All is forgiven, Francis Coppola. All those bad things that I said about Apocalypse Now, I have to take back. The best Vietnam War movie is Full Metal Jacket, followed by The Deer Hunter. You really can't count Born on the Fourth of July, which just has a few battle scenes. But Apocalypse Now is by no means the most overrated film about the Vietnam War. That dubious honor belongs to Platoon, Oliver Stone's entry in the series.

Stone was a veteran in the Vietnam War, winning the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. This adds an air of additional credibility to Platoon, for which Stone directed and wrote the screenplay. His efforts were rewarded with eight Academy Award nominations, including big wins for Best Picture and Best Director. His script was also nominated, as well Robert Richardson's cinematography, and the film's good and bad cops, Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger.

All this acclaim for a movie with a $6.5 million budget; not much more than what it cost Apocalypse Now just to hire a bloated, incoherent Marlon Brando. Platoon was a huge blockbuster success, grossing over a hundred million dollars. Oliver Stone, previously best known as the screenwriter for Midnight Express, quickly established himself as one of Hollywood's elite writer/directors.

But while acknowledging the critical and commercial success of Platoon, as well as its impact to Oliver Stone's career, the film itself falls short of its reputation. There isn't much of a story, and what story exists doesn't come together well.

Apocalypse Now starred Martin Sheen. Platoon stars his son, Charlie Sheen. On Charlie's first day in Vietnam, he sees his first G.I. corpse. On his first mission, several of his buddies are killed. So it goes throughout the film; the Vietnam War seems to be fought by a handful of American soldiers, all of them serving in Charlie's platoon. And most of them dying, vastly outnumbered by superior Viet Cong forces whose faces are never seen.

Apocalypse Now has a scene showing Yankee soldiers slaughtering seemingly innocent Vietnamese. Platoon does this as well, but this time the killing doesn't come from fear, but from a thirst for bloody revenge. This transforms the young soldiers from unwilling servants of a stupid war, to malicious war criminals.

Charlie must choose between two mentors. Willem Dafoe is the Good sergeant, Tom Berenger is the Bad sergeant. Berenger is a sadistic murderer, while Dafoe is a good-natured, heroic soldier. Guess which side Charlie Sheen chooses. Naturally, this leads to multiple life and death, one-on-one encounters between Berenger and Sheen, and Berenger and Dafoe.

Meanwhile, the Viet Cong keeps overrunning American positions. Captain Harris (Dale Dye) is eventually forced to order planes to firebomb his own troops, which are now mixed with the advancing North Vietnamese. Amazingly, several soldiers, all of them members of Sheen's platoon, survive the bombardment, while the much more numerous Viet Cong are wiped out.

Platoon is justified in its anti-war sentiments, but supports them through exaggerated, dubious characters and events. It can be argued that Platoon is about war itself, and therefore doesn't need to be representative of a typical recruit's experience in Vietnam. The trouble is, the depth and credibility of the story, characters and script doesn't compare well with superior anti-military films, such as All Quiet on the Western Front, Paths of Glory, 'Breaker' Morant, and Full Metal Jacket. On the positive side, Dafoe gives a good performance, as does Keith David in a supporting role.

Oliver Stone would redeem himself a few years later with Born on the Fourth of July, an excellent if unpleasant film about the effect of the Vietnam war on a paralyzed veteran. Like Platoon, that film was also nominated for eight Oscars, and cast Dafoe and Berenger. (44/100)



Recommended: No