Tuesday, January 06, 2009

#86 Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986)


I watched this one last year, so it's not altogether fresh in my head other than some major scenes, like where important people are shot and killed. Oliver Stone's okay. He makes big Hollywood movies with big Hollywood actors, mostly about the government and the military. I guess it's problematic that I saw this shortly after Apocalypse Now, which does a much better job of cinematography. If Platoon is watching a very good movie about the soldiers in Vietnam, Apocalypse Now is actually watching the soldiers and experiencing what they experience.

Platoon proved to be just a little too crisp and clean to be believable. Also, if you put 10 fairly talented guys together, they don't equal one amazing superstar actor. Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, and the rest all fill good supporting roles, but Charlie Sheen just doesn't have the chops to fill the lead role the way his father did.

Nonetheless, Oliver Stone was actually involved in the Vietnam debacle, so we can trust him to give what he believes to be an accurate portrayal. I don't know, the mid 80's was the dawn of the monster crisp clean Hollywood movie, and I think this one got a little overbaked for the subject matter. Still, it was fun to watch.

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