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Incident to incident. Snake slithering around foot. Lizard crawling on head of stone. Smoke against foliage against blood against the deepest cries of anguish. Screams in the dark. Flares and claymores. An environment and a moment in history which will not and cannot be explained to us. One of the few narrative war films that not only doesn't apologize for its slaughter (the Vietcong aren't simply Otherized, in addition abstracted among nature's wrath - humans retaliating because they need to), but doesn't offer the tools to comprehend the images laid out in silent, foreboding succession. Why should it? Vietnam happened. America let it happen. We're lucky Oliver Stone could display such a coherent political framework within the infantry depiction…

“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…