The best or not?

Rating: Null/10 (29 November 2002)

"Platoon" was/is so far the best of the Vietnam war movies, with the possible exception of "The Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now," both of which had more of a feel for that war in terms of the civilians that knew little about it as they stayed safely alive and insulated at home. The problem is Olive Stone didn't have the creativity nor did he do the research that Steven Spielberg did in the making of "Saving Private Ryan." I do not believe in gratuitous violence or the like, but Vietnam was a hell that cannot be imagined by those who weren't there, as Spielberg so aptly demonstrated about the hell of WW 2. Further, at the end, Stone did 'cop out' by trying to "explain" too much about what was going on. He should have made the motion picture to do its job.
"Platoon" was the best 'ground action' movie to come out of that war, but "Apocalypse Now" and "The Deer Hunter" both did a much better job of giving the audience a more realistic understanding of the politics and the misunderstanding of war as a means of settling questions of countries. Nevertheless, I recommend it.