America's second finest Vietnam War film

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2000)

Platoon is certainly one of my favourite war films from any particular era, although it doesn't quite reach the same intensity of Apocalypse Now or All Quiet on the Western Front. But it does have a more natural honesty about it than say Saving Private Ryan.
What I particularly liked about the film was the way America wasn't only fighting the Vietnamese but also with the liberals & conscientious-objectors back home AND their own internecine squabbles between the men themselves.
Oliver Stone's script & personal hands-on reflections of his own Tour of Duty don't hark upon the out-and-out conflict against the enemy. Instead he tries to point the camera at the young conscripts themselves. One minute they're thinking of college educations and a decent, well-paid job; the next they're out in the jungle being ripped to shreds by lethal blades of long grass, eaten by ants, blood-sucked by leaches, and that's even before you factor-in the enemy and their on-the-ground tactical supremacy.
Charlie Sheen is at his very best as Chris, the new recruit, or "Crusader". A rich kid who volunteered to do his bit for his country, although this could have been down more to peer pressure than a sense of duty.
But through his eyes & words we can see how the war affected so many American men in so many different ways. Fortunately, Stone doesn't go a stage further by incorporating the hateful voices back home who decry the invasion. It would have been interesting to see Chris's reaction to that kind of "civil war" and wondering who side he is really on!
The (very) ending is perhaps a little contrite & too nicely packaged, which smells of studio interference; but for the other 99% of the movie I was totally immersed in the raw energy & emotion these soldiers gave supporting a country they probably never knew existed and for a reason they were never properly told.
It could be argued that the film reeks with an air of Stone's typical liberal attitudes, but one thing that can't be forgotten - Stone was out there fighting someone else's war, he did see action and so who are we to disagree.
****/*****