Review of Platoon (1986) by I Don't Know W — 26 Aug 2011

I find it ironic that Oliver Stone won an Oscar for the direction of "Platoon" when Oliver Stone was exactly what contributed to "Platoon"'s many shortcomings for me. Like many of Stone's films, "Platoon" is a loud, over-the-top, two hour assault on the senses, and the battle scenes here consist of far more random explosions, screaming, profanity, and flashes of gore than actual commentary.

That's not to say that I was expecting "Platoon" to play through the usual cliches of war's futility, the internal struggle of soldiers, or the dual nature of conflict, but the pacing of so much of this movie is so frantic and muddled that it was often difficult to tell what was going on.

Meanwhile, a scene towards the end in which Oliver Stone inserts himself (naturally) into the middle of a climactic battle scene only to be blown up by a suicide bomber, is so comically distracting that I almost had to pause the movie.

And then, much of the dialogue is such a hackneyed string of f-bombs that it became laughably hard to tell what the characters were talking about, and I have no problem with f-bombs that serve a purpose or don't interrupt the narrative.

The closing narration by Charlie Sheen observing the conflicting emotional turmoil presented by Elijah and Barnes was literally the first time I found myself truly in tune with the inner conflict of the protagonist, and that is unfortunate.

One feels like a director with more nuance would have done a hell of a lot more with the Berenger/Dafoe theme, although I will admit that Stone did well enough with Dafoe's side. If only Berenger had looked like a Bond villain and acted like a cartoon character, maybe I could have empathized more with both sides.

Also, I have to wonder if my own bias of apathy towards Charlie Sheen gave me an unfair slant going into this movie. Nevertheless, I'm appraising this film strictly as an AFI TOP 100 entry, and there is just no way that "Platoon" beats out "Full Metal Jacket" in my book.

Even at 86, "Platoon" strikes me as being too high on the list.