The Vietnam War is recreated with striking realism in Platoon.

Rating: 9/10 (21 April 2014)

Platoon is clearly one of director Oliver Stone's most inspired films. Stone volunteered for the army in 1967 as a college drop-out. He wrote the screenplay for Platoon in 1975 but it took over ten years until he was able to film it. What separates Platoon from other American films dealing with the Vietnam War is that it depicts wartime massacres. Films before that, like The Deer Hunter (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979), only focused on the shattered psyches produced by the war. Keep in mind though that Platoon is a mainstream movie, so it doesn't come anywhere near the brutality that the Americans sometimes demonstrated. The 1968 My Lai Massacre, in which as many as 504 unarmed civilians were killed, is just one of many examples. The Vietnam War is considered to be the greatest trauma of 20th century American history, but a few decades later the USA savagely attacked Yugoslavia and Iraq. Platoon made a lot of money at the box office, mainly because Stone has the ability to make a film entertaining no matter what it's about. The film's partial blindness to the war was another reason for its success. It's not made clear who the American soldiers are actually fighting and why they invaded Vietnam in the first place. Let's also not forget that Stone dedicated the film to the men who lost their lives. So, when Stone is accused by some people of being anti-American or a leftie I can just laugh at their foolishness. What's most interesting about Platoon for me is that Stone brought his own experience of being a soldier in Vietnam. When Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) said that you don't really sleep even when you do get time to sleep I was immediately reminded of what my father told me. My father served in the army. Even though he didn't see combat he told me that he still stayed awake. In Platoon Stone looks at the war from his educated middle-class point of view. He shows the behavior of under-privileged blacks and of "white trash" from middle America. Stone's direction is very good, so it's not a surprise that he won an Oscar. With cinematographer Robert Richardson he managed to capture some impressive images. He also brought intelligence to the film by depicting a war between two sergeants, Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Elias (Willem Dafoe). It's pretty much Jesus (Elias) fighting against the covetous shadow of the American dream (Barnes). The performances by most of the cast are very good. Berenger and Dafoe are terrific. They're clearly the standouts. Historian Carroll Quigley thought that what happened to Western civilization in the first half of the 20th century was a tragedy. It's clear why. There were two big wars, a depression, and the coming of fascism. In addition to that the Russians foiled the plans of the Germans and the British and captured Eastern Europe. Yet Quigley still had hope when he wrote his famous book in the 1960s. But, as the Vietnam War dragged on, he began to lose this hope. He began to think that Western civilization is nearly finished. I think that there's still hope for Western civilization, though the Vietnam War was yet another example of the crisis that this society is going through. Platoon isn't my favorite war movie. I like Come And See (1985) and Apocalypse Now (1979) more, but I easily recommend Platoon too.