One of our best war flicks.

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 1999)

To me, this was a surprise from Oliver "Reagan-is-a-fascist" Stone. One of the few Vietnam flicks that gives a fair account of what it's like to fight on the ground in a war run by strategy-free nitwits, though Mr. Stone probably didn't intend it that way. The personal conflicts and dilemmas come across as real and plausible, without the usual Hollywood pacifist moralizing--until we get Charlie Sheen's sentimental (and dead wrong) voice-over at the very end. (Historical note: some of the marquee posters for Platoon advertised a story from America's "bloodiest and most unpopular" war. Neither description is true.)