Truly, an anti-war movie!

Rating: 6/10 (30 November 2018)

Platoon - an oscar-winning war drama, that shows to its viewers the Vietnam War - as one that is very inadequate, disorganized and lacking of good leadership. Truly, an anti-war movie!
The main character, Chris, is introduced to a military base, then he goes to a mission, then comes to the military base, then goes to another mission, then comes back to the same military base, then, guess what? - Goes to another mission, comes back again to the military base, then goes to his final mission, because at the end he gets injured and all the secondary characters die or disappear, thus you're already losing your interest for watching more of that movie (if you have enough patience left to watch until this point). The end!
Of course, there's more! More into the anti-war message of the movie: educated and rich Chris versus the uneducated and poor "rest of the soldiers"; moral and sympathetic sergeant Elias versus immoral and scar-faced sadist sergeant Barnes; careless captain and generals at the military base versus wise sergeants on the battlefield; "To Drug" soldiers versus "Not To Drug" sergeant Barnes. The Afro-Americans are, again, presented as upset with white people. Vietnamese - as a flat, gray group of people, occurring below the level of awareness. Soldiers are, of course, in that view - uninformed and sometimes even ignorant about their mission or location, wondering on what side of the country's border are they(?). Then, the four missions they had on the battle field - are presented almost like a linear dumb game order, the next one being harder and harder to fight. At one point, some viewers might expect the evil boss to show up at the end.
But not everything is so bad!? You might enjoy the drama around the moral sergeant Elias, but as you could already hear other critics talk so much about how "realistic" that movie is - there might be something for some tastes! If you're tired of long monologues before the killings, that's a movie where there's no second thought when talking about a headshot of a mother, smashing the face of a civilian or fist-fighting your captain. That is, by the way, the reason why other described it as being highly violent and devastating, where violence is so intense, that it shows almost constant guns, blood, dead bodies and scenes like shooting and raping (mostly implied) Vietnamese characters.
The movie is "so realistic", that it's not even trying to sell to its viewers the idea of a "transformation through hard work" related to the main character, as it pictures the newbie soldier Chris, being so young, weak and clumsy, as well as his other soldier mates - remaining the same throughout the movie (falling while trying to climb the jungle and whining about their injures, sometimes even faking them to escape the battlefield). His, almost every violent breakout, is presented coming as an uncontrollable emotional burst, which I think nobody will expect from a real trained soldier sent to a real war, killing real people.
But then, how realistic is this movie? Was that war really so disorganized and messy, like the movie is presenting it? I don't know, but I'm skeptic about that! Where I'm not skeptic about - is that the movie is not for everyone! Definitely not for kids and military strategists, that might be offended by such a messy handling of military affairs!
In conclusion, there's no "Good versus Bad" fighting in there, it's just a story, where it's not about winning. So, for all the good, the bad and the ugly, this movie takes from me - a strong 6/10 and of course, like with my other movie reviews - the accountability for what I wrote above!