Pretentious twaddle

Rating: 1/10 (13 August 2001)

Not much to say about this film, which I detested on first sight and which has not improved over time. Oliver Stone is a film maker of great technique--unfortunately, since technique substitutes for other virtues such as intelligence and balance. At this best (in, say, JFK) Stone achieves a kind of demented grandeur--you can't possibly take it seriously (unless you believe in UFOs, the theory of Atlantis, and the Bavarian illuminati), but it's geat fun. Platoon is glumly allegorical and depressingly schematic. Good=black, takes dope. Bad=white, drinks beer. Spend your time on the few great Vietnam films--Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now.