A personal and gut-wrenching look at the Vietnam War

Rating: 7/10 (21 September 2004)

Oliver Stone's 'Platoon', which he wrote and directed, is partly based on his own experiences in Vietnam. Our protagonist, Chris (Charlie Sheen) is an idealized kid from a privileged family who feels it is his patriotic duty to enlist, and therefore is one of the lone volunteers in his platoon, headed by the badass Staff Sgt. Bob Barnes. (Tom Berenger, looking even more badass with a deep gash in his face that runs from forehead to chin) Somewhat acting as Chris' mentor is Sgt. Elias Grodin (Willem Dafoe), and the two provide (in the most rudimentary sense) good and evil influences as Chris experiences the every day horrors in the jungles of Vietnam; from the irritating  bugs, inclement weather, to the terrifying  combat with the Vietcong, to the gut-wrenching  the ruin of a Vietnam village, mostly innocents.
I thought that 'Platoon' was a good film  it is obviously a film made before Stone's highly stylistic period (which he still appears to be in), and is instead a fairly straightforward film about the horrors of war. Sheen was decent as Chris; he managed to believably convey innocence as well as hardness without falling into cliché. Berenger was pretty brutal as Barnes, but it was Dafoe who I was most impressed with, (though his talent is obvious throughout his many roles, he still has the ability to amaze me. This was obviously a very personal film for Stone, and I think that he conveyed his message of 'War is hell', 'War kill innocence' effectively.
There were some moments where I was incredibly disturbed, mainly the scene in the village. I found that I couldn't stop crying during this scene because it was just so terrifying, and unfortunately very true. 'Platoon' doesn't give us any new insights on war, but it also doesn't prescribe to clichés either. It is a solid and well-done film that does not glorify the war experience, nor does it preach. I would certainly recommend this film to any war-film lover, but it also has enough of a storyline to hold the attention of most other film lovers as well.
--Shel