Review of Platoon (1986) by Deckard2 — 31 Jan 2022

Barbers Adagio for Strings feat. Charlie Sheen.

A film that has now become synonymous with Barbers haunting score that forms the bedrock for the character study of these group of men we are thrown into awful conditions with fighting an enemy they cannot see or understand. What follows is a 2 hour experience of being dragged from one harsh set piece to the next being seen through the eyes of new recruit Chris played by a very young Charlie Sheen. The journey is shepherded by his 2 surrogate father figures played here excellently by Berenger and Defoe as they attempt to guide these young men from two very much opposing viewpoints.

I first saw this when I was exploring war movies at a young age and consider this seminal viewing. This is a piece of work from Oliver Stone that would form the mould for many wartime movies to follow. Often mentioned in the same vein as Apocalypse Now, although two very different movies, both study its characters and look at how war and the atrocities seen can fundamentally change an individual. There are many big players here before they got famous, John C McGinley (from Scrubs fame) steals every scene he is in and Forrest Whitaker and Johnny Depp are also part of the supporting cast. The narrative thread is sometimes a little lacking and the main focus is to study one mans tour in 'Nam largely influenced by the directors own experiences of warfare during his time of service.

Platoon is excellent. Its narrative by todays standards is slightly lacking with no real thread carrying things throughout apart from Defoe and Berenger fighting metaphorically for Charlie Sheens soul. As a study of the horrors of war during Vietnam it has rarely been done better and even now rewatching this many years later it is hard not to get choked up any time Barbers classic theme swells throughout the horrific images being displayed. If you are a war film connoisseur who hasn't seen this, you should probably rectify this immediately.