War as a state of mind ...

Rating: 10/10 (9 November 2012)

I hate quoting myself but as I said it before: 'the best war movies are about wars that were lost for defeat is the most revealing of the essence of war which already signs the defeat of reason, of civilization'. At one point, the central character of "Platoon", Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) says: "I see hell as the impossibility of reason", war is indeed hell because it jeopardizes all your beliefs and all the values you stand for, and by the simple process of following orders in a blind patriotism, it leads men to their own principles' betrayal.
And "Platoon" powerfully conveys the terrifying aspect of war as more than a series of battles opposing two military forces, but as a conflict taking place in another arena of angst, pain and fear: the minds of young soldiers, literally torn apart. War as an inner dilemma, incarnated by two visions: one humanistic that can be perceived as pure suicidal crusading, another one, more realistic but that feels like a nihilistic escape. And the power of the film is to incarnate this duality through two characters, two actors who define two approaches to war: Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) the humanistic; Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger) the realistic. Chris Taylor arrives in Vietnam with the innocence of a newborn baby and all his initiation will be driven by these two figures, as he says, he was "raised by these two fathers".
"Platoon" shows the three different layers: the conventional Vietnam War, the "civil war" within the platoon where half the 'grunts' follow Barnes and the other half, including Taylor, follows Elias, and ultimately, the war as a state of mind. The result is a nightmarish chaos where death can come from anywhere, it might as well be your enemy, and your comrade and even yourself the battles are rarely frontal, rather circular where each spot can reveal a deadly presence. Some soldiers can feel the presence of death, and this very pressure can either paralyze you when you see the enemy coming during an ambush or it can make you shoot at any directions. It can also make a solder snap and provoke the massacre of whole villages. Barnes is pushed to shoot a crying mother in the head, and reaches his breaking point at this very moment.
The village massacre serves to show that in the name of so-called America's ideals, the soldiers killed, massacred and committed deeds that were no nobler than the ones they were supposed to fight. Oliver Stone doesn't condemn or glorify these actions, he only shows them with a gripping realism, showing is enough because it's further than where any other war movie went. It exorcises the inner demons of many Vietnam veterans who couldn't tell what they saw or what they did. It confronts America to its own actions; to the way the countries exploited poor soldiers for a war that wasn't worth it. Maybe the film betrays a hope in Oliver Stone's mind, that the film would encourage the younger generations to be able to use free will before fighting, and not to think that any war is worth to fight just because you owe it to your country.
And Chris Taylor doesn't just incarnate the coming-of-age spirit of the film; he represents the proud American patriotism altered by reality. He volunteered because, like his grandpa fought in WWI, his father in WWII, he embodies the naive attitude that consists to think that any war is a fair war. That's the kind of sensitive nerve patriotism tries to touch, and that's why so many young America went to Iraq to fight because there were massive destruction weapons, and Saddam Hussein was linked to the September 11 attacks, shameful lies that ended up destroying a country. In the beginning, Taylor wants to discover these anonymous guys at the end of the barrel, who define the real America, some who'll make it, some who don't, but it's this camaraderie, this male bonding, this pride to serve the country that drives Taylor's heart. When he's there, he understands the meaning of hell, he understands why people are counting the days before relief, and more than anything he understands why they don't understand his volunteering.
Lack of understanding, impossibility to reason, it's probably this disbelief that is forever immortalized by the shot of this dying soldier rising his arms through the air, trying to reach the unreachable In a country sparing of 'mea culpa', Oliver Stone had the guts to show the reality of the Vietnam War and its psychological affect on young people who started being idealistic before discovering how low can humanity fall in the name of so noble ideals. His next film "Born on the Fourth of July" tackled the political aspect but "Platoon" is a 100% war movie and an extraordinary psychological thriller as well supported by a magnificent cast of supporting characters (Forest Withaker, Terry Quinn, Kevin Dillon, Johnny Depp, Francesco Quinn, to name a few) and spectacular special effects and sounds. Oliver Stone is also part of the praise not only for the directing but also for the realism he drained from his own experience in Vietnam.
Indeed, just like I thought "Schindler's List" was better directed than "The Pianist" but "The Pianist" was a better told story because it was directed by a man who survived the holocaust, I would establish the same comparison with "Apocalypse Now", "Platoon" has a less epic scope, but it feels so personal that you know you couldn't get any closer to what the hell of the Vietnam war truly was, and that's what makes it one of the most accurate, thought-provoking and emotionally affecting war movies movie ever made, or simply one of the best.