Gritty and tense

Rating: Null/10 (14 March 2003)

Most films about the Vietnam War deliver a powerful message. Apocalypse Now shows how war can drive a man to insanity and darkness, Full Metal Jacket focuses on dehumanization and turning wimps into killing machines, and The Deer Hunter tells the story of a simple friendship swept away by the tide of war.
Then there's Platoon, which shows how allies can start a war amongst them and become bigger dangers to one another than their real enemies. It also shows how the fight for leadership can tear into the ones who fight for it. But this conflict affects the soldiers most of all, and they must decide whether their loyalties are with the bitter, tough-as-nails leader (Tom Berenger), or the more faithful and supportive one (William Dafoe).

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE!!!
Platoon's gripping and unmerciful story is told by soldier Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), a college dropout who put his education behind just to become a soldier. He is assigned to a platoon of mixed personalities and races such as Big Harold (Forest Whitaker), Rhah (Francesco Quinn), and Sgt. O'Neill (John McGinley). The soldiers must deal with the brutality and sickening reality of war: Rotting corpses, red ants biting your neck, swarms of gnats and mosquitoes that leave swollen bites all over your face, booby-trapped bunkers, and Viet Cong platooning by night. But the biggest threat to the well being of the band is the battle for its command.

The platoon's leadership is split between scar-faced Sgt. Barnes (Berenger) and Sgt. Elias (Dafoe). Sgt. Barnes is a hateful and ungracious troop who kills with a vengeance. Elias is a man who has lost faith in the war, but still cares for his fellow soldiers. At first the two are able to cooperate, but when they are faced with a threat or are caught in a tight situation their decisions are almost exactly different. If a man were wounded, Barnes would rather leave his body to rot rather than tend to him, whereas Elias calls in for medical attention immediately. When the platoon invades a Vietnamese village, Barnes will shoot anybody who dares to try and stop him and even threatens to kill a child, but Elias would rather save the civilians and do what must be done. The conflict between the two eventually reaches boiling point, and when Elias stumbles upon Barnes during a Vietnamese troop invasion, his ungrateful rival shoots him. Taylor, whose loyalty had been with Elias during his gruesome stay, starts to believe that Barnes shot Elias when he sees the wounded and helpless sergeant praying for mercy while being hunted down by Viet Cong troops. When they meet back at base later on, Chris jumps right to conclusions with Barnes and attempts to kill him. He fails, however, and Barnes isn't daunted.

The next day, the platoon heads out to the jungle once more to battle the Vietnamese troops. The Viet Cong strike late at night, attacking the American bunkers and outposts with full force. As bullets ricochet everywhere and explosions and fires erupt, a scrambling Taylor runs into Barnes, who has gone insane and is repeatedly stabbing a Viet Cong troop to death. Taylor pulls Barnes back, who pins him down and holds his knife high above him, ready to stab him to death. As Chris screams, a jet flies overhead and launches bombs, sending the forest up in a fiery napalm explosion and wiping nearly everything out. When Taylor wakes up the next morning, he finds a severely injured Barnes crawling across the ground in search of medical aid. When he turns around to find Taylor pointing a rifle at him, he says, `Go ahead. Shoot me.' In two seconds he's lying on the ground with bullets in his chest. Then, all of a sudden, a search team arrives to rescue Taylor and bring him back to the helicopter landing field. He is then carried aboard one on a stretcher, his time in Vietnam finished. But as the chopper sails over the smoking and body-ridden battlefield, Taylor begins to cry, realizing that the biggest enemy of all proved to be themselves.
Shortly put, this is one of the best films ever made. One of the many things that helps it achieve its status of greatness is the message it delivers. It basically shows how war can wreck the lives of those sucked in, and although there aren't any metaphorical aspects to it or such, it's still a powerful message that is perfectly exemplified by Oliver Stone. You can clearly see it right at the beginning when leaving troops shoot a cold glance towards Chris and the other newcomers. And from there on it becomes stronger and stronger.
But perhaps the best thing about the entire movie is the tension that constantly builds during each climax. The way Stone makes the Viet Cong appear as camouflaged silhouettes is eerie, presenting them as faceless, ghostlike figures. The very first climax with Taylor watching the Vietnamese troops in silence as they approach is perfectly shot from different angles, implying a strong sense of fear and anxiety upon the viewer. And when the tension lets up, it's perfectly relieved by a pulse-pounding sequence that moves at a fast pace.
The casting in Platoon is also good as well. Charlie Sheen follows the footsteps of his father with a stellar performance and well-placed narrating (Like father, like son). Tom Berenger is good, but I found his character almost impossible to like. Naturally, I preferred William Dafoe, who would probably be my pick for the best performance in the movie. The performances of Forest Whitaker and John McGinley are also good, and the film features plenty of other soon-to-be-famous faces like Johnny Depp and Keith David. But the problem with Platoon's characterization is that it tries to cover too many different people at once, making it a bit hard to follow each character. But that has got to be the only flaw in general. And since the characters are perfectly developed, it's not much of a problem.

Platoon is simply a great movie, and it is right on the grand scale of great war films like Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, and The Deer Hunter. Everything is perfect, from the action to the cinematography, and it's about as good as a war movie can get. All in all, a must see film.

***** out of *****