Platoon (film)
- This article is about the Vietnam War film. For other meanings, see Platoon (disambiguation).
| Platoon | |
|---|---|
| File:Platoonmovieposter.jpg Platoon | |
| Directed by | Oliver Stone |
| Written by | Oliver Stone |
| Produced by | John Daly Derek Gibson A. Kitman Ho Arnold Kopelson |
| Starring | Charlie Sheen Tom Berenger Willem Dafoe |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
Release date | December 19 1986 |
Running time | 120 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6,000,000 (estimated) |
Platoon is a 1986 Vietnam war film, written and directed by Oliver Stone and starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen and Forest Whitaker. The story is loosely based on Stone's experiences as an Army combat infantryman in Vietnam, and was written by him upon his return as a counter to the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne's The Green Berets.
Synopsis
A young US Army soldier, Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) arrives in South Vietnam with several other rookies replacing the casualties his new platoon has suffered in recent combat operations. Prior to his arrival, he dropped out of college, feeling that it was leading him nowhere and that it was unfair that lower-class youths had to carry the burden of the fighting in Vietnam, while rich kids could shirk the draft.
Upon his arrival in Vietnam, he sees the seasoned veterans who have just finished their tours of duty, (with the "Thousand Yard Stare" fully developed), taunting the new guys as they board a transport plane home.
His enthusiasm quickly evaporates and turns into frustration and regret as he goes on endless patrols all day and, as a new guy, is assigned to dig foxholes and do other arduous tasks.
On his first night-time ambush, his unit is set upon by a squad of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops who walk into the sleeping men meant to be on guard duty. The other new guy with Chris, Gardner, soon dies of a chest wound from the fire fight, and Chris himself is grazed by shrapnel.
Returning to the base camp with light duty for medical leave, he befriends several of the more seasoned troops who introduce him to the "Underworld", a disused bunker converted into a pseudo-nightclub, where they smoke marijuana, drink beer and dance with each other to popular music.
The following day, during a routine patrol, a bunker complex is discovered, and during the examination of the campfire left by the enemy, two of the soldiers are blown to pieces by a well-concealed booby trap connected to a box of documents. After leaving the bunker complex area, the soldiers come across another member of their unit, Manny, who has been tied to a post and mutilated.
Reaching a nearby village several kilometers north of the bunker with hard intelligence that the enemy was spotted there, the squad discovers huge stockpiles of weapons and food which the locals say was forced upon them by the NVA. The troops, tired and angry because of the deaths of some of their comrades, take out their frustrations on the village, with murders and torture of several civilians, as well as a gang rape of a teenage girl (which Chris stops). Sgt. Elias, (Willem Dafoe) having witnessed Staff Sgt. Barnes' (Tom Berenger) and Lt. Wolfe's (Mark Moses) illegal actions, attacks Barnes and then puts the two men on report to their Captain. Chris, having originally admired Barnes, now finds his loyalties leaning towards Elias, while Barnes' supporters talk of fragging Elias to prevent him from acting as an eyewitness in a formal report about the illegal killings.
Barnes is shown in the movie to be brutal not for the sake of his own sadism, but to save the lives of his men and get things done, by whatever means possible. Thus his actions, although clearly not justifiable, are well understood considering the realities of the guerrilla war. He values his men and his mission above rules and regulations set forth by politicians in Washington. The film can be seen as a war for the heart and soul of Taylor and the rest of the unit. While the ostensible enemy was the North Vietnamese Army, Taylor finds himself immersed in a struggle between two veteran sergeants: pragmatic and brutal Barnes and idealistic and ethical Elias. In the end he sides with Elias.
On yet another patrol, the platoon is ambushed. Sgt. Elias and three other men including Pvt. Taylor move around the fighting to try to intercept the flanking NVA troops. Meanwhile, the inexperienced and incompetent Lt. Wolfe ends up calling in an artillery barrage "danger close" to his own men. Along with the heavy fighting, many wounded are needing attention and Barnes calls for them to pull back.
While the platoon retreats to its landing zone to be airlifted out of the combat area, Barnes goes back into the combat area to get Elias and his three men out. After Taylor and the two others leave, Barnes ambushes Elias and shoots him. During the extraction by helicopter, Elias is seen running away from the North Vietnamese. He dies in an open field after being shot several more times by the North Vietnemese troops.
After a confrontation between Taylor and Barnes that night, the Company is sent back into the region to be the bait for a defensive line. It had been discovered that an entire NVA infantry regiment is on the move south down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This final battle ends with the obliteration of nearly the entire platoon, including Lt. Wolfe, due to a US aerial napalm attack.
The final scene of the movie sees the surviving Chris regaining consciousness at dawn, surrounded by bodies. He takes an AK-47 rifle from a dead NVA soldier and wanders around, aimlessly. Eventually he spies a fellow survivor, Sgt. Barnes.
