Platoon

Despite the praise lavished on Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986) as a film that reality made, rather than Hollywood, this Vietnam War film has not been treated kindly by time. As an examination on the poetics of war, for better or worse, The Thin Red Line placed its hand on the mantle, while Saving Private Ryan possesses a gritty realism in its opening that may never be rivaled.

With this breakthrough feature, though, Stone has fashioned the obligatory story of soldier Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) whose naïveté about life and war are slowly shattered. Even as he suffers under the constant psychological bombardment of a soldier’s daily life, he also witnesses his two superiors, SSgt. Bob Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Sgt. Elias Grodin (Willem Dafoe), battle over the treatment of prisoners, about whether it is justified to torture them for information.

Within this structure, there is a betrayal, which leads to the film’s justifiably strong climax (see the film’s cover). Yet, after this point, the intensity of the film withers under Sheen’s less than impressive acting chops. Additionally, the film contains Sheen’s voiceovers off and on, and these lines offer little to a visual narrative that often states that which the voiceover stated in a more profound way minutes later.

Moreover, though Stone explicitly mentions the nature of Chris’s two superiors in the infantry, this duality is always far too evident and contrived. These two factions are split into the stoners (good) and drinkers (bad). As such, there is never complexity, save for Elias, since evil-cowardice goes punished and good-cowardice is rewarded. Such simplistic notions are not expected in a film that constantly argues for its realism.

Keith David is, however, the epitome of all that is awesome, and his presence restores energy to the piece. The film is worth a viewing if you are at all interested in war films, but for the more discerning viewer: look elsewhere (like Apocalypse Now).

Platoon: 6/10