still haunting after all these years...

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2003)

Growing up I remember my stepfather watching hours upon hours of 1950's and 1960's war movies. I never was too keen on this genre of film myself, but "Platoon" is in a class all on its own. I consider this movie to be only the third film to legitimately reflect the reality and aftermath of battle ("Coming Home" and "Deer Hunter" being the first two). The film is visually stunning while at the same time bearing witness to the impact of war on the human psyche. The impression it leaves is profound. On the one hand it's encouraging to see that the era of sugar coated war films has reached an end, but this film proves that in war time the screen audience that bears witness to these recreated battles is not alone in sharing a loss of human innocence.