The Vietnam War has a rich cinematic history. It was a relatively recent war and divisive among the American people. Furthermore, it lacked the inspiring final victory of World War II several decades earlier, so it became a ripe subject for exploring the horrors, trauma, and futility of war. Moviegoers aren’t going to expect such pessimistic themes when it comes to the Revolution, Civil War, or World War II. As it so happened, when I made my selections for my watchlist, I wound up choosing three movies that came out in the same two year period of 1986-1987. Early in the 80s the Vietnam War had been barely touched Hollywood despite the critical acclaim of The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now in the 70s. It also just so happens that the first of my three picks (which takes place the first chronologically in 1967) was the defining war film that launched a greater Vietnam subgenre.
Platoon had been
envisioned since 1968, when the war to contain communism in Southeast Asia
still had quite a while to go. In fact it might be what drove Oliver Stone, a
Vietnam vet, to pursue a career in film. Stone wanted to portray the war as he
saw it, and how it affected him psychologically. The few existing Vietnam War
films, good or bad, had either portrayed the war as a fever dream or as a
glorious display of American military superiority. Stone was determined to be
accurate, and he had an enthusiastic partner in Dale Dye.
Dale Dye, a Vietnam vet himself, was long critical of how actors played soldiers in movies and television as well as how unrealistic most of the battle scenes were. He decided to do something about it and started a military consultation business. Not only would he advise directors and others on how to put together battle scenes, he would run a boot camp to get actors into the right shape and mindset. Platoon was the first major client of his, with the cast made to spend a whole month training, living on low rations, and losing sleep as blank cartridges were randomly fired off.
Dale Dye in his first movie,
without the familiar mustache
This
training paid off, as many Vietnam vets list Platoon as the most accurate presentation of both what combat was
like and how soldiers were tortured by the jungle environment (there is some
nasty visuals of men suffering from overused feet and jungle rot). Few war
movies before this had seriously explored the toll of constant combat or the
danger of it. That being said, the final battle (it takes place at the same
time as the Tet Offensive, but I believe the location is more along the
Cambodian border) is said to be a less authentic portrayal of combat, but it
wonderfully shows how chaotic and compartmentalized much of the action is in
war.
Outside
the action scenes, there are details like soldiers finding ways to carry extra
canteens, using tape to stop all their gear from jangling and giving away their
position, and men writing messages on their helmets. The actors got to choose
what they put on, with John C. McGinley actually getting Oliver Stone to laugh
by using Alfred E. Neumann’s catchphrase “What, Me Worry?” Going back to Dale
Dye, he has a small role as Captain Harris. Dye would regularly play authority roles
in movies and shows he advised on, a couple of which I’ve already reviewed.
But
what about the actual story? In a bit of irony, Charlie Sheen, like his father
Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, plays
a deeply affected soldier who provides first-person narration. Unlike that
other character, Sheen’s Chris Taylor is a new middle-class recruit who felt he
had to volunteer and do his duty. This sets him apart from most of the others
in his platoon, who are mostly conscripts or men from much more impoverished
backgrounds (they're in the Army, which was known for its frontline "grunts"). It actually sets Chris apart from others of his class. Many wealthier
young Americans were able to buy their way out of the draft or saw no reason to
volunteer. This immediately makes Chris more noble, but possibly also over-idealistic.
Chris quickly learns how hellish war is. The alien Vietnamese environment and
the enemy soldiers who can pop up at any time from the thick brush are bad
enough, but as it turns out there’s an internal danger in the unit.
Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen in the middle) is flanked by Sergeants Elias (Willem
Dafoe) and Barnes (Tom Berenger) the two-headed leadership of the titular platoon (https://filmyap.substack.com/p/reeling-backward-platoon-1986)
If
there’s one major criticism, it’s that Stone can be a bit broad and obvious in
presenting the heroes and villains in some of his movies. This is evident in Platoon, where Taylor’s unit is wracked
by a myriad of problems. These issues were evident in the real war, but the
movie places all of them in the same platoon, which would have rendered the
unit completely dysfunctional. Still, it makes for a good story. Among the
problems that they face is that the lieutenant is ineffectual and often makes
the lower ranks figure things out for themselves.
The
men thus gravitate towards the two sergeants, bluntly described as an angel and
a devil in Sheen’s narration. Indeed, they are hardly nuanced characters, more
like archetypes with one representing the noble side of the soldier and the
other all the hideous aspects of war. Willem Dafoe plays the moral and highly
considerate Sergeant Elias. Pretty much all the more likeable characters are
part of his clique, where they like to relax and get high between combat
duties. Among them are Keith David and Forest Whitaker in early roles as the
uneducated but very discerning King and the kind Big Harold respectively. On
the other side is Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger in his most famous role), a
scarred and brutal man who is gung ho about the war and believes that the
platoon must do anything it can to achieve victory. His clique is made up of
quite a few unsavory characters, among them the psychotic blood knight Bunny
(Kevin Dillon), the cowardly Sergeant O’Neil (John C. McGinley), and the
cowardly, incompetent, and rapey Junior (Reggie Johnson). Overall, the platoon
is heavily divided to the point that the men start to spend as much time
fighting each other as the North Vietnamese. Interestingly the film brings up “fragging”,
the practice of using a fragmentation grenade in such a way so as to kill an
unpopular officer. This was not a common occurrence in the film’s time setting,
but did become a problem in the last years of America’s involvement in Vietnam.
Keith David brings some much needed levity with King, a character who manages to remain upbeat while pointing out some of the issues with the war. It helps that just happens to be one of the only characters absent from the big war crime scene.
The
Department of Defense famously refused to give any support or approval to
Oliver Stone’s work because the movie clearly portrays some of the ugly actions
taken by American soldiers, and also perhaps because it’s heavily implied that
the Vietnam War was a big waste of time. The one scene that stood foremost in
their mind is the vengeful arrival of the platoon in a village while Sergeant
Elias is off elsewhere. Angered by the savage killings of two of their men and
given the go-ahead by Sergeant Barnes, many in the platoon start harassing and
even killing suspected Viet Cong among the villagers. While not on the level of
the historical My Lai Massacre (which saw hundreds of people killed), this
scene is long and uncomfortable with many ugly incidents, some perpetrated by characters
who didn’t seem so bad just a few minutes ago. The attempted grape of an
underage girl, broken up by a disgusted Chris, is supposedly based on a
real-life incident where Oliver Stone prevented a similar crime.
Platoon is a pretty
good movie, though I’m hesitant to name it one of the greatest war movies of
all time. It certainly advanced the filmmaking of the genre and the plot is
mostly engrossing. The war’s effect on the soldiers’ psyche is commendable, but
Oliver Stone’s lack of subtlety (hardly contained to this one movie) does mean
that certain aspects aren’t too well explored. This is most evident with
Charlie Sheen’s Chris, who starts off the movie a pretty good guy, and stays
good throughout. Despite his description of Sergeant Barnes as a devil on his
shoulder, he pretty much never gets seriously tempted, much less swayed, into
following his lead at any moment. Still, this is a small criticism.
Rating:
8/10
The Christ-like pose that even people who've never seen the movie know: set to Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings", it became such a famous scene that many physical media covers use it instead of the movie's actual main poster.
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