“I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy; we fought ourselves. And the enemy was in us.”

If all war films were as good and sincere as Platoon it would probably be one of my favorite genres, but there are very few exceptions where the material is treated right as most directors tend to either be incredibly biased debating either in favor or against the war. It’s strange I make this claim since Platoon is obviously an anti-war film, but it treats the material with an honesty you don’t find in other films of the genre. It is much easier to make a statement like this in a war that everyone considers was a terrible mistake to…

The Vietnam war has never been painted with such a distressing brush. Platoon's examination of brutality and duality is unflinching, stark, scathing and more insightful than most adaptations of this tumultuous conflict. Leaping head first into turbulent jungles and disharmonized divisions, Oliver Stone's magnum opus challenges any existing glorification of warfare, insisting that all do not flee from its horrors. Those who die, perish in excruciation, but those who escape are perpetually scarred with the memories of such pandemonium and horror. War shapes and haunts the soldiers eternity, and Platoon supports this with the utmost fervour and virtuosity.

We, along side Chris Taylor, are thrust into the putrid barracks of the 25th Infantry Division - with Adagio for Strings playing…

'I ain't got no quarrel with the Viet Cong... No Viet Cong ever called me nigger' - Muhammad Ali, 1966

From Sgt. Elias (Dafoe), the hippy 'Nam veteran carrying his XM177E2 like a cross, to Lerner's (Depp) lump in the throat - that flashes by - after witnessing a war-crime, to the hardened and menacing Sgt. Barnes (Berenger) giving a career high performance with a face with more battle scars than natural features.

The first thing the newbies witness after getting off the C-7: the Caribou, is body bags. 'New meat. You dudes gonna love the Nam.....' - 'For fucking ever.' Say the elder boys, who have been in the Jungle for some time now. They all see a pretty…

Oliver Stone can rightly be regarded as a director who, when it came to Vietnam, knew what he was talking about. Serving with the 25th Infantry Division in 1967 he saw the horrors of Vietnam at first hand. Wounded twice and a decorated veteran, he put pen to paper in his quest to tell the real stories of life in the South East Asian hellhole.
"Platoon" focuses on a young recruit played by a never better Charlie Sheen. Dropped into a war zone, he is unprepared, naive and in harms way from the very start. We see the seasoned veterans of the conflict both help, inspire and disgust Sheen's young Chris Taylor as he slowly comes to terms with the…

Painting a very grim but also realistic portrait of the horrors of war and also illustrating how it affects the psyche & moral ethics of even the bravest, Platoon is a terrific blend of expert direction, compact screenplay & engaging performances that is counted amongst the finest examples of warfare filmmaking and deservingly so.

Set during the Vietnam War, the story of Platoon follows a young American who drops out of college, enlists in the US army & volunteers for combat duty in Vietnam. Upon arrival, he finds himself caught in between two non-commissioned officers who are constantly at odds with each other, and has to battle with not just the enemy but also men within his own platoon.

Written & directed by Oliver…

Beyond setting a great deal of the template for how movies would look at this conflict going forward or being a reportedly excruciatingly faithful recreation of "what it was really like", this manages to touch on so many slivers of context. Race and socioeconomic pressures on the grunts back home and in military heirarchy, intelligence and administrative failures, nuts-and-bolts technical stuff, on and on. Often further evidence of Stone's widely humanist intentions, too. What tends to be dismissed as a lack of subtlety is often an attempt to articulate the broadest possible experience. This time it even kind of reminded me of Sade's "Justine"*, aka "The Misfortunes of Virtue". Not taking pleasure in the torture but understanding it on the…

Actually liked it a lot. I love Willem Dafoe. I think it was Truffaut who said that there is no such thing as an anti war film. I definitely understand what he meant. But in the case of Platoon, while Oliver Stone gives an action filled picture of the Vietnam War that does get exciting at times (Truffaut’s point), I still think he captured the horror of the war as well. Haunting scenes like the torture scene of the one legged man are scenes that really get your empathy and emotions going. The rape of the kid... Over all great performances. Charlie Sheen is fantastic. I liked the repeated use of Samuel Barber’s Adagio. Also I adored the use of…

Platoon is a film that focuses on the Vietnam war in 1967 when our protagonist, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), enlists in the infantry, leaving behind his university studies. We watch as the conflict and incessant violence begins to take its toll on Taylor's mental state. Those within his platoon are feeling the angst too, and seem to simply be counting down the days until they can leave the place they've labelled "hell on earth".

What drew me to Platoon in the first place was the line-up of actors involved: Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen and Forrest Whitaker to name a few. Granted, Depp and Whitaker play somewhat minor roles in this flick, but they still contribute to the film…