Platoon; war drama, USA, 1986; D: Oliver Stone, S: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, Francesco Quinn, John C. McGinley, Richard Edson, Keith David, Johnny Depp
Student Chris Taylor voluntarily signs in as a soldier in the Vietnam War. Due to such decision, all other soldiers, who were forcefully drafted, mock him, and he quickly figures out why: there's real hell going on in the jungle. The worst in all the chaos is Sgt. Barnes who ruthlessly kills civilians and burns villages, for which he is heavily criticized by Sgt. Elias. Because of that, Barnes covertly kills him. After the Viet Cong soldier storm their military base, the US bombards their own position, whereas Chris kills a wounded Barnes, and as a wounded soldier returns home.
One of the best movies about the Vietnam War, based on own experiences of writer and director Oliver Stone who served as an infantryman which secured it authenticity, "Platoon" is also one of the first American movies that depict said war as its main topic, not as a background theme on the margins which is just there to support other issues (for instance, "The Deer Hunter" depicted it in only a third of its story; "Coming Home" never showed battlefield scenes and only depicted the aftereffects of veterans back home; "Apocalypse Now" was more preoccupied with creating a surreal psychedelic hallucination), clearly showing how it was for the infantrymen on the ground, able to transmit it to the viewers. Stone and his cinematographer Robert Richardson manage to capture numerous realistic details which all illustrate said goal (black ants on the neck and ears of the protagonist Chris; new recruits are punished by cleaning the latrines by removing them from below; Chris smokes "weed" through the barrel of Elias' gun; a praying mantis on a leaf; a lizard climbing on an ancient statue). The Vietnam War was one of many conflicts during the Cold War, when American-led allies implemented a containment policy which inhibited the spread of Communism worldwide, but there are no politics here. It's all just daily routine of soldiers who found themselves lost in a foreign country.
One of the best movies about the Vietnam War, based on own experiences of writer and director Oliver Stone who served as an infantryman which secured it authenticity, "Platoon" is also one of the first American movies that depict said war as its main topic, not as a background theme on the margins which is just there to support other issues (for instance, "The Deer Hunter" depicted it in only a third of its story; "Coming Home" never showed battlefield scenes and only depicted the aftereffects of veterans back home; "Apocalypse Now" was more preoccupied with creating a surreal psychedelic hallucination), clearly showing how it was for the infantrymen on the ground, able to transmit it to the viewers. Stone and his cinematographer Robert Richardson manage to capture numerous realistic details which all illustrate said goal (black ants on the neck and ears of the protagonist Chris; new recruits are punished by cleaning the latrines by removing them from below; Chris smokes "weed" through the barrel of Elias' gun; a praying mantis on a leaf; a lizard climbing on an ancient statue). The Vietnam War was one of many conflicts during the Cold War, when American-led allies implemented a containment policy which inhibited the spread of Communism worldwide, but there are no politics here. It's all just daily routine of soldiers who found themselves lost in a foreign country.
Like most war films that take a ferocious approach, "Platoon" was also well received for its honest, realistic tone that doesn't embellish the events—there is no pathos or patriotism, it is all dirty, raw disillusionment of war, with soldiers trying to get back home alive. One gruesome sequence of reprisals stand out: after four of their men were killed, the unit loses its patience and raids a nearby Vietnamese village, finding a Communist ammunition cache. Nothing is conclusive, all the villagers are in civilian clothes, but the American soldiers are agitated: one randomly shoots a pig on the farm, while Chris is so annoyed by a lad with an overbite, which looks like he is smiling, that Chris shoots on the ground, forcing him to "dance", until another soldier shows up and kills said lad by hitting him on the head with the blunt end of the gun. Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger) takes a girl hostage and aims his gun at her head, trying to force the villagers to tell him where the Viet Cong is, but then Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) stops and even hits him. The village is eventually burned down (in a stylistic moment, an American soldier lights up the fire on the hay rooftop with his lighter, and then lights his cigarette). Through this, "Platoon" is able to depict the war crimes of murder, torture, and wanton destruction. But also how there are two opposing forces on how to handle war—the hardline, cruel approach by Sgt. Barnes, and the humanistic, ethical approach by Sgt. Elias, as the two Sergeants cannot agree on how to lead the unit. The only big flaw is the pathetic, pretentious, syrupy use of the melodramatic music "Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber, especially in the poorly done slow-motion scene of Elias raising his hands up in the air as he is wounded, which is so bad it borders on a Bollywood film. However, the rest of the movie luckily takes a "down-to-earth" approach, dark and astringent, with a powerful finale (especially the episode of a Viet Cong suicide bomber who runs into the headquarters of the US Army in a military charge).
Grade:+++
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