What We Got Here Is A Crusader

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2005)

At the time it was released, PLATOON was said to be so realistic that many Vietnam vets who viewed it had psychotic flashbacks. My best friend, Randy, served two tours of duty in Vietnam in the late 1960s, and because of these reports he was hesitant to see the film. Ultimately he attended a screening in the company of some two dozen other vets who sat together to provide each other with support. When the film was over they looked at each other. "Great film," they said. "But it wasn't like that. Not really." Then they all went out for coffee and argued over some of the movie's technical details. Randy says he has never met any vet who had a flashback episode from viewing PLATOON, and he regards the story as so much Hollywood hype. Whether the stories of flashbacks are true or not, one thing is clear: PLATOON does not capture the Vietnam experience for all vets, and it seems unlikely that any one film ever could.
Once we get past the film's reputation and actually look at it, what we have is an extremely well-done film that posits itself as "typical Vietnam experience" and then offers us an not-very-subtle morality tale. Although the film focuses on newly arrived soldier Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), the storyline focuses on the battle of wills between an ultra-hawk faction led by Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger) who don't care who they kill and an ultra-dove faction led by Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) who want to maintain some sort of sense of humanity and self-respect. The factions soon erupt into an internal war, with Berenger increasingly portrayed as a demon from the pit and Dafoe seen as a Christ-like figure, both symbolically fighting for the soul of young and impressionable Sheen.
In terms of combat scenes and violence, PLATOON is less horrific than you might expect. There are shockers, of course, but the film achieves its effect less from graphic violence than from suspense, and here it is extremely successful. Interestingly, the film also contains a covertly homo-erotic edge quite unlike that of any war film I've ever seen. When the characters talk about women, they refer to them as objects and the few women who appear in the film are targets of rape and murder, so the film equates heterosexuality with violence; on the other hand, it is impossible to escape the connotation of the scene in which Sheen is introduced to (i.e. seduced by) drugs in Dafoe's lair, which comes complete with party music, twinkle lights, and such lines as "put your mouth on this." Although the black-and-white nature of the story is simplistic almost to the point of annoyance, a truly fine cast carries the film off extremely well. Sheen is actually the weak link here: although appropriately All-American-Good-Boy he is not greatly memorable. Dafoe, however, is astonishingly good, and although very one note Berenger is a powerful metaphor for evil. The supporting cast includes exceptional performances from the likes of Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon (particularly effective as the loathsome "Bunny"), and even a very young Johnny Depp. But Oliver Stone's direction and script has a "crusader" mentality that undercuts any complexity the film would have, and PLATOON ultimately emerges as determinedly anti-war to the point of propaganda; consequently it never digs as deep as you feel it should. But what the film does do, it does extremely well. Recommended, but keep your critical faculties fully engaged throughout.
Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer