Platoon

I remember seeing this movie in the 80s. My girlfriend was working so Paul… a friend of mine and I went to see it. We saw a lot of bad and good movies during this time because we had time to kill and he knew the owner or the manager of the movie theater and we would get in free. We bought popcorn and coke so I didn’t feel so bad.

This is the first movie I remember leaving afterward and us not saying a word to each other for a good 30 minutes. Not the usual laughter and carrying on. This was one of those movies that really affected me. The village scene was brutal and it took a while to process it all. I just saw it again a couple of nights ago and it still works.

I’ve seen Vietnam Vets interviewed who have said this film brought a lot of it back…good and mostly bad. This is not a feel-good film but its a superb movie.

You see Tom Berenger as Sergeant Bob Barnes as he snaps and Charlie Sheen’s character Chris Taylor tries to hold it together at the end.

Oliver Stone put these actors through hell. Two weeks of intense basic training in the jungle with a Marine trainer. They dug their own holes and lived off of rations over the shoot.

 

From Wiki the cast

  • Charlie Sheen as Chris Taylor
  • Tom Berenger as Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes
  • Willem Dafoe as Sergeant Elias
  • Keith David as King
  • Forest Whitaker as Big Harold
  • Francesco Quinn as Rhah
  • Kevin Dillon as Bunny
  • John C. McGinley as Sergeant O’Neill
  • Reggie Johnson as Junior
  • Mark Moses as Lieutenant Wolfe
  • Corey Glover as Francis
  • Johnny Depp as Lerner
  • Chris Pedersen as Crawford
  • Bob Orwig as Gardner
  • Corkey Ford as Manny
  • David Neidorf as Tex
  • Richard Edson as Sal
  • Tony Todd as Sergeant Warren
  • Dale Dye as Captain Harris

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

18 thoughts on “Platoon”

  1. I didn’t want to see Platoon, but let my BF talk me into going with him. Lots of memorable acting roles came out of it, that’s for sure. Certain scenes will always stick with me. It was a visual of certain things that as a little kid, I’d always feared were happening during the war.

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  2. I saw Platoon six times at the theater. The only one to match that total is Field Of Dreams. Oliver Stones best movie by far. Elias one of my top 10 favorite film characters ever.

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  3. I love it when people experience the power of cinema. It doesn’t happen that often, but when you are left speechless, when you weep, when you can’t sleep or are afraid to take a bath (Jaws, for me) you’ve experienced that synergy between artist and audience. It’s special. Platoon is a great movie. No doubt. Nice writing. I’d like to read more.

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    1. Thanks Pam…I’m not good at describing movies but I’m figuring out how to write about how they affect me or the culture. That is a niche I may can do more of in the future. Now I have to learn how to expand on it.

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      1. I particularly like your writing when you are personal. Like you say, when you write about how music or a movie effected you personally. Of course, you don’t want to give everything you do that “extreme” personal touch, because then it wouldn’t be special. That’s schmaltz. And your readers won’t trust you. But you give glimpses of the personal touch–and then you go full blown when you really love something like The Who, for instance.
        Anyway. Sorry for rambling on. You’ve always been a good writer. Trust yourself.

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  5. I used to have this on VHS but haven’t watched it for years. The fact I owned it must mean I liked it enough to buy it. The actors all look so young. There was another movie made at this time on Nam directed by Kubrick, with D’onofrio (sp?) in it that was also really good. Oh yes, Full Metal Jacket. Maybe if people were forced to watch these movies, they might not be so quick to send our troops into places we have no business being. I’ve seen a couple of powerful movies recently about troops in Middle Eastern countries, both about female war correspondents so you’re only seeing the horror peripherally, but close enough to know what our troops are dealing with and wondering WTF we are there. One is “A Private War” with Rosamund Pike, and one is “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” with Tina Fey.

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    1. Yea Full Metal Jacket is great…I always thought Platoon was more realistic because that is what Stone was going for.
      Yea I can’t imagine being in those damn jungles.
      My wife’s brother was a Marine in the 90s…he told me some horror stories.

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  6. I went with my ex-hubby to see this (we were just dating at the time). I had to walk out. It upset me. I don’t do well where movies are brutal. I can’t watch slasher flicks. I had trouble with Saving Private Ryan. I had less trouble with Full Metal Jacket.

    I guess I see too much human suffering on the evening news. I don’t need Hellyweird’s version of it, too.

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    1. The first few minutes of Full Metal Jacket I love…the drill Sgt…
      Yea we walked out of the theater and just sat in the car in silence. It was the best Stone movie….

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      2. Yes it is sooooo funny. Bailey and I watched it night before last. I like the rest of the movie but that part I totally love…really all through until “Gomer” when postal.

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      4. Oh I got you… at that time I read about Vietnam but seeing that… I felt for them and gained more respect… not that I didn’t have any respect… it seemed so dam real.

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