Well, the time has come yet again for another film review, but this time it’s going to be a bit different. In part due to my business and in part due to the lack of movies that tend to come out in February and even March sometimes. I wasn’t able to make it to the theatres lately and decided that today would be a look at a classic Vietnam War film from 1986, Oliver Stone’s Platoon. As someone who loves history, I’ve always loved films that feature major events in history, so war films have always been a draw for me. Vietnam War movies in particular are very interesting to me, given the controversy around the war. Platoon is my personal favorite war movie (sorry Full Metal Jacket), and so I thought it deserved a look. As stated, it was directed by Oliver Stone, a man who served in Vietnam as an infantryman, earning two Purple Hearts, from a gunshot to the neck and an explosion that both concussed him and gave him a leg full of shrapnel for his trouble. After returning from the war in ‘68, Stone wanted to make a movie to counter the way that the war was portrayed in the John Wayne movie The Green Berets, which was a borderline propaganda piece, so he wrote a screenplay for a movie call Break, a movie that never came to be, but acted as the foundation for Platoon. Stone would eventually write the actual script for Platoon, and after years of studios not wanting to touch it, was able to find funding and distributors. The cast was gathered, and off they went to the Philippines to shoot.
Set in 1967, the year of Stone’s deployment and one year before the massive Tet Offensive, the film follows a young United States Army volunteer named Chris Taylor as he deploys in South Vietnam. (Taylor is played by a young Charlie Sheen.) The firm also features a studded cast including Willem Dafoe as Sgt. Elias, a well-liked member of the platoon, Tom Berenger as Staff Sgt. Barnes, along with Keith David, Tony Todd, John C. McGinley, and Johnny Depp in one of his earliest roles. It’s a truly amazing cast and everybody plays their part well, especially Mr. Berenger. Barnes is a true masterclass in villainy. He’s cold, manipulative, and evil, killing civilians and not stopping his men from assaulting others. Taylor has to step in for that. Aside from the cast, the movie features a great story with representation of the horrors of war, both what soldiers went through and the horrors that they committed. This representation of the war in fact caused the Department of Defense to oppose the movie. The score is absolutely beautiful, especially the recurring main theme, but there is one feature of the film that I want to single out: unnatural lighting. I absolutely LOVE unnatural lighting, and I hate how little big movies use it now. It’s why in so many modern movies there are scenes where it’s just pitch black, and you have no idea what’s going on, because it has to all look “realistic” instead of just allowing a movie to be a movie. Platoon looks beautiful and surreal at times with its lighting, and its lack of origin is not even slightly detracting from our immersion into the movie. Instead, I would say that it helps the movie. I love this movie so much. It’s beautiful, tense, at times heartbreaking, and thoughtful. It can feel hopeless at times, but it makes sure to sprinkle in its triumphs. I cannot recommend it enough, it’s truly electrifying, and I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who may go watch it, so please, go watch it. With that decree, I have nothing else to say except to give this an 8.5 out of 10, and to tell you all to enjoy, stay safe, and be good people.
