If ever you ever want to learn about the Vietnam war in motion pictures, then Platoon is the number one pick. It follows a young private played by Charlie Sheen who has been assigned to an infantry platoon that is practically corrupt. The only soldier that he sees as a moral judge is Staff Sergeant Elias who takes the private under his wing.
This is a very accurate, realistic and dark war film that will get emotions out of you whether it be sadness, anger, relieved, and downright horror of what war was like in Vietnam. The film’s accuracy and realism is to the thanks of director Oliver Stone’s own experiences as an infantryman in 1960’s Vietnam. A very rare antidote for a war film. John Wayne’s ‘Green Berets’ (1968) and Randall Wallace’s ‘We Were Soldiers’ (2002) are both visually pleasing with a lot of war sequences, but they miss the mark of an unbiased Vietnam film. John Wayne was very one-sided for pro-Vietnam involvement and Randall Wallace romanticized it. Oliver Stone makes it real with your own interpretation if Vietnam was worth the fighting. He puts a lot of accuracies into he film and doesn’t explain them making you to research after you watched the film.
A director (including the producers) of a great film do not frankly tell you (the audience) what to think about their film with endless commentary or romanticized images. They simply show how it is and let the audience take it in. Actions speak louder than words in a film. Oliver Stone is that kind of director who does not shy away from showing the audience how it is in his films. No matter how violent or controversial, he shows you desperate people trying to survive. Being human in a foreign land such as 1960s Vietnam is desperate. The score borrowed from Samuel Berger’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ definitely helps.
Willem Defoe (L) and Tom Berenger (R) in Platoon
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