Best film about Vietnam - Stone's masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (16 April 2003)

PLATOON (1986) **** Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Francesco Quinn, Kevin Dillon, Keith David, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Depp, John C. McGinley, Richard Edson, Tony Todd. Oliver Stone's Oscar-winning masterpiece film about the horrors of the Vietnam war unflinchingly powerful and one of the most important films about war in general. Told from a green 'grunt' 's point of view (Sheen in his best role ever) facing two father figures in the forms of sergeants Barnes (Berenger a scarred, vile thug) and the elegiac Elias (gaunt, weary and sympathetic Dafoe) who help guide him through his baptism of fire. Devastating and brutal but never gratuitous despite its gory violence, the message of the US not going to war is all the more potent. Memorable moment: Barnes terrorizing a Vietnamese family and Elias' fate with Christ-like epiphany. Stone won the Best Director Academy Award and the film, Best Picture, and both deservingly so. Additional Oscars went for Best Editing and Best Sound. Berenger and Dafoe were nominated both for Best Supporting Actor and lost to Michael Caine for "Hannah and Her Sisters".