Amazon.com Essentials:
Platoon put writer-turned-director Oliver Stone on the
Hollywood map; it is still his most acclaimed and effective film,
probably because it is based on Stone's firsthand experience as an
American soldier in Vietnam. Chris (Charlie Sheen) is an infantryman
whose loyalty is tested by two superior officers: Sergeant Elias
(Willem Dafoe), a former hippie humanist who really cares about his
men (this was a few years before he played Jesus in Martin Scorsese's
The Last Temptation of Christ), and Sergeant Barnes (Tom
Berenger), a moody, macho soldier who may have gone over to the dark
side. The personalities of the two sergeants correspond to their
combat drugs of choice--pot for Elias and booze for Barnes. Stone has
become known for his sledgehammer visual style, but in this film it
seems perfectly appropriate. His violent and disorienting images have
a terrifying immediacy, a you-are-there quality that gives you a sense
of how things may have felt to an infantryman in the jungles of
Vietnam. Platoon won Oscars for best picture and director. --Jim Emerson
