Repetitious and Uncompelling

Rating: 6/10 (27 October 2008)

In his breakthrough film, Stone relates the travails of a platoon of soldiers in Vietnam. The point Stone wants to make is that war is brutal. And he keeps making that point over and over again for two hours. The film is nothing more than a series of battle scenes, with interludes for drugs and booze. The battles are less than compelling because they are against a faceless enemy. Almost every line of the dialog includes a popular four-letter word and its adjective form. Furthermore, everybody spews clichés. On the plus side, some of the cinematography is quite beautiful and Barber's "Adagio for Strings" is used effectively. The acting is pretty good, especially Dafoe.