Film Review: Platoon

“Platoon”(1986, directed by Oliver Stone) is a film based on Stone’s own experience in Vietnam. The film’s plot is about U.S. soldiers fighting in the bloody Vietnam War but realizing their fight is against themselves than the enemy. The film starts with the scene soldiers coming to their new assigned place on the border of Cambodia. Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), a dropout college student who volunteered to participate in the war, narrates the story. He realizes that no one cares for each other and their existence is useless. He suffers psychologically that he tries to recover by smoking pot. He witnesses the unfair justice of Sergeant Elias’s (Williem Dafoe) murder by Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger) and the immorality of the war. In the end, Taylor revenges Elias’s death by killing Barnes and goes back to United States. 

Stone’ achievement of this powerful film is praised for its cinematography. The scenes usually dark lighting that perfectly fits the setting of the war as the soldiers were usually ambushed in the night. Stone also uses dark lighting in the cabin clubhouse where the soldiers smoke pot and drink alcohol. The act of drinking and smoking depicts the reality where some soldiers took comfort in the war. Stone focuses on Chris Taylor to show how an ordinary man will react to the situations as he is inexperienced. The scene of taking over the Vietnam village crystallizes the cruelty of the war as Stone depicts the immoral death of the chief’s wife’s death, threatening the girl’s life, abuse and burning of the village. From these incident, the conflict grows between Sergeant Elias and Barnes. The setting changes from day to night as they set up for the battle and the actual battle in the jungle. These effects of camera and editing perfectly fits the war scenes in the film. He also uses profanity dialogues that fits the reality of the war. Stone uses silence mostly through the film just like the reality of the war while using dramatic violin music in the death of the soldiers. Oliver makes the audience nervous by anticipating the enemy’s attack. As the conflict of power between Sergeant Elias and Barnes grew, the audience could feel that something was going to happen. When Sergeant Elias finds Barnes in the jungle, Elias feels relieved that he is not the enemy. But as the camera zooms to Elias’s eyes, the realization of his death is shown. As the platoon evacuates on the helicopter, Stone surprises the audience by resurrecting Elias who is running from the Vietnamese soldiers.  Stone uses the bird view from the helicopter to show the chase. Elias finally falls after getting numerous shots. The setting of the Vietnam War is almost quite portrayed to reality with jungles as it was filmed in the Philippines. 

“Platoon” won Oscar Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Film Editing; it also received nominations for Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. The budget for the film is estimated to be $6 million and the gross is around $138 million (www.imdb.com). Also “Platoon” won and had been nominated at many film awards for its outstanding film. It is a great movie that gives tribute to the soldiers who fought and died in the Vietnam War. It shows the horrors of the war as “the first causality of war is innocence” (“Platoon”’s tag line) “Platoon” is a powerful film that leaves the audience with a strong message of the chaos of the war and humanity. It is one of the best war films and is rated R for strong violence, gore, profanity, use of alcohol, drug, smoking, and intense scenes.