One of the Best War Films Ever Made

Rating: 10/10 (16 April 2005)

I'm a sucker for good war movies but I had not really found a great Vietnam film until this. We Were Soldiers (2002) was good but didn't deal enough with the soldiers. This movie brought alive the atrocities of Vietnam and the horror's America committed in the war.
Pvt. Chris Taylor (Carlie Sheen) has just been sent to Vietnam. He is young, untrained and afraid. Soon he is mixed in with a company under command of Sgt. Elias Grodin (Willem Dafoe) and SSgt. Bob Barnes (Tom Berenger) and soon witnesses the horror he will face in the year he is serving. After villages are burned and civilians killed under command of SSgt. Barnes, Pvt. Taylor comes to realize the war they are fighting is with themselves, the message Stone wanted to get across.
As the movie progresses, you're confronted with a variety of characters played by now famous actors. Johnny Deep, Forest Whitaker, and Kevin Dillon just to name a few. This is the best Vietnam film ever made. The movie is filled with intense and gory action but it still brings its point forward.
Charlie Sheen does the acting of his life along with Berenger and Dafoe. Taylor develops with his morals as he sees the horror of war brought forth and inhumane acts are performed before his very eyes. There are some very intense scenes involving the execution of a mentally-ill Vietmanese man and a soldier raping a girl in a village.
The movie is emotional and powerful. Some very graphic battles and heavy language gave it the 'R' rating but it doesn't take away from this epic film.
Platoon. Starring: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Keith David, Francesco Quinn, Johnny Deep, and John C. McGinley.
5 out of 5 Stars.