The best art is deeply personal. This can be applied even to works of art that deal with collective experiences like war. And it also can explain why Platoon, 1986 film written and directed by Oliver Stone, happens to be among the best, or perhaps even the best piece of cinema dedicated to the Vietnam War.
That film also holds distinction of being the only major production written and directed by actual veteran of that conflict and it is, consequently, in many ways semi-autobiographical. Stone’s fictional alter ego, played by Charlie Sheen, is Chris Taylor, young idealist who, led by patriotic zeal and sense of duty, dropped out of college in order to enlist in US Army and volunteer to fight in Vietnam. The film begins in September 1967 when he first arrives to the country, greeted by images of body bags and mentally broken survivors going into opposite direction. In first few months Taylor experiences heat, humidity, exhausting marches, lack of sleep, insects, snakes and omnipresent and almost invisible enemy. In letters to grandmother, which serve as voice over narration, he admits that his arrival was mistake and wonders whether he would survive. He does, at least long enough to be accepted in his platoon whose life revolves about two veteran NCOs whose experiences in Vietnam made them very different. Staff Sergeant Barnes (played by Tom Berenger) became completely focused on war and determined to win at all cost, completely disregarding lives of his soldiers and having even less respect for local civilians who stand in his way. Sergeant Elias (played by Willem Dafoe), on the other hand, decided to find escape in drugs and now bonds with his soldiers, desperately trying to preserve their lives as well as his own humanity. Tensions between the two escalate when weapons search in Vietnamese village escalate into torture, killings and rape, leading to platoon being divided between supporters of both men and having its own civil war just before the huge battle with the enemy.
Platoon is nowadays best known for winning Oscar for Best Picture. This achievement can be explained as political statement. Academy voters, who were passionately opposed to Vietnam War two decades ago, became vary of the new jingoistic stance of Reagan’s America and even more of the revisionist approach towards Vietnam War embodied in Rambo 2 that could have resulted in reprise of that traumatic experience in jungles of Central America, something Stone himself hinted in his previous film Salvador. Stone is known for strong political views and criticism of US foreign policy which he presents in his films with a lot of passion and little subtlety. Here, on the other hand, he is much more subdued. And it makes perfect sense because Platoon is very personal story in which Stone strove for maximum realism. The war is presented from the perspective of an ordinary soldier which, as Stone keenly observed, usually comes from the lower strata of the society. US Army in Vietnam is made mostly of conscripted young men who couldn’t afford to go to college and lacked rich and influential parents who could have saved them from combat duty. They lack education and experience to contemplate grand scheme of things, reasons why the war is being fought and often don’t have a slightest clue why there are in Vietnam; for them the only thing that matters is survival. Apart from Elias almost casually expressing his prophetic view that USA will lose, there is little talk of broader perspective and even about prosaic details about life back home. Soldiers are focused on trying to stay alive during their one year tour of duty, which is task that becomes increasingly difficult with each day. There is hardly anything glorious or heroic in this film, with combat being on much smaller scale than depicted in Coppola’s bombastic Apocalypse Now, but nevertheless deadly, with plenty of opportunity for soldiers to get killed from friendly fire and sometimes, as near the end of film, deliberately turning their murderous instincts and training against each other. This brutal film, like few before and after, depicts the reality of war as months of absolute boredom briefly interrupted by moments of sheer terror and panic.
Film was made with rather modest budget at Philippine locations, but Stone has put his limited resources to excellent use. Before the actual production cast was, with a help of fellow veteran Dale Dye (who appears in the small role of Captain Harris), subjected to brutal 30 day training to get them in physical shape and make them psychologically in tune with what went on wartime Vietnam. Actors hated Stone for it, but the results that we might see on screen are impressive. Charlie Sheen delivers what is arguably the best performance of his career. But he is overshadowed by two actors playing the characters that are, in many ways, symbolic of his inner struggle. Stone very cleverly used casting against the type. Tom Berenger, whose looks made him suitable for leading man, plays character with unpleasant facial scar and serves as clear villain; on the other hand Dafoe, who until that time played sinister villains, is given the role that can be described as a saint and martyr. Even the actors in supporting roles give good performances, most notably John C. McGinley as cowardly sergeant and Kevin Dillon as young murderous psychopath.
Platoon was hailed as masterpiece and its success at Oscars reflected into good box office results, something quite unusual for films of such nature. There were those less enthusiastic about it, and most of their criticism can be applied to Stone compromising his naturalistic approach with too much pathos. The most obvious example is prolonged scene of Elias death in slow motion with Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings as music background making it almost unbearably pretentious. Yet, the film ultimately works and gives what it would be the most authentic and personal depiction of Vietnam War ever to come from Hollywood. It is a powerful but unpleasant film, made even more unpleasant by recent events that show how certain history lessons weren’t learned.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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