Review of Platoon (1986) by Robert H — 17 Jan 2012

This is possibly the greatest war movie ever made and it is helped in that by director Oliver Stone's personal experiences in Vietnam, which translated directly into his powerful screenplay. It is extremely haunting, harrowing and a overall powerful portrait of the atrocities of war. It is aided greatly by terrific performances, especially from Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger, very realistic combat scenes, and a beautiful score. Overall, this is one of Stone's greatest films to date.

The story is centered on Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), who, to the disbelief of his squad-mates, volunteered to be in the war. We can assume that this character is Stone's version of himself, played very believably by Sheen. He is part of a unit, which is led by Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger). He is a power hungry, cold-blooded guy. On the other hand, you have Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), who is relatively kind and actually has morals. One day, while raiding a local village, Barnes shoots and kills an innocent women. This is what most of the story is set around. This probably symbolizes the much larger conflict, which is fighting the Viet Cong. As Chris progresses through the war, he slowly begins to lose himself and finds out what it really means to be a soldier.

The films strong anti-war message is clearly defined and remains significant to this day. The film was met with some controversy and there were some difficulties getting it made, but Stone ended up winning a well deserved Oscar for Best Director. So if you are a fan of war films, watch this.