Barnes demands that Chris call a medic but Chris does not budge, and instead keeps the rifle trained on Barnes. With a sneering sense of fatalism, Barnes says "Do it." Chris shoots Barnes three times in the chest, killing him. One of the few other survivors of the platoon is Pvt. Francis, who emerges from a bunker and is seemingly horrified to find that he lived through the battle and will therefore be obliged to continue his tour of duty. He grabs a knife and stabs himself in the thigh.
An interesting detail to note is that when he is finally rescued after the final battle of the movie Chris drops an object. This is a hand grenade, because Charlie Sheen thought that the character would, at this time, be suicidal.
The injured Chris is airlifted from the battlefield and is reunited with Francis, who brags to Chris about how they are now finally out of the war thanks to their injuries.
Chris Taylor is finally sent home to the US, but not before being profoundly affected and significantly changed as a person.
Themes and critical reception
Platoon was both praised and criticized for its uncompromising presentation of the brutal violence seen in the war and moral ambiguity created by the realities of guerilla war, when unit leaders have to make a choice between saving the lives of their own men and taking those of suspected guerilla sympathizers. It shows some US soldiers as violent and indiscriminate killers: fueled by rage at seeing their buddies killed and maimed by booby traps, they take their anger out on villagers who were found hiding a cache of firearms, killing and torturing Vietnamese villagers and setting their village on fire. This scene is meant to represent the infamous My Lai Massacre in which hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, living in a single region, were killed, raped and tortured and their homes burned by a platoon of US soldiers.
The film shows many other pro-liberal views of the war in Vietnam, such as drug abuse, the unfair stigma placed on new recruits by older and more experienced soldiers (the FNG syndrome), deliberate killing of unpopular officers by soldiers (known as fragging), and others.
Platoon, while not the first film about the USA's involvement in the Vietnam Conflict, was probably the first to devote its entire storyline to the effect of the war on the common soldier. Chris Taylor arrives in Vietnam with a patriotic sense of serving his country but quickly becomes disillusioned when he sees fellow soldiers being brutally killed, how dangerous patrol missions are, the elusiveness of the Viet Cong and witnessing Barnes' deplorable behavior.
Platoon's release was timely; during the mid-80s there was a softening of attitudes towards Vietnam Veterans that had taken over ten years since the war had officially ended in 1973 with the pullout of the last American soldiers. Perhaps sparked by the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, in 1982, Hollywood suddenly saw a small surge in films related to the war. Platoon is generally considered to be the most famous.
Characters
Platoon had a list of more than a dozen characters with their own individual stories, personalities, and ends.
Pvt. Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) - A young recruit, 19-20 years old, protagonist of the film. His family is a traditional upper-middle class American family. His father and grandfather fought in WWI and WWII. Chris went to college and had a stable, suburban life. After some time in college, Taylor feels that its unfair that he is exempt from service because he is in school while the poor who can't afford higher education are sent off to fight the war for the entire country. Feeling he's not learning much in college anyway, he drops out and enlists voluntarily. He becomes part of the "Underworld" when taken down there by King.
Captain Harris (Dale Dye) - A middle-aged leader, and a professional career soldier, who has more experience and discipline than the majority of soldiers under his command. This leads him to distrust the incompetent and inexperienced Wolfe.
Lieutenant Wolfe (Mark Moses) - A recent Ohio University graduate who doesn't fit into the Army at all, much less as a platoon leader. He is inept at giving or receiving orders, and does as little as he can to carry out his duties.
Staff Sgt. Robert Barnes (Tom Berenger) - A hardened, ruthless, and determined platoon sergeant who believes in what he is doing and cares about his men, but gives little regard to conventions of warfare or authority of superiors. Drinks alcohol, but does not smoke marijuana.
Sgt. Elias Grodin (Willem Dafoe) - A more compassionate sergeant and squad leader who leads by example and has become, over his three tours of combat duty in Vietnam, less and less enthusiastic about the war. He is most respected by the "Underworld" regulars, but is seen as a "do-gooder" and "crusader" by Staff Sgt. Barnes' group. Elias was ambushed and shot in cold blood by Staff Sgt. Barnes after threatening to report Barnes for the murders of civilians in the village.
Dr. Paul Gomez (Paul Sanchez) - One of Taylor's close friends in the platoon, Doc was the medic. He is an underworld regular, but purposely does not take sides until Elias is killed. He is shot during the final battle after losing Parker and loses his cool, and after shooting a couple NVA he takes one in the side and one in the neck. He is seen waving to Taylor at the end of the movie.
Pvt. Tony Hoyt (Ivan Kane) - Tony is on Barnes side through out the movie but doesn't seem to be as violent as the others. He is generally neutral after Barnes murders Elias, having lost faith. He is shot several times while fighting NVA in the final battle. He is, however seen waving to Taylor with Gomez at the end.
Rhah (Francesco Quinn) - One of the underworld drug users who is more of a neutral character. A friend of Elias, he also respects Barnes' fighting ability. He supports the war a little more than most but is fed up with the problems like corruption, wastefulness, incompetence, and lack of public support. At the end of the movie he is seen to be taking narcotics from the corpse of an NVA soldier after surviving the final battle.
Bunny (Kevin Dillon) - A gung-ho, brash and unstable young man who is a great admirer of Barnes' tactics and who has little regard for Vietnamese "dinks", allied or enemy. He dies in the final battle.
Sgt. "Red" O'Neill (John C. McGinley) - A lifer and squad leader who is a friend of Barnes and believes in his methods, but is also tired of the war and wants to get out. He is promoted to platoon commander by the CO after the final battle of the film, although he doesn't seem to be elated about it.
Big Harold (Forest Whitaker) - A large, friendly, black soldier. He spent his downtime in the bunker socialising in the "Underworld." He loses a leg from a Viet Cong booby trap as he was trying to find cover during the artillery barrage called in by Lt. Wolfe. He is seen being loaded onto a medivac helicopter still conscious.
Pvt. Junior Martin (Reggie Johnson) - A black radical who believes that all white people are responsible for all of the problems of his people. He resents the war so much that he does everything he can to avoid fighting, for example drinking contaminated river water and putting insect repellent on his bare feet as well as simply retreating from his foxhole. He is not part of the "underworld", but isn't part of Barnes' inner circle either. He is bayoneted and killed by the NVA after running away during the final battle.
Pvt. Francis (Corey Glover) - Another one of the underground druggies who becomes good friends with Taylor. The two fight together in the final battle in the same foxhole. He survives the battle without being wounded, but deliberately stabs himself in the thigh the following morning to get out of combat permanently.
"Sandy" Sanderson and Sal (J. Adam Glover and Richard Edson) - Two soldiers whose main purpose in the film is to be one of Wolfe and Barnes's excuses for the village massacre. Sandy was a friend of Sergeant O'Neil. Sal was a very jumpy trooper. While investigating an abandoned Vietcong hideout, Sanderson lifts an ammo crate in order to obtain more intel on the situation, while Sal just wants to get out of the building. The crate was booby trapped, and one of them was killed, while the other had two arms blown off and managed to walk out of the structure and approach Doc Gomez before succumbing to his injuries and dying.
Pvt. Gator Lerner (Johnny Depp) - A less known friend of Taylor who is valued by the platoon for his ability to speak fluent Vietnamese. He is part of the underworld. He is the lead man during the patrol in which Elias dies. Shot several times, but still lives after Taylor rescues him.
King (Keith David) - A poorly educated yet understanding and "war-savvy" black soldier who befriends Taylor. Having been around longer, he knows what it takes to survive, not acting like a hero, but rather playing it safe and relying on your own instincts. King receives permission to leave before the final battle and bids Taylor "So long, mother fuckers!!"
Pvt. Gardner (Bob Orwig) - A new guy who arrives at the same time as Taylor, he dies on the first night ambush after standing up in the firefight.
Sgt. Warren (Tony Todd) - A black sergeant,(the fourth one in the platoon) and morphine addict. He is wounded along with Lerner in the battle by the church.
Crawford (Chris Pederson) - A soldier from California who is a friend of Chris Taylor and King, he is one of three men (along with Chris and Rhah) that go with Elias. He is wounded in this battle.
Manny (Corkey Ford) - Another regular of the underworld. Manny had a particularly good singing voice, which made him popular amongst the druggies. He was captured by the Viet Cong while away from the platoon during the attack on the bunker complex. They tied him to a post and cut his throat and pinned a Chieu Hoi surrender pamphlet to his chest. His death was one of the catalysts for the atrocities committed in the village.
Tex (David Neidorf) - A headstrong soldier who detests new replacement soldiers, he is wounded by friendly fire and loses a hand in the same night firefight that Gardner dies in. He uses an M-60 light machine gun.
Ace (James Terry McIlvan) - Lt. Wolfe's RTO and who also sides with Barnes. Ace is wounded by friendly artillery fire in the battle by the church.
Rodriguez (Chris Castillejo) - A soldier who is very religious and quiet. Rodriguez is seen boarding the same helicopter Taylor boards at the end of the film, apparently unhurt.
Tubbs (Andrew B. Clark) - Part of Barnes' faction of the platoon.
Morehouse (Kevin Eshelman) - A soldier well-known for his mustache, Morehouse sided with Barnes after the village incident. He and Fu Sheng were going out on R & R the day after the ambush that killed Gardner, and Red used them as excuses to not go out on patrol that day. He is killed in the ambush after the jungle fight where Elias dies, when he is hit by an artillery round.
Fu Sheng (Steve Barredo) - A Hawaiian soldier serving in the platoon. He is seen several times in the movie. He is also seen being a little sad during the village murder incident.
Awards and nominations
- Winner of the Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture and Best Sound.
- Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tom Berenger), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Willem Dafoe), Best Cinematography and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
DVD
Features
"Tour Of The Inferno" Documentary Featuring Interviews With The Director, Cast And Crew
Audio Commentary by Director Oliver Stone
Audio Commentary by Military Supervisor Captain Dale Dye Photo Gallery
Collectible Booklet
Original Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots
Video
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Audio
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo [CC]
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Mono
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles
Spanish
French
Disc
SS-DL
UPC
027616862815