"What do you know about death, boy?" (Platoon (DVD))

Member Name: Jay Pendragon

Product:	Platoon (DVD)
Date:	04/07/01 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots of edge-of-your seat thrills, great performances from a(then) young cast, its the 'Apocalypse Now' of the 80s

Disadvantages: sometimes tries a little too hard in the preaching department

Okay, Oliver Stone is definitely NO Orson Welles, but certain movies of his(such as U-Turn & Natural Born Killers) resonate with the primordial scream of innocence lost and reside in a universe where the jungle law is the only law. Platoon is one such film. Now, I hadn't seen this film until recently, I'm not the biggest fan of gritty, cliched war films but I'm on a Willem Dafoe kick so naturally it followed that I would watch the film he was nominated academy award-wise for.

Anyway, this Oliver Stone tour de force isn't a bad little number at all, carrying superb performances from Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp(not the meatiest role, but hes in here), Forest Whitaker, and a whole host of others. What I felt Stone was trying to do here was make the 'Apocalypse Now' of the 80s(Sheen's presence lent itself to my hypothesis)- and, indeed, there are a number of things similar between the aforementioned film and 'Platoon'. Both meditate on the indignaties and plain inhumanity of war, Sheen narrates the movie through a series of letters written to some anonymous grandmother(like his father in 'Apocalypse...'), there is also featured a character quite akin to a certain someone out of Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'- Barnes is the beast of the jungle;a good soldier who has suffered the barbaric conditions of the Vietnam struggle far too long.

Tom Berenger(turning in a very suspect Brando-on-steroids and crack performance) plays Barnes, a perfect foil and reflection of the more passive Dafoe's portrayal of Elias. Together they seem to cast shadows on the behavior and outlook of Charlie Sheen's character, so to speak; Barnes signifying the more blind, brutish force of action and pointless destruction, while Elias embodies action with restraint and reflection... The rest of the cast: Kevin Dillon, Tony Todd and a whole host of others turn in stellar performances which some have yet to surpass.


'Platoon' seems to be saying something, but I won't bore the reader with speculation on what it is: its up to them to decide. What makes 'Platoon' really stand out in the genre of war movies, though are the dizzying battle sequences with the viet-cong: there are moments of great tension and distress throughout this movie. A great example of this is the village scene where Berenger goes ape-sh**. The fire-fights are mind-numbing yet disturbing and veeeerrryyy horrifying at times to watch. The grit, grime and humidity of the jungle is shared by all. Stone himself even makes a cameo appearance at the end.

Maybe, after all, 'Platoon' is trying too hard at times to preach its message; I can't tell and won't say. What I do know, is that its definitely time well spent for a movie rental- heck, it may even be worth the late fees.

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