Review of Platoon (1986) by Reynard J — 08 Jul 2011

Intimately-crafted, this film is such an effective and authentic portrait on the Vietnam War, that it's even made Charlie Sheen crazy. He's got the PTSIAMD: Post Traumatic Stress in a Movie Disorder. Of course, before he was crazy and even before his acting chops started to slip, he - and his many castmates - made a booming breakout through this true milestone in realistic war potraits. It's a moving, sharply-crafted work of art by the great Oliver Stone. However, it still remains flawed, suffering from slowness, overdrawn points, quiet points, noisy points, some predictability, the occasional cliche, the occasional underwhelming sound effect and some choppy editing. Still, through all its flaws, the film remains supported by very good cinematography, great production designs and charming character chemistry.

Touching on the performances, the actors really give it their all. True, there is the occasional overactor in the bunch, but more-often-than-not, you get a haul of solid performances, particularly by Charlie Sheen and Willem Dafoe. Where as most of the other characters have their roles, Dafoe's character Sgt. Grodin is a complex case with many layers that Dafoe works with brilliantly, leaving you to questioning the Grodin's character's role in all of this. As for Sheen, he's down-to-earth and relateable, serving as the avatar for the audience as he experiences these struggles. Of course, Sheen isn't the only thing that puts you into the scenario, as such elements as the action sequences are tense, well-executed and generally put you in the battlefield. Of course, for this and the other authentic elements, we've got to give it to director Oliver Stone.

Being a Vietnam War veteran, Oliver Stone is able to brilliantly translate his experiences into the fictional world and break ground in authentic war filmmaking. He's so careful to have every production design resemble its actual counterpart as much as possible. Dialogue is snappy, but in a believable way. As for the characters, he doesn't over sensationalizes them nor overly demonize them. He potrays them as the flawed and easily breakable humans that the true soldiers were. Stone doesn't clean up the film and keeps it authentic in a way that has hardly ever been touched upon before the film went down as a classic piece of honest, war cinema. It has paved the war for a new form of authentic war filmmaking, but only a handful of films have come close to this film's level of impacting honesty.

In the end, "Platoon" is raw and authentic with thought-provoking messages that are bravely boasted by mostly solid acting by the compelling cast and a geunine direction by Oliver Stone.