Great job, Mr. Stone!

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2006)

I've heard of "Platoon" when I was searching for a movie that would contain violence that is not used to entertain, but as a symbolic violence. I decided to rent the movie... But I got more than I expected.
"Platoon" is a very shocking anti-war film that tells the incredible story of a young American soldier named Chris Taylor who left college in order to fight in Vietnam. He quickly regrets his choice as he experiences the horrors and the wounds that come with the war.
We see a lot of combat movies, but few come with the real reality (weird words, but that's how I see it) of the Vietnam war: little hurting bugs, humidity, rations, marijuana to escape reality and those disgusting tasks, such as emptying the pots that the soldiers use as toilets. This IS reality. Director Oliver Stone took out his own memories of the Vietnam and he wonderfully put them into the movie.
Outside of Taylor, Sgt. Barnes (played by Tom Berenger) and Sgt. Elias (played by Willem Defoe), it's very difficult to follow the characters. The main reason is that they all look alike. That's one of the movie's hidden geniuses: Stone presents ordinary looking guys who surely got normal lives in the States and their insertion into the jungle war. Barnes and Elias are the only ones who are highly recognizable and they've got their own reason. Barnes owns a frightening face and a horrific soul, which stick perfectly together. Barnes is an inhuman soldier and the scenes where he intends to kill the innocent villagers of a Vietnamese village are a nice reflect of his personality.
Sgt. Elias is mainly recognizable because of his appearance. His face can't be missed and he wears an almost-trademark headband. Also trademark is his morality that makes him the least threatening of the soldiers we see in the film, along with Taylor. Elias also appears in the most shocking scene of the movie: as he's shot in the back by the Vietnamese soldiers, he lifts his arms towards the American helicopters in the sky and this is his final movements. This scene has an almost religious mood.
Also shocking are the soldiers' questionable moralities, which are mold by the difficult context of war and the tyranny of their superiors, mainly Barnes. There's also this scene where a barely wounded Taylor looks beside him and sees a young fresh deer.
Overall, "Platoon" is a perfect example of a proverbial anti-war film and its shocking images and lessons provide reflections on war and soldiers for anyone who watches it.