Synopsis
PLATOON tells the extraordinary journey of Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), a young, naive American who arrives in Vietnam and quickly discovers he must battle the Viet Cong alongside the gnawing fear, physical exhaustion and intense anger growing within him. His two commanding officers (Oscar®-nominated Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe) draw a fine line between the war they wage against the enemy and the one they fight with each other. Meanwhile, the conflict, chaos and hatred permeate Taylor, suffocating his realities and numbing his feelings to man’s highest value: life.
Platoon is an interesting take on one of the biggest failed wars in American history. Mostly the movie follows Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) and his view of the war from when he’s a greenhorn until he’s bitter departure. Oliver Stone manages to put together a powerful view of Taylor’s experiences and his struggle to do what’s right versus to do what has been asked of him. Stone uses Sargent Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Sargent Elias to tug at Taylor’s soul until he finally gives in. Barnes is used as the traditional brute that wants to ‘kill’ non-stop. Elias is used as the peacemaker who wants to get out alive with the least amount of casualties. Taylor’s struggle to join the ‘right’ side mimics what America was going through at the time, and it’s an interesting take from Stone. That simple concept, mixed with a brutal view of the war produces an experience that is still tough to watch, even after 25 years. While I can’t say much for what Stone has produced recently, I can say that Platoon was one of the better movies that makes its point in a very contained storyline.
To make the story work you need the right cast. Charlie Sheen, at least at the time in 1986, was a young actor that carried a wonderful innocence about him (weird, huh). Putting him in the role as Taylor was genius because his transformation from innocent newcomer to war-hardened soldier is magnificent to watch. For example, during the scene where he freaks out in the Vietnam village and almost shoots a one-legged man you can see he’s run into that choice of what he’s going to be during the war. Is he going to go the brute route? Or is he going to go the humanitarian route? Sheen’s transformation needed pushing to make it real, so having Tom Berenger as the warmongering Sargent Barnes and the ‘just trying to survive’ Sargent Elias (played by Willem Dafoe) helped out quite a bit. Both men played their roles well enough to get the job done with Taylor’s character.
With that said, I’m not sure there has been a Vietnam movie to surpass the realism or the thought provoking material that is contained in Platoon. Watching this film made me extremely uncomfortable and uncertain, which is what Stone’s intention probably was. Seeing the conflict between who is an enemy and who isn’t, provides just a terrible view of what the soldiers had to go through in the actual war. One of the most powerful scenes in the movie was the village scene. Seeing the soldiers storm in to find the Vietcong hiding and gradually breaking the village, and its people, is ugly, but it resonates loudly. In this one moment the entire war is defined by Berenger’s Barnes who doesn’t know who the enemy is, but is prepared to kill until he does find them. Not knowing where the enemy is and, more importantly, who the enemy is might be one of the scariest notions to come out of this film about the Vietnam war. It’s absolutely stunning to think about and see through Stone’s vision.
Just an absolutely difficult film to watch, but necessary in some sense (especially for those who don’t know much about the war, like me).
Anyway, so how did this brutal film translate to Blu-ray? It translated well, but not perfect. While most of the scenes (around 75%) look horrifically gorgeous on a 1080p screen, there was a lot of noise during some of the foggy, dustier parts. For example, the first part of the movie where Sheen’s character walks off the plane for the first time there is dust kicking everywhere. The scene is filled with grain and noise, and not from the dust. This certainly worried me when I saw it, but once the dust was gone the film cleaned up quite well. When you get to the lighter scenes, and the darker ones, you see the true beauty of the transfer. I just wished they could have cleaned up the other 25% of it. Still, it’s not a bad release on Blu-ray, as it far surpasses the DVD version. The audio is quite good as well, which makes the movie even more powerful.
As for the features, here’s what you’re looking at:
· Audio Commentary with Director Oliver Stone
· Audio Commentary with Military Advisor Dale Dye
· Deleted & Extended Scenes
· Flashback to Platoon
o Snapshot in Time: 1967-1968
o Creating the ‘Nam
o Raw Wounds: The Legacy of Platoon
· Documentaries
o One War, Many Stories
o Preparing for ‘Nam
· Vignettes
o Caputo & The 7th Fleet
o Dye Training Method
o Gordon Gekko
· Television Spots
o Action
o Critical Acclaim
o The Director
The documentaries on here were re-releases from previous films. They’re shot in SD, which is fine in the long run. They have some very useful information about the war and how/why it went down. For someone like me who never understood why America was over there in the first place, it gives some great background to the war. On top of this you get some great featurettes about the production and what Stone/cast/crew went through in the Philippines. I like what you get, I just wish it was in HD (or perhaps new specials were shot for this 25th anniversary edition). The audio commentary from Oliver Stone and Dale Dye was invaluable. Dye especially had some great insight on the movie.