Platoon (1986)
Last Watch Date - March 18, 2024
Total Times Watched - Once
Comments
I guess we're going to keep rolling on the DaFoe train with this one. Growing up, I had a buddy whose dad was all about Vietnam war movies. This one played frequently, although Hamburger Hill was his go-to that he would put on most of the time. While I have seen parts of both of these movies many times, I've never sat down to watch either from start to finish. At least until tonight.
Before I bother with any Vietnam war thoughts, I should cover the basics of this movie. The cast in this is HUGE and super notable. There are so many amazing actors in this, it's crazy. Tom Derenger, Willem DaFoe, Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, John C McGinley, Keith David, Tony Todd. They're all really good outside of a few melodramatic moments from Sheen.
Despite being a roughly 2 hour movie, you get dropped into the action pretty early on and it never really stops entirely. I guess you could say there are a few slower parts between battles, but overall it's pretty intense throughout. There are parts of it where it feels like there's so much going on that you can't even tell what's going on, although I'm sure that's intentional and reflects the feelings of actually being in the battle. I read Oliver Stone made this movie to reflect his own experiences in the war so this all makes sense to me.
My dad was more of a "young parent" (especially compared to many people now) and is only 25 years older than me, so by the time he was of age to be drafted, the war been over for a couple years. The last set of major troops was in 1973 (with all troops leaving in 1975) and my dad graduated high school in 1976. That said, there were a lot of people who were of age and were former soldiers who did have to go and fight. My friends' parents in many cases fit that bill. This was the first modern war in the US that citizens had an extremely negative view of, not only of the war itself but of the soldiers coming home who were involved as well.
This movie shows the chaos and emotional toll the war actually took on soldiers. It's not an excuse for doing things that they did, but it allows you to put yourself in their situation and if you're brutally honest with yourself, you can see why they did them. A lack of sleep, your buddies dying all around you, ambushes, hostile terrain and weather, and a lack of true preparedness leads to these types of issues.
Recommended?
Yep. 38 years since this came out and it's still good. While it may not be the best war movie (Saving Private Ryan maybe?), it's really well done and leads to some introspection.
