollywood is capable of doing sensitively rendered, organic, living breathing characters but I didn't see any in this movie.
Dad said the same thing. I thought it was a good one and the scenes were realistic. I didn't feel anyone was larger than life in the film. Although, Hollywood does do that.