Platoon (Stone) 1986

Oliver Stone delivers an inside peek into what it may have felt like to experience Vietnam first hand as an infantryman.

I have never been in the military, and I most certainly have never been in a war zone like the one portrayed in Platoon, but I can imagine this is pretty much what it would feel like. It's clear that Stone knows what he's talking about, having been in Vietnam himself and he wanted to make sure that reflected on the screen.

The cast of the film is what really makes it shine. Between the young and initially naive Chris (Charlie Sheen), the hardened warrior Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), and the idealistic Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), you get the full spectrum of people involved in the war. We see young men getting their first taste of the atrocities that exist in war, often on both sides of a conflict.

I couldn't help comparing this film to Apocalypse Now, and through that comparison is the only way I can find fault with this film. That is not to say this is a bad film. Quite the contrary. The film is fantastic and allows you to take the journey with Chris throughout the film as he goes from grunt, fresh of the plane in Vietnam, to a man who is willing to take on his superiors when he perceives they are doing wrong, but also aggressively interrogates a perceived enemy after one battle.

This is a war film that has stood the test of time. It is told with an eye toward realism and intensity that gives is a feeling of truth.

9 out of 10​​​​

---