Not Stone's Best Film to Date!

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2006)

I don't think this is Stone's best film to date. In fact, I loved JFK and consider it to be a masterpiece. Platoon is a war film and I'm not crazy about war films in general but Stone's direction and personal experience with Vietnam is clearly an effective tool in this film's brilliance. It's raw, ugly, dirty, and filthy but then what war isn't any of those things? As far as Vietnam films, I preferred the Deer Hunter but I am going to say that Platoon goes further where other films have not gone before. It's different when the director has been there and done it himself as a Vietnam veteran like Roman Polanski who survived World War II POland as a child. There is nothing that they are not afraid to show as if they are holding something back. This film is about war and the young men who go only to return home differently. As far as I know, this film is still important today as it was twenty years ago. First rate cast include Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and other young men.