Oliver Stone’s brilliant 1986 film on the grunt’s war in Vietnam had a lot to work with: a controversial subject well placed for dramatic effect, brilliant acting from his three leads (Dafoe, Berenger, and, yes, even Sheen), some stunning visual images (more on this in a moment), and the superb employment of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. The result is a movie that must rank in the top three of the 1980s and, to boot, one that is impossible to characterize cleanly as an anti-war movie (No one will suspect it of being pro-war.)
Stone, a Vietnam vet himself, holds up the insanity of the infantryman’s life for close inspection, but one is left to draw his own conclusion about the war itself. This might seem evasive of the writer-director’s political point except for the added factor that he dignifies those who fought the war not only in his screenplay but in the dedication of the flick itself to them.
One of a spate of late-80s Vietnam movies, Platoon is the most believable. Platoon endures as some of the cream of Stone’s directorial repertoire in part because he manages to humanize his soldiers, never losing their misery, struggle, and—for some—residual and persistent hope in the face of the overwhelming horror of the film.
In the end, Platoon is more than anything else a picture about fratricide. Sheen’s Private Taylor says as much, though his commentary on the complex lives and deaths of Dafoe’s and Berenger’s dueling sergeants hardly requires that commentary to seal the point.
Platoon is Oliver Stone at his best. In addition to four Oscars, the film harvested a long list of Academy Award nominations and several display cases full of other awards. All with good reason and well earned.
Canter Bridge 
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