Hard-hitting moving war movie

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2002)

"Platoon" is one of many Vietnam war movies. It's also, in my opinion, one of the very best, to run alongside "Apocalypse Now" and "Full Metal Jacket".

"Platoon" tells the story of a platoon (funny that) of Vietnam soldiers. It's mainly told through the eyes of young new recruit Chris (Charlie Sheen) and we hear this thoughts and meditations on what happens. Central to the story-line is the brutal treatment of a group of Vietnamese villagers at the hands of the platoon and how the group reacts to the execution of one villager by Officer Barnes (Tom Berenger) - one half siding with Barnes and the other with Elias (William Dafoe). The story becomes quite brutal (in a dark fashion - not a bad one) and Stone ably handles this with consistent use of rain and darkness. The battles are deftly handled and reflect the chaos and confusion they find themselves in (noticeable particularly in the final battle). There is a constant struggle going on between the dark side and the light side - without and with morales - reflected in the characters of Barnes and Elias which is very interesting. Th characters also have depth here - we do end up caring for them and they are drawn in a far superior fashion to many war movies where characterization is second to pretty effects ("Black Hawk Down" springs to mind).
"Platoon" is certainly one of the best war movies I've seen as it handles multiple elements effectively - the people and the action, as well as issues of morality. It looks and feels good. I recommend this movie to all, especially when those inferior features like "Black Hawk Down" are currently getting (somewhat unwarranted) praise from this site's reviewers. 8/10.