Important when it was released, it was considered to be the first "serious" market friendly film made about the Vietnam War (The Deer Hunter was a bit too serious for most audiences). This led a renaissance of war films in the late 1980's. With Vietnam being turned into some sick cartoon by Missing in Action and Rambo: First Blood Part II, this movie corrected the record to a certain degree by taking the experience with some gravity. Ironically, writer/director Oliver Stonehad written the original screenplay, following his own tour in the war, to counter the light treatment he saw the film get in John Wayne's The Green Berets. Stone still shoehorns every possible experience, stereotype and myth into his masterwork and is manipulative in his own way. Stone's overreaching style is evidenced here but unlike his later films JFK, Nixon, Natural Born Killers and The Doors, his personal stamp doesn't get in the way of narrative.

Stone knows how to handle drama. The war is seen through the eyes of young Private Taylor (Charlie Sheen), who volunteered for service. Taylor finds himself having to choose sides in a platoon splintered in two. One half follows the cruel but effective Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), the other half follows the more laid back, but just as effective Sergeant Gordin (Willem Dafoe). The performances of Berenger and Dafoe are worth the price of admission alone. Stone carefully crafts the conflict between the two halves of the platoon to show the two aspects of the war from his perspective and stands a brilliant piece of screenwriting.

One of the best war films ever released, this is one of the films everyone should see at least once.

Obviously, this being a war film, violence, rape and cursing abound. If you're a sensitive audience member, you probably want to shy away.


Related Reviews:
Vietnam War movies
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Rescue Dawn (2006)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Film Freak Central
Celluloid Heroes

Labels: Charlie Sheen, film, Forest Whitaker, movie review, Oliver Stone, Tom Berenger, Vietnam, war, Willem Dafoe