Back to Vietnam

I guess I've been on a little bit of a kick these past few months, watching some of the classic "war movies" that I've never seen before, films like The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. The kick continued this week with Platoon, Oliver Stone's Vietnam War entry.

It's a bit of a "like father, like son" thing, as Charlie Sheen takes a central role and acts as narrator for Platoon, as his father Martin did for Apocalypse Now. While we're loosely following the tale of a new soldier as he takes his one year tour of duty, Platoon is much more about showing that "war is hell."

Well, more accurately, it's out to show that some of the hell of war is brought there by the soldiers themselves; not all soldiers are heroes. Sheen's character finds himself in the midst of a group of maniacs out for blood -- sometimes even each other's. Platoon is a different film in that the most horrible acts in the film are committed not by the enemy, but by the main characters themselves.

It takes quite a cast to carry off unlikeble characters, so director Oliver Stone assembled a good one. Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe take the other most prominent roles, while minor characters are filled by Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, and (briefly) Johnny Depp. In the most complimentary sense, the cast makes the film tough to watch at times.

Oliver Stone has the tendency to run on longer than necessary with his films, but doesn't fall into that trap here. Platoon clocks in under two hours. Yet that still doesn't keep the film from feeling like it meanders at times.

And I guess that's why, though I recognize there's some good craft here, I still didn't like the film much overall. Like Apocalypse Now, it's a film that places tone more importantly than story. There honestly isn't much of a plot here. There is progression as characters develop, but you can't really say that Platoon is "about" anything without speaking in philosophical, not narrative, terms.

I personally only rate Platoon a C+. But at least in this case, unlike some other classics I've watched lately, I could see why someone might like this movie more and hold it in high regard. I could even see why it won Best Picture at the time. Hell, I'm generally a "character is more important than plot" kind of person myself; I just thought the balance was tipped too sharply here.