the horrors of war....

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2016)

In 1967, U.S. Army volunteer Chris Taylor arrives in Vietnam and is assigned to an infantry platoon near the Cambodian border. The platoon is officially led by the young and inexperienced Lieutenant Wolfe, but in reality the soldiers defer to two of his older and more experienced subordinates: the hardened and cynical Staff Sergeant Barnes, and the more idealistic Sergeant Elias.
Taylor is immediately sent out with Barnes, Elias and veteran soldiers on a planned night ambush for a North Vietnamese Army force. The NVA soldiers manage to get close to the sleeping Americans before a brief firefight ensues; Taylor's fellow new recruit Gardener is killed and Taylor himself lightly wounded. After his return from hospital, Taylor bonds with Elias and his circle of marijuana-smokers while remaining aloof from Barnes and his more hard-edged followers.