Visually great, but...

Rating: 7/10 (31 July 2002)

Visually stunning movie of a combat platoon in Vietnam. The atmosphere and settings were beautifully filmed and conveyed, and the characters were extremely realistic and portrayed well.
It's hard to know what to feel about this film, though, as a military veteran. For one thing it is hard to imagine a military unit getting this out of control. I have no doubt than many things portrayed here happened over there, but to this level? with no one stepping in? The Platoon had created virtually a "Dodge City" within their unit. I understand that this war really got out of hand in many ways, but it's hard to come to grips with the murderous and thuggish attitude developing to this level without someone taking notice and stepping in. Maybe it's my wishful thinking, but I would hope that this situation would not take place. It may be what Stone is showing us is the desperation that we found ourselves in over there, we were willing to unleash characters like Sergeant Barnes to wreak as much havoc on the enemy as possible, and turning a blind eye to the means and methods he used. Perhaps this is how a My Lai incident could happen. There was ample evidence of dysfunction and rage within that unit, but perhaps it is to our benefit to use that rage and psychosis to achieve the body count which became so important in Vietnam? I am not sure of the answers to these questions; maybe there really aren't any acceptable answers. Maybe this is the position guys like these were placed in, with no answers and no real guidance or objective, other than to achieve as high an enemy body count as possible. To achieve this, you do not need thinking soldiers, or even a cohesive military unit. You only need a rage, a psychosis, and someone to focus and direct it - Barnes.
How does this then apply to Sergeant Elias, obviously a thinking soldier, and an advocate and representative of a cohesive military unit? If he had won the battle for the hearts and minds of the men in the unit, would things have been different? He was certainly capable of achieving the desired body count, but with a tighter, "watch-out-for-each-other" leadership, as opposed to Barnes, who left you to your own devices, and presented death as a consequence for mistakes.
Some bits of this movie seemed overdramatized, and there is symbolism galore. However, beautifully filmed, and the atmosphere is pure hot, sweaty jungle, with mayhem lurking behind every tree.
Astonishing Job by Tom Berenger. This has always been thought of as Charlie Sheen's movie. Not to me. Tom Berenger's Sergeant Barnes character virtually dominated this movie. He has not shown this level of performance in anything else he's done, really, but this is simply the performance of a lifetime. His was a bigger than life character. He deserved an Oscar, plain and simple.