Greatest of Stone, Greatest of all war movies...

Rating: 10/10 (26 July 2005)

Private Chris Taylor(Charlie Sheen) is a rich kid who dropped out of college to do his part for his country by joining the Vietnam War. He is assigned to a platoon that becomes divided into two points of views of two different Sergants: Elias Grodin(Willem Dafoe) and Bob Barnes(Tom Berenger). Along with the battle against the Vietcong, the platoon battles themselves morally and physically.
This movie is one of the rare war movies that actually captured to total guerrilla warfare of the Vietnam War. It showed the burning of villages, digging fox holes, and use of mortars. The movie has two great performances with two opposing roles. Dafoe does an amazing job of being the man who was willing to fight for others safety, and Berenger did a great job as the tyrant who believed in what he was doing when he had to use unethical tactics. The movie also includes good performances from Charlie Sheen, Forest Whitaker, John C. McGinley, and Reggie Johnson. Johnny Depp also gets a small little roll in the movie. The movie's writing is wonderful also. There is a scene where Dafoe's character talks to Sheen's about how "the stars have no right or wrong in them, they are just there". There is also a scene where Berenger's character says "Are you smoking this shi_ so's to escape from reality? Me, I don't need this shi_. I am reality." The writing was just very real and convincing. Overall, this movie is absolutely wonderful and definitely the best Oliver Stone has ever done. It is his legacy of movies.
I highly recommend this war classic.