Rejoice o young man in thy youth.

Rating: 10/10 (6 July 2008)

Chris was once a rich kid, but he drops out of college and enlists to fight in Vietnam, Chris {Charlie Sheen} is a raw and green recruit, but in his platoon he finds a mighty division. One side is led by scarred veteran Sgt. Barnes {Tom Berrenger}, he and his followers have a kill them all mentality that is uncompromising in its intent. On the other side is Sgt. Elias {Willem Dafoe}, an adroit leader who retains his humane sensibility, Chris finds he is the centre of a battle for his soul, the horrors of war now taking on another deadly battle.
Director Oliver Stone has throughout his career ruffled feathers, he is the perennial fly in the ointment to critics and fans alike, what isn't in doubt is that when he gets it right, he leaves most others in his wake, and with Platoon he grabbed the proverbial scruff of Vietnam's neck and shook it senseless. Stone uses his own experiences of being in Vietnam to assault our senses, realism pores out from every crevice of Platoon's limbs. What Stone achieves best is the constant sense of fear and dread amongst the soldiers, this is no recruitment drive for the army, this is the raw and petrified fear of reality, as the tension mounts the locale becomes stifling, our nerve ends preparing to be shredded, whilst visually, Platoon also finds Stone on top form, Robert Richardson's cinematography an incredibly tight allied force.
There are many Vietnam films available to view, and all have something to offer in varying quality, all are important in helping a nation understand via the camera just what the hell, the hell Vietnam was!, but to me Platoon feels grounded in fact, the village massacre at the epicentre of Stone's movie an obvious reference to the real My Lai tragedy, it's merely one part of a whole that makes Platoon a haunting experience. As the credits role i always feel like a bath, i need to wash the blood off my body, Oliver Stone and his Platoon have made me feel desolate, and with that i know the makers here have done their job. 10/10