Platoon

Pros: One of the first Vietnam combat films to tell it "like it was."
Cons: Bloody, violent...but then again, so's war itself.

In the 29 years since the end of the Vietnam War, Hollywood has produced a number of films about that "lost crusade," ranging from the grand yet surreal vision of Apocalypse Now to the very commercial and silly Missing in Action series and ...

Pros: acting, story, pacing, camera shots
Cons: a few slow spots

It’s hard to merge the image of writer and director Oliver Stone with the fact that he was once a soldier. He actually dropped out of Yale University to go to Viet Nam, while many others were looking to college as a means to escape the draft. This bit ...

Pros: Directing, cast, acting and score
Cons: N/A

Pvt. Taylor, Somebody once wrote: "Hell is the impossibility of reason". That's what this place feels like, Hell (Vietnam). Directed By Oliver Stone Tom Berenger as Sgt. Barnes Willem Dafoe as Sgt. Elias Charlie Sheen as Pvt. Taylor Forest ...

Pros: Oliver Stone. Charlie Sheen. Tom Berenger. Willem Defoe.
Cons: Flawless.

What is it with blokes and war movies? Why do we count them amongst our favorite films of all time? I’ll hazard a guess as I lead into this review of one of my favorite films of all time. War movies give us a brief yet essential glimpse of a life with...

Pros: Excellent film about coming of age
Cons: None

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 ...

Pros: Excellent acting, lots of disturbing visuals
Cons: ultra-realistic and horrific

From the opening moment Chris Taylor (played by Charlie Sheen) sets foot in the 'Nam, you know things are going to be bad. The first thing he sees is a group of guys waiting to be sent home. Too bad they are being sent home in body bags.

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Pros: Strong performances, realistic, cinematography, editing, masterful direction from Stone
Cons: Despite some weaknesses in the plot, none

It is inevitable that war movies will always gain some sort of recognition, whether it is garnering awards at the Academy Awards for Special Effects, Sound Editing or Sound or if it is being acclaimed or heavily criticized by film critics for the aspect...

Pros: Exceptional Acting By All Cast Members and Horrific Combat
Cons: That The Vietnam War Happened

Pros: A comprehensive 2-disc special edition of a great movie.
Cons: This is a quadruple-dip, which just seems wrong.

When Chris Taylor steps off the plane and into the combat zone of South Vietnam, he has yet to realize just what he signed up for. He is a privileged son of wealth who reluctantly dropped out of college just so he could enter the combat zone as a means ...

Pros: a great insight into men at war
Cons: a dark and brutal film.

The Vietnam war seems to be one subject in the film world that has thrown up a host of well respected movies. Unlike the glorification and propaganda overtones that are prevalent amongst those that retell the Second World War, by the time directors began ...

Pros: Extremely vicious and emotionally charged war experience like none other.
Cons: Few, if any.

The men of the 25th infantry’s bravo company have no fear of hell. They’re already in a far worse place.


If there's any kind of movie that can truly manipulate and twist an audience’s emotions, it's a war movie. War films...

Pros: Tension, Acting, DVD bonus features
Cons: Light on character development and plot, Voiceovers

I hate DVD packaging. I absolutely hate how DVDs and Blu-Ray discs are marketed and packaged. There are two extremes in the packaging of DVDs and Blu-Rays with almost none that fall into the middle ground: they either tell viewers nothing about what ...

Pros: Solid performances; Stone's direction; the use of Barber's "Adagio For Strings" on the soundtrack
Cons: Unavoidably brutal (what war really is all about)

When South Vietnam finally fell to the Vietcong on April 30, 1975, America had officially lost the first war it had ever undertaken in its history.  And for many years, Americans had wanted to forget that horror, and the political and social strife ...

Pros: Original, gripping, believable and real
Cons: May be too violent for some

Platoon came out in 1986 when I was nine years old. My father, a Vietnam War veteran, seemed unusually eager to want to see this movie. Somehow, I convinced my father I was old enough to see an "R" rated movie and so he brought me to the theater with...

Pros: Great acting, beautiful direction and touching soundtrack.
Cons: Perhaps too depressing for some.

This is without a doubt, one of my favorite "war" movies. Written and directed by Oliver Stone, it is also, in my opinion, his best work.

The story follows young Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) who is a "cherry" just in country (he is the Oliver...