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Friday, January 21, 2011

Platoon (film)

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Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone and starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, and Charlie Sheen. It is the first of Stone's Vietnam War trilogy, followed by 1989's Born on the Fourth of July and 1993's Heaven & Earth.
Stone wrote the story based upon his experiences as a U.S. infantryman in Vietnam, as a counter to the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne's The Green Berets.[1] The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1986. In 2007, the American Film Institute placedPlatoon at #83 in their "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies" poll. British television channel Channel 4voted Platoon as the 6th greatest war film ever made, behind Full Metal Jacket and ahead of A Bridge Too Far.

Plot

In 1967, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young American who has abandoned college for combat duty in Vietnam. Upon arrival, he sees dead soldiers in body bags being loaded into his plane. Taylor and several other replacements have been assigned to Bravo Company,1st Batallion, 35th Infantry, 25th Infantry division, "somewhere near the Cambodian border." Worn down by the exhausting work and poor living conditions, his enthusiasm for the war wanes and he develops an admiration for the more experienced soldiers, despite their reluctance to extend their friendship.
One night while on ambush patrol, his sleeping unit is set upon by a squad of Vietnam People's Army (North Vietnamese Army, NVA) soldiers. Gardner, a fellow new recruit, is killed, and another soldier (Tex) is maimed by "friendly fire" from a grenade thrown by Sergeant O'Neill (John C. McGinley). Despite having passed the watch duty to Junior, a more experienced soldier who fell asleep, Taylor is blamed for the casualties. The platoon's most seasoned sergeants, the compassionate Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe) and harsh Staff Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), argue. