As Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson trade insults, here’s a look at some of the best – and most wounding – barbs in film.
Full Metal Jacket (1987) Amazon Rent/Buy
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, the master of full-on, spittle-flecked abuse, eventually gets his comeuppance for belittling conscripted recruits in Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam war classic. A prime example of Hartman’s cruelty is when he addresses Vincent D’Onofrio’s hapless Pyle: ‘Were you born a fat, slimy, scumbag puke piece o’ shit, Private Pyle, or did you have to work on it?’ R. Lee Ermey, who played Hartman, had previously been a US Marine drill instructor in Vietnam and – with Kubrick’s enthusiastic urging – ad-libbed much of his dialogue in the film.
Midnight Run (1988) Amazon Rent/Buy
Martin Brest’s comedy-thriller buddy movie is celebrated for the mud-slinging between ex-cop Jack Walsh and mob accountant Jonathan ‘The Duke’ Mardukas and for the screen chemistry between leads Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin.
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