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Platoon (1986), winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture, and based on the first-hand experience of Oscar winning director Oliver Stone is a film (also Full Metal Jacket, 1987; Apocalypse Now, 1979; Deer hunter, 1978) about the Vietnam War.
Platoon. The secondary aim would be to attempt to point out the various symbolisms used in the film (i. ...
The story of Platoon follows the actions of the men of one of the platoons from Bravo Company, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, near the Cambodian border during September 1967. The film’s greatest strength is its concerted effort to present the day-to-day happenings of an American infantry platoon in the Vietnam War. ...
Platoon takes the viewer/reader deep into the war experience at the front line as it vividly recreates the fear, agony and horror (as well as the loss of innocence which is by the way the films tagline that, the first casualty of war is innocence) which may have been part of the experience of the men who participated in the Vietnam war.
Stone, born to affluence and a Yale dropout, had volunteered for service in Vietnam and his experiences served as the basis for Platoon; the central character of the film, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), is also a college dropout who volunteered for service in Vietnam. ...
The platoon’s commanding officer is an inept young man, who generally defers to the opinions of his Platoon Sergeant, Robert Barnes (Tom Berenger). The loyalties of the men in the platoon are divided between Barnes and Sgt. ... These two men fight for control of the platoon but what is more important, they fight for control of Taylor’s soul. ...
The battle over the platoon culminates when Barnes murders a civilian in an effort to extract information about the whereabouts of the Viet Cong. ... The next time that the platoon goes into combat, however, Barnes uses the opportunity to shoot and, he believes, kill Elias. As the platoon is being airlifted to safety, however, the wounded Elias suddenly appears below them, inexplicably resurrected, pursued by the Viet Cong. Elias’ death scene takes place as he runs through a small jungle clearing, with a ruined church in the background, culminating with Elias spreading his arms in a gesture of Christ crucified, beseeching an ascending helicopter (or heaven/ ala UP oblation; see Platoon promotional posters or DVD covers) for deliverance (as if asking: why have you forsaken me? ... At the end of the film, in an effort at both revenge and redemption, Taylor kills Barnes, who had again survived a horrible battle in which he was badly wounded. ... In the scene where the platoon was ambushed, this is just prior to the scene where Barnes tried to kill Elias, Elias was suggesting a counter-tactic against the “enemy’s” tactic that he had previously encountered or was familiar with but that Barnes angrily dismissed saying: you don’t tell me how to fight this war! ... Barnes then with no respect for war conventions, for innocent lives, ruthless, can be said as the embodiment of evil (within the film, though I can add further that he is a ‘necessary evil’ in relation to Elias being the embodiment of good). ... He strongly dissented the killing of a civilian by Barnes which then lead to a fistfight between the two of them that consequently divided or further divided the group or platoon in factions-those supporting Barnes and those Elias, whom Taylor supports. ... In the last scene of the film, during the calm following a battle fought at fever pitch, Taylor murders Barnes and leaves Vietnam on a stretcher. ...
I am now going to examine/ point the ideology of the film. ... In platoon, following the logic of the Shakespearean: in the end…we did not find the enemy…the only enemy is within man himself.
Approximate Word count = 3135
Approximate Pages = 12.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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