Platoon (1986) #86

For the first time it's a film I actually saw in the theatre when it was released.  If this was the twenty-fifth or seventy-third entry that would be unusual I guess.  But since it's really only the third I've blogged about, it's probably not worth mentioning.  You're not going to get those 15 seconds back you spent reading that.  Sorry.

Oliver Stone's second movie about Vietnam might be the best film he's made to date.  You can't really count the first Vietnam film since it was a short made during film school.  Platoon is a fine piece of film making and I assert was a major component in the healing of the wounds produced by Vietnam.  When Platoon was released the Vietnam War was just over ten years past.  The fall of Saigon was in April of 1975.  The US involvement was largely over at that point and an interesting side note is that the oil crisis of late 1973 meant the South Vietnamese couldn't make use of the advantage they held in aircraft and armor.  Since the oil crisis was brought about by an embargo because the US chose to resupply Israel during the Yom Kippur War, one could say the attack by Syria and Egypt on Israel caused the fall of Saigon.  Sort of...

I digress.  The movie did help to start the healing however.  I clearly remember interviews with Vietnam veterans regarding the movie and the dialog and change in perspective since there was at least some nobility to the grunts.  Charlie Sheen is the "child" of the two fathers one good, Elias (Willem Dafoe) and one bad, Barnes (Tom Berenger).  The movie portrays the struggle of the men in the platoon between the two factions.  I wasn't in Vietnam nor have I seen any shots fired in anger (well, except around the dinner table during holidays and the shots are verbal), but the combat scenes were touted as very realistic and veterans were cautioned to take someone with them when seeing the film.

Remember the time.  Ten years since the national insanity that Vietnam brought on.   The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall was only completed a few years earlier (1982).  I'm not aware of any feature length movies about Vietnam that portrayed any of the combatants in a positive light released before this.  Good Morning Vietnam (1987), Full Metal Jacket (1987) or even Casualties of War (1987) all followed Platoon.  Platoon set the stage for a dialog that I would argue allowed the public to heal from some of Vietnam.

Purely on the merit of the film...well the writing is good and the performances are good.  Look for a very young Johnny Depp. Re-watching the movie it doesn't surprise me much that it dropped on the list from 83 to 86, which might mean it's in danger of being removed in the future.  I mean it is a good movie and perhaps even a great movie.  But for my money it's on the list more for the significance of its time and its material more than its quality as a movie.  It's worth watching but I'm not going to add it to the list of movies I would like to see again in the next few years.