Platoon
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Platoon
Written and Directed by: Oliver Stone
Starring:
Tom Berenger
Willem Dafoe
Charlie Sheen
Released: Dec 24 1986
Budget: $6M ($15.2M in 2021)
Box Office: $138.5M ($351.2M in 2021)
Ratings: IMDb 8.1/10 Rotten Tomatoes 87%
Metacritic 92% Google Users 91%
The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards at the 59th Academy Awards, and won four including Best Picture, Best Director for Stone, Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.
In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Lastly, a Platoon is a subdivision of a company of soldiers, usually forming a tactical unit that is commanded by a lieutenant and divided into several sections or squads.
First time you saw the movie?
Plot:
The film opens to black and white text: "Rejoice O young man in thy youth" -Ecclesiastes. At an air filed as new recruits are getting off a plane; they observe body bags being loaded. They somberly walk by as injured men heckle them. September 1967, Brave Company, 25th infantry, somewhere near the Cambodian border. The men are marching through the jungle, on patrol. Charlie Sheens Chris Taylor comes across a dead body, with Sgt Barnes telling him he's good and dead. Taylor collapses, with ants on his neck. A resupply helo touches down and they unload, troops are shown cutting grass, working on weapons, tending to wounds, setting mines. Taylor starts a voice over as a letter to his Grandma, about Hell and complaining how hard it is. Up at 5am, humping all day, how new guys are valued less, and he thinks he made a mistake. The Sgts get a report of an ambush, and they argue about who is going out on partrol. The troops are complaining about the patrol, and Sgt Elias takes the new recruits, and clears their gear they don't need, with some advice from Elias, they take off with a storm rolling in. Taylor voice over complaining about his parents, being anonymous. How the guys are the bottom of the barrel, but some of the best guys. Taylor is sent to set claymores. Taylor awakes about 2:30am, with ants and bugs on him. As he's trying to settle down, he watches as some Vietcong troops came walking through, he looks at his weapon and at the other troops, unsure what to do, as they approach. They trip a claymore, and the troops wake up to a fire fight. Fires, explosions and tracers. Another trooper who was hit, is screaming in pain, when Sgt Barnes covers his mouth and tells him to shut up and take the pain, Taylor is also injured, and is worried about dying, Gardener, the other new recruit, dies. Everyone somberly looks away, except Taylor. Sgt Barnes call him a piece of shit, and uses him as an example what happens when you mess up in a firefight. As they walk out, Elias tells Barnes he may still be alive if he had a few more days to learn something.
S:
-Somber start to the movie, gives it weight
-The foreshadowing of the storm rolling in, I am assuming.
-I cant see John C. McGinley and not think scrubs.
Taylor is walking on base, catches up with his old platoon, and gets pulled for a job. They're shown pulling latrine pots and having to clean them. They ask how he got there, Taylor says he dropped out of college and volunteered for infantry, King tells him hes stupid for giving all that up, and that the poor are always getting fucked by the rich. King takes him to hang out and Taylor hits an opium pipe. Sgt Elias is there and has him inhale some smoke through a shot gun. Some banter in the barracks in between the troops. Taylor and the others are smoking, dancing and singing, as it fades to them back in the jungle, new years day, 1968. They find and investigate an enemy camp. Elias crawls into one of the caves to check, as the others keep combing. Elias finds a surgery with a dead troop, he climbs up into another chamber and kills someone running away, as Sal and another troop find a trove of documents that are booby trapped, and they die. Taylor sees Barnes, looking despondent. The LT tells them to move to a village, when they go, they find a missing troop, Manny, tied to a tree, dead. Barnes is pissed and Taylor calls him their Ahab that day. They ransack the village, and find some guns. Taylor finds a man and woman hiding, and he makes the one legged man dance, shooting at his foot. Bunny kills him with the butt of his shotgun. They interrogate a man about the weapons, he says they don't have a choice, Barnes hills the woman, threatens to kill more if he doesn't talk. Barnes gets the mans daughter and threatens to kill her. Elias stops him and they fight. The troops part them, LT tells them to torch the town and blow the weapons and move out. Taylor comes across some guys attempting to rape some villagers, and stops them.
S:
-When the guys are pulling the latrine things, you can hear Adrian Cronauer in the back ground saying Goooooood morning vietnam.
-The obvious differences between the LT and the troops.
-Taylor stopping the rape tells a lot about who he is
At the base camp, Elias and LT are talking to the captain about what happened at the village. They're told they're going back to the bunker complex. The troops discuss who was right. LT tells Barnes not to worry about Elias. Obviously the troops are divided. Barnes pauses. Taylor and Elias talk, and Elias says they're going to lose. Taylors voice tells us he struggles to maintain his sanity, whats right and wrong, the divide in the troops. They move through the jungle on patrol when they're ambushed. They start returning fire as men are hit, Taylor crawls to help. Elias, Barnes and the LT argue how to react, ultimately going with Barnes. Mortar rands start falling on the troops and they fall back, needing medics. Elias takes two guys, Taylor follows. Barnes berates the LT for giving bad coordinates. Elias tells them what to do and takes off; barnes tells them to pull back that he'd get Elias. Taylor gets two, as Barnes arrives and sends them back, he moves to Elias. He moves quietly, as the Vietcong run, Elias engages and kills some. Barnes follows. Taylor arrives back, but goes back into the jungle. Barnes shoulders his rife at Elias, they share a moment, Elias' face drops and Barnes shoots him. Barnes tells Taylor, and they move out. They move to the rescue helos, and move bodies. As they're flying, Taylor sees Elias running, Barnes can't believe it. The LT tells them to go back, Elias is running, bloody, with tons of vietcong chasing him, the falls and crawls, while being shot, as the helos make gun runs trying to help. On his knees, Elias reaches up, and collapses. Taylor looks at Barnes, and Barnes turns away.
S:
-Not knowing the ending, I think when Barnes pauses, he's decided he's going to kill Elias.
-This is a pretty straight forward movie, some moral questions are blunt and obvious.
-I like the framing of Barnes and Elias, going head to head, towards each other.
-There isn't a bunch of war time era music, like Fortunate Son or We Gotta Get Out of This Place, it's all classical, instrumental.
-Iconic shot of Elias on his knees reaching up.
Taylor is convinced Barnes killed Elias. They argue what they should do. Barnes arrives and tells them there is the way it should be and the way it is; he is reality, that Elias was wrong, and that the machine breaks down, they break down. He offers himself, 6 on 1, to kill him. Taylor jumps on him, but it's over quickly, and Barnes stops from killing him, but cuts his cheek. Walking asking, what they know about death. They go back the next day, Taylor knows they're the bait to lure out an entire regiment. Lt tells Rhah he's got Elias' squad, and he doesn't want it. Taylor and King talk, Taylor questions why and how people like Elias die, and Barnes get to make the rules. King says to just get through it; then King is sent home. Junior says he can't walk, Barnes doesn't believe him, and Junior breaks down. O'Neil asks for leave, which Barnes denies, O'Neil is worried he wont make it out alive, and Barnes tells him everybody has to die. Bunny tells Junior why he likes being there, doing what you want, just worry about dying. We see vietcong troops preparing and moving through the jungle at night. A proximity flare is set off, when they're told not to get out of their fox hole, that they'll be probed all night, trying to get through. A trooper falls in the hole with Taylor and tells them there are hundreds coming, to get out. A blast rocks Taylor back. He listens to a broadcast and abandons the foxhole, right as they RPG it. Some troops come up the hill and Taylor attacks, killing several. Frances joins him, and they are in a frenzy. Screaming, laughing, when Taylor charges. Bunny is screaming at the attackers when Junior leaves, as he turns to yell, he's shot, with the killing blow in his mouth. Junior runs into a tree, and is soon after stuck with a bayonet and dies. Barnes attacks, O'Neil pulls a dead body on himself to hide, and the attackers move on, thinking they're all dead. A suicide attack at the base is run on what looks like a comms tent. LT tells the Captain they're overrun, and they want to pull back, but the Captain tells him to stay and fight. They're overrun, the captain calls for a bombing run on them. Barnes is fighting and gets shot, Taylor saves him, Barnes is about to kill Taylor, when the bombs drop, as we literally see the red in Barnes eyes and explosions. Cut to Taylor waking up, and all is quiet. He gets up and grabs an enemy AK, bloody and batered, he finds Barnes crawling away, also bloody and burnt. They stare at each other, when Barnes tells him to do it... and Taylor shoots Barnes. And armored vehicle finds Taylor, Frances stabs himself in his leg, O'Neil lies about being left. A bulldozer is clearing bodies as Taylor is carried out. He and Frances chat for a sec, and O'Neil is told then he has second platoon...and he is not happy. Taylor is loaded on to the medical helo, signals to Rhah, who screams back. He flies over the carnage of the battlefield, bodies everywhere. He things looking back, they didn't fight the enemy, but themselves. He knows for him the war is over, but it will always be there, as will Barnes and Elias for possession of his soul. He's sometimes since felt of a child born of those two fathers. That we must rebuild, to try and find goodness and meaning to this life. A white screen with black text: Dedicated to the men who faught and died in the Vietnam War. Fade to black, and credits.
S:
-That fight scene and everything Barnes says, i get why he got the academy award. Incredible, well written.
-Still very intense, crazy battle sequence. It's got real depth and shows how any and many soldiers can break.
-I do wonder how 'real' the bit with Barnes killing Elias, and Taylor killing Barnes is or was in Vietnam.
Top Five Trivia of the movie:
5: Oliver stone got so tired on set, he accused the editor of stealing film. But the film hadn't been shot yet.
4: The scene where all the troops were high, they actually got high. The problem was, they did it hours before, so when they shot, according to Willem Dafoe, "They were just tired and useless."
3: Dale Dye, who is a decorated Marine, was the consultant to this movie and changed the way hollywood shot war movies, finally showing the emotional toll war takes on solders. He's also consulted in films such as Saving Private Ryan, and even video games like Medal of Honor.
2: They imported red dirt, because Oliver Stone specifically remembered red dirt from his time in vietnam
1: Oliver Stone was the first Vietnam Vet to direct a vietnam war movie. Also, in 1988, without saying how, video compies of Platoon were being playing in Ho Chi Minh City, It was the first American film about the Vietnam War to play there.
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