Great Vietnam War film from Oliver Stone

Rating: 9/10 (28 August 2014)

Coming off Oliver Stone's underrated, but not so successful feature Salvador. Platoon is a critical and commercial success. At this point Oliver Stone had made his mark in Hollywood as an excellent screenwriter with classics like Conan The Barbarian, Scarface and The Year Of The Dragon. This production was his breakout film as director. However, if you ask me Salvador(which Oliver wrote and directed right before Platoon) is a great film that never got the respect it deserves. Platoon is the first Vietnam War film to be made by a veteran and was based on Oliver Stone's experiences. Platoon is a very well structured and great looking film that captures the gritty essence of war but is beautiful to look at as well. Characters are rich and well developed and the story flows smoothly from scene to scene. Performances are top notch from an up and coming cast of great actors and future stars such as Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Keith David, Forest Whitaker, John C Reily, etc. The story is told through Charlie Sheen's(Chris) perspective and is a morality tale about innocence lost, different takes on the war from soldiers who support the war and those who do the best they can to stay alive and survive a war they found to be immoral and insane. Willem Dafoe is from the latter camp as Sgt. Elias. Tom Berenger delivers his best performance as hard as nails hawk Sgt. Barnes. Following in the footsteps of his father(Martin Sheen) the underrated Charlie Sheen does an excellent job as the lead in his own classic Vietnam War film. The battle scenes are gritty and Oliver did not try to sugar coat the material in any way. He shows the madness and brutality of the war and did not shy away from showing atrocities that became associated with the war. The film won a richly deserved Oscar for best film and director in 1986 as well as best sound and film editing. Platoon made its mark and hold up great decades later as well as making Oliver Stone a household name.