Platoon

Oliver Stone who previously was a US soldier fighting in the real Vietnam war in the Pacific before starting his director career, has delivered us with this powerfull and realistic movie 23 years ago.

In my perspective Platoon has a very simple storyline, about a conflict which divided United States of America into three groups, the politicans, the men fighting abroad and the "people" fighting in the streets to end the war which was a in my point of view, a war about ego, and very little about deploying freedom into another country, it was about which position and ideology had more "fire power" - The Communists or The Free Government Democracy which USA always stands for, or whatever you want to call it.

Anyway, Charlie Sheen followed the footsteps of his father Martin Sheen as he also played a US soldier in the very acclaimed movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola "Apocalypse Now". The story is simple, as it was based in the first-hand experience of the director Oliver Stone when he went to fight in Vietnam; a young soldier named Chris Taylor quits college and volunteer himself to go abroad to fight in a brutal war scenario which he will find out later on. After he arrives he discovers that he is just another insignificant men to the "slaughterhouse", his presence is nothing to the other veterans soldiers who are fighting there a lot more then him. As time goes by Chris notices that his own Platoon which is commanded by two officers, Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes and Sergeant Elias Grodin, is divided into two groups, the Barnes group and the Grodin group. One day when his platoon is on a mission on a village the thin line between those two groups in his platoon is broken when soldiers commit illegal killings in that village.

With a fearfull direction Platoon delivers a punch in the stomach with it's brutal, powerfull, intence violent context, and it reminds USA of the mistakes of the past.
The movie won 4 Oscars and was nominated for a bunch of more awards.

Stone directs Charlie Sheen and the rest of the cast with a steady hand when it takes to character direction. Every detail of his own experience is in the screen, the arrival at the war scenario, the fighting, the psychological meltdown of the soldiers, the jungles, the traps of the North Vietnam soldiers, the exaustion, every single detail Stone wanted us to see is there.

Very well filmed, excellent interpretation from the all cast which includes, besides Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Williem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, Keith David and Johnny Depp.
With a great cinematography, sound, editing, script, direction, cast is a wonderfull war movie for those who are willing to watch good quality cinema even though it's not for everyone stomach.

Its a powerful piece of art which will always be in our 7th art history. Don't miss it. Watch it, this one and a lot more. 7thArtFor7 sees you soon with another great review. Don't miss it. Ciau

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Trailer