A great cast, a great director, a great score: a great movie!

Rating: 9/10 (7 January 2007)

"Platoon" is one of those films where you really feel like you understand the topic better. The film is almost like a documentary, as Oliver Stone based the script on his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam. The characters in the movie are based on real people he met while during his time in the battlefields and fox holes.
The three elements that make this movie great are listed in the title. Those three things are the score, the director, and the cast. The score of this movie is very haunting and powerful, taking you to the atmosphere of the film. Some might argue that is over-used, but I don't mind at all. The main theme is incredible, filled with a sorrow. Having also watched "The War at Home", I would say that the score bears some resemblance to the main theme in "Platoon". The songs used are also very smart choices. Examples are "White Rabbit", and "Tracks of My Tears".
For the director's role, only a Vietnam veteran could have done such a good job (except for maybe Steven Spielberg). Oliver Stone put his heart, soul, and his past into this film. The characters in the platoon are based on real people that Oliver had known in Vietnam. The central character of Chris is based on himself. This was a struggle to make, and his hard work paid off, in the form of an Oscar, and in the box office success of the film.
The cast is a young one, a cast that had a lot of promise. It was a cast of wide variety. Some were established TV actors, like Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe. Others had older relations in the film business, like Kevin Dillon and Francesco Quinn. Some, like Forest Whitaker and Keith David, would go on to continue a mediocre film career. Still others were unknown at the time,but would soon rise high, like Johnny Depp and Charlie Sheen. Behind the scenes, they were trained in army-fashion, they were only spoken to by their character names, and they grew very resentful of it by the time that filming started. What then resulted was a very convincing bunch of acting, and the movie goes up many notches because of it.
Special mention should go to all of them, but some really up there include the three main stars. Charlie Sheen is a naive volunteer who grows up in the face of war. Berenger and Dafoe play the two main sergeants of the platoon, and they are constantly on edge with each other. Dafoe is a decent person who realizes that this will be a defeat for his country. Berenger is the soldier's soldier: a hardened killer who is almost tunnel-visioned in his efforts in the war. Then there's the men of the platoon. Francesco Quinn is Rhah, the drug addict who is also very streetwise in the platoon's 'politics'. Kevin Dillon is Bunny, a flawless example of how war makes young teenagers into rapists, killers, or worse, corpses.
"Platoon" is an eye-opener for those who know very little of the Vietnam War. The movie shows what the soldiers went through for a country in which many had almost no future. It is almost a romantic tragedy, the way it plays out, and is a powerfully emotional piece of cinema.