YMMV / Heartbreak Ridge

• Crowning Moment of Funny: There is a lot, from the humorous and vulgar disrespect Highway gives his COs as well as the Oh, Crap! reactions the Recon platoon endure under the wrath of Highway's Drill Sergeant Nasty actions.
  • The running gag involving the t-shirts where Highway keeps changing his shirt's color so that the platoon has to strip theirs off during the morning drills. Stitch finds out who's been helping Highway with his laundry, and arranges it so that the platoon finally figures out which shirt the Sergeant wears.
  • Learning what an AK-47 sounds like... which comes in handy when the company gets sent to Grenada.
  • Gunny Highway's introduction to Swede. Say something nice to the man. "I'm gonna rip off your head and shit down your neck."
    • And then Gunny beats Swede with little effort.
  • The platoon gets caught in heavy fire, and is forced to call in for an air strike. Unfortunately, their radio - and radioman - was shot up, so they have to make a literal call over the phone lines back to their Marine base in North Carolina to get the strike done.^note Reportedly based on a Real Life incident during the actual Invasion of Grenada in 1983.
    • And the operator refuses to connect an international call without a credit card number. Thank God Stitch has an entire wallet full of them.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Gunny trying his best to reconnect with his ex-wife Aggie, even though he's still too dedicated to his job. The movie ends with the hint that Highway will finally be forced to retire, and she is willing to give him a second chance when he comes home for good.
  • The movie early and often points out that Gunny had been trying to get deployed back to his original company, implying that he was desperate to return and relive his Glory Days there. Turns out it's where Aggie had stayed, and the implication changes that he was trying to get back to her.
  • Stitch helps bring a drunk Gunny back home after getting released from the local drunk tank, during which Gunny's best friend Choozoo lets in on how Gunny won his Medal Of Honor back in Korea at Heartbreak Ridge. It helps Stitch - who had been the platoon's biggest troublemaker - see his hard-ass Sergeant in a better light.
  • Recon platoon has won a weekend pass due to Gunny's win during drill exercises against the inept company commander Major Powers. When Powers' lackey Sgt. Webster shows up to get one of Recon's troops to sign off on a complaint that would get Highway dishonorably discharged, Webster tries to tempt them with "it can all go back to the way it was" when Recon was allowed to be lazy and undisciplined (and rejected by Powers as useless). Every member of Recon realizes it would mean betraying Highway, and to a man they tell Webster to get the hell out.
  • Earlier, Gunny had punched the snot out of Swede, who knows when he's been beat and offers to wait outside the barracks for the base MPs to arrest him. Gunny refuses, and tells him "we're gonna make a Marine out of you right now." Swede nods with newfound respect for his sergeant and falls in line.
• Values Dissonance: A lot of Gunnery Highway's rants and drilling fall into homophobia, which felt awkward even in the 1980s and would be offensive today.

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