What film best captures what being in the military is truly like?

I've never seen any film that accurately depicts what service life is like. I suppose the problem is that it's quite different for everyone. However, there is one film that accurately portrayed the emotions of war, and that was Apocalypse Now. No, I'm not saying that it accurately portrayed events, but it did well portray the confusion and surrealism of combat. Field commanders seem like economist to me. They prepare for each day as though they actually understand what is going to happen and how they can affect events. They then spend the next day explaining what happened and why events didn't transpire as they predicted or expected. Then, they launch into their predictions for the next day without acknowledging that they have never gotten it right. Meanwhile, the battlefield, like the economy, proceeds as it will, resisting control and responding to a myriad of influences that can't be seen let along measured or predicted.

I liked Patton but have to say an Officer and a Gentleman was good also

One I have not seen mentioned is Twelve O’Clock High, starring Gregory Peck. A great examination of the pressures of command in the early months of the Eighth Air Force’s daylight bombing campaign over Europe.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Das Boot
Run Silent, Run Deep

Sorry, but really none of them. They all are Hollywood's take on the military. It's why the credits show several "Advisors" yet if you watch very closely in every movie, you can find the effups.

It comes down to your taste. There are several movies that hit you, and give you the feel of the life, yet IMO are not entirely correct.

JMO....

A Night At The Opera starring the Marx brothers. Either that or Animal House

There were many great war movies in my 64 years here. One that someone doesn't think about was PT 109 the story of JFK as a young Navy Lieutenant prior to him becoming CIC! Others that come to mind was the The Fighting See Bees, Midway, Sands of Iwo Jima, and Pursuit of the Graf Spee!!

A Bridge To Far

MASH. It's comedy, it's satire, it's definitely exaggerated, but it's the army under all that Hollywood glaze.

Garden of stone....with James Cain and James Earl Jones.