Saturday, July 9, 2022

Platoon (1986)

 Pros: True this film is grittily realistic and painful to watch, but the plot and screenplay are solid and the acting is brilliant as you feel as though you are both on those tragic crimson fields near the Cambodian border, and each character does have a unique personality which is always refreshing to see and the cast is relatively diverse though the three leads are all white.

Cons: Honestly, Captain Barnes (Tom Berenger) is a wretched, sorry excuse for a human being and Charlie Sheen who stars as Chris Taylor probably could have been a bit better but his performance was at least workmanlike even if it fell just short of being brilliant. 

Recommend: Yes, though this film isn't for the faint of heart

Grade: A-

Side Notes: 

-The cast is jam-packed with good actors including Willem Dafoe as the humane but doomed Captain Elias, Forest Whitaker, Keith David, Kevin Dillon and a blink and you'll miss him, Johnny Depp. 

-American soldiers were truly nasty to the civilians of Vietnam. 

-While the soldiers are supposed to be fighting the Vietnamese but they are also fighting each other as the leaders are completely different from each other and the men just take sides and thus hostility is created between the two of them. 

-Being a soldier must have been extremely dreadful as the weather is wretchedly hot, the hours long and the work grueling. 

-Of course Chris Taylor survives at the end though neither Elias or Barnes remain. Elias is shot as Barnes's hands and though Taylor kills a gravely wounded Barnes at the end of the film. 

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