Oliver Stone's view of the Vietnam War

Rating: 9/10 (28 September 2015)

This film follows Chris Taylor from the moment he arrives in Vietnam until he leaves. He was a college student, so didn't have to fight, but he thought it was wrong that it was the poor kids being forced to serve so he enlisted it isn't long before he questions that decision. Nobody wants to know the new guys and they are seen not to matter. As time passes he becomes accepted in the group but at the same time it becomes clear that there are deep divisions within the platoon with those half behind Sgt Barnes, the brutal but effective platoon leader, and half behind the more sympathetic Sgt Elias; these tensions deepen when Elias reports Barnes for a war crime committed in a Vietnamese village; Taylor will have to choose his side if he is to survive the conflict between the two sergeants as well as numerous fights with the North Vietnamese Army.
Writer/director Oliver Stone isn't trying to explain the war; he is trying to show us the war from the point of view of ordinary infantry soldiers the generals may be fighting for an overall cause but these poor grunts are just trying to survive their year in Vietnam. He brilliantly captures the fear and confusion of war in the jungle where one moment soldiers are worrying about insect bites and the next they are in a fire fight. These fights aren't shown as exciting; they are confused and bloody and when people are hit they are shown to suffer rather than dying silently. The film doesn't shy away from showing the dark side of war as we see soldiers murdering Vietnamese civilians. The division within the platoon seems like a metaphor for the divided opinions of people about the war at the time. The cast does a great job; Charlie Sheen puts in his best performance as Taylor; our guide to the life of US soldiers in that war. Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe also excel as Sgts Barnes and Elias; the former is particularly frightening as a character who is almost evil incarnate at times yet at others seems like the man who is keeping his platoon alive. The rest of the cast, which includes several people who went onto bigger roles, do a fine job making all the varied characters believable. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody interesting in films about war; just don't expect gung-ho excitement; this is gut-wrenching and very tense and if you enjoyed this check out the less well known 'Hamburger Hill'.