Movie Review: 'Platoon'

In the 42 years since the end of the war in Vietnam, Hollywood has produced a number of films about that "lost crusade," ranging from the grand yet surreal vision of Apocalypse Now to the very commercial and silly Missing in Action and Rambo.

In 1986, writer-director Oliver Stone (JFK, W.) took audiences into the frightening spectacle of jungle warfare in Platoon.

This film, based on Stone's combat experiences in Vietnam circa 1967, is the story of 19-year-old Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), an upper-middle class type, who has volunteered for combat duty.

His fellow GI's are from the slums and small towns of America.

They're the ones with little more than two years of high school - poor, unwanted and drafted to fight for "our society and our freedom," as Chris says in a letter to his grandmother.

Of course, the story of men in battle has been told before, and Vietnam War films all seem alike, with their helicopter assaults and seemingly endless search-and-destroy missions.

(C) 1986 Hemdale Film Corporation and Orion Pictures

But Stone's vision of combat is both gut-wrenching and frightening - nothing exhilarating or glorious about Platoon's battle sequences.

This is no Patton.

The enemy, usually depicted in Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris films as straw men barely able to shoot straight, appears here as shadows in the jungle, striking with cold accuracy at the most unexpected moments.

In one terrifying sequence, enemy soldiers - NVAs to the GIs - overrun the platoon's position, forcing the American commanding officer to call down artillery and air strikes on his own troops.

In what may be the most harrowing scene in Platoon, a battle-crazy sergeant leads Chris and his buddies into a small hamlet. They pick up the village chief's tiny daughter and threaten to blast her in the head unless he reveals where the local guerrillas are hiding.

It is here that Chris (and the audience) realizes that war is a dehumanizing and horrible thing which changes young men into warriors.

Sheen's Chris is well-developed, undergoing many changes - evolving from wide-eyed "cherry" into combat-weary vet - as the film winds inexorably to its violent end.

The platoon's other members are fascinating characters to observe, particularly the tough (and perhaps psychopathic) Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), a hideously scarred combat veteran who has been wounded seven times.

His antithesis, Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) is a "soldier's soldier" type whose main concern is the well-being of the platoon.

Kevin Dillon (Matt's kid brother) Richard Edson, Forrest Whitaker (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and  Francesco Quinn give outstanding performances as Sheen's fellow "grunts." 

So, if you want to understand what Vietnam was really like to those who fought there, Platoon is a vivid and often painful recreation of a long and brutal war, told by one of the young men who fought it.