Not Just A Great War Movie.

Rating: 9/10 (25 February 2015)

Platoon is loosely based on real life situations that writer/director, Oliver Stone went through when he was in the Vietnam War. This is also parallel to Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 masterpiece, Apocalypse Now. I'm going to start out by saying that I found Apocalypse Now to be a much better flick. Platoon is practically the same story with everything inferior, which is why I'm not giving a perfect score. When compared, Platoon is inferior. Even when not compared, this movie gives a great sense of deja-vu. "Haven't I seen this before?" Both movies are about a Sheen enlisting in the Vietnam War and transcend into madness and insanity while partaking in the horrors of war. Apocalypse Now has Martin Sheen on a mission to assassinate a demigod while Platoon has Charlie Sheen's mental state wearing thin after a massacre occurs. Apocalypse Now has build-ups and gets somewhere with the plot, and has an overall better look. Platoon is certainly not bad. Heck, it IS as good as everybody says. It won Best Picture and Director of 1986, but I think Aliens should have won one of those.
I think that any war movie is a great movie. Think about how it takes the action sequences to do and make-up to put on. Platoon's action sequences are excellent. But what makes Platoon the extravagant film that it is, is it's accurate depictions of life in war. While movies like Rambo made war seem fun and cool, Platoon was back to reality. The whole idea of transcending into madness is shown so well by all and is always relevant.
4/4