Vietnam, 1967... as the airplane's cargo ramp opens, Charlie Sheen steps into the blinding sunshine for his first glimpse of the country he is going to soon know too well. Short-timer troops are marching across the tarmac, leering and smarting off at the newcomers.
"Platoon" purportedly documents director Oliver Stone's experiences in Vietnam. Whatever it does, it is clearly his best film to date, in my opinion. We see Charlie turn from a mama's boy, wet behind the ears, to a hardened infantryman. We experience his discomfort and his fear as he humps his equipment on jungle patrol early in his tour. Eaten alive by fire ants, he is nonetheless so tired he falls asleep on guard. When he awakes, there is a Vietcong to his front! We experience his first firefight at his side. We come to know his squad mates intimately, from the sergeant, played by Willem Dafoe, to Bunny, with the Bugs Bunny tatoo, to the Lieutenant, a weak, fearful man who looks the other way when things become unpleasant. The Platoon Sergeant, ably played by Tom Berenger, is the evil nemesis of the platoon. He frags Willem Dafoe to stop him from complaining against his wanton killing of civilians. Burning villages, killing, rape, and murder are all on the agenda.
The self destructive behavior of the platoon resolves itself in a night attack when the perimeter is overrun by VC. The ones who are not killed by the VC are killed by the napalm brought to the target by the F4 Phantom Jets. All except Charlie, and Berenger. Charlie frags Berrenger, thus closing the circle from innocent babe to hardened killer.
This is a war movie everybody should see. Also recommended are the following Vietnam War films:
Winner of 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and based on the first-hand experiences of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, Platoon is a movie...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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