Film Review: Platoon

Director: Oliver Stone

When looking to the studios for funding for his Vietnam war movie, Oliver Stone ran into the issue of legacies within a genre. The studios were reluctant as they saw The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now as the pinnacle of the Vietnam War movie which could not be bettered, they didn't want to make another movie which may flop in comparison to the timeless epics that had gone before. Stone had finished his duty in Vietnam in 1968 so wanted to share his new found beliefs about life and war after such a traumatic experience, finally in 1986 he went out to Philippines to start shooting the movie.

Sergeant Elias in one of the now infamous climatic scenes (Willem Dafoe)

The films main focus is on Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) who is a college dropout who volunteers for combat duty in Vietnam during the war in 1967. His enthusiasm for war is quickly dropping as he fights near the Cambodian border with the heat and tiredness wearing him down, he slowly becomes part of the group within the company that he is assigned despite being accused of falling asleep whilst on watch. But as the war develops he realises that the enemy isn't just the Vietcong.

Like Apocalypse Now, it features a vast cast of characters rather than just focusing on a few. The early parts of the movie do very well in setting the mood between the soldiers and portraying them as many army units are, a bunch of macho men who bullshit and mock each other at every opportunity. But it's the second half of the film that shows the harrowing side of war where men without distinct rules and boundaries take lives into their own hands. A scene where Taylor stops two soldiers from raping young girls in a village they come across was also starkly reminiscent of Casualties of War which has a similar theme set during the Vietnam War.

Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen)

The acting is top notch from many of the actors involved, Charlie Sheen as the still morally guided and fresh faced Taylor is impressive to watch in arguably Sheen's best performance to date. Willem Dafoe is another actor who I would point out for significant praise within the film but on the whole the acting is good from all involved. But most importantly the film adds another dimension to the Vietnam War epics that have gone before and that is surely the highest praise that can be heaped upon Oliver Stone in making this movie, its success was always going to be based around it not just being another run of the mill Vietnam war movie and it certainly isn't.

3.5/4 Still a classic to this day