Still the Best movie ever!

Rating: 10/10 (6 July 1999)

When one considers all the elements of film making: plot, acting, music, photography, directing, etc. this is the best movie ever made. It is so realistic that it brings the point home about how awful war really is.
After seeing this movie, I began to appreciate how incidents such as the My-Lai massacre could occur.
I feel that "Saving Private Ryan", and the "Longest Day" (about D-day) falls short of "Platoon" overall.
Some of the scenes such as Charley Sheen freezing from fear while watching the enemy approach through the underbrush was extraordinary and shows that one scene is worth more than 10,000 words.
I first wrote the above review after seeing the movie in 1986.
I have this movie on Blu-ray and even after seeing it more times than I can remember, still consider it the best movie I have ever seen. Better than "Schindler's List" and "Godfather" which are the only other movies I have given 10s to. Since this is such a sober and somber subject, I have to be in the mood to watch it, so unlike a lighter or more uplifting movie, have not watched it as much as a lower quality movie I like such as "Good, Bad, and Ugly", or "Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" or "Vacation".
Even now, I am still stunned by the incredible realism of the actions in the movie and usually get tears in my eyes during the latter half of the film. Perhaps I feel this way since it was my generation that lost so many good people in the Vietnam War including some friends, classmates, and neighbors not only as war casualties, but the lingering effects from Agent Orange, drug use that started during the quiet times of the conflict, etc.. I feel so lucky that I was not drafted to go there even though my draft number was in the top third of the drawing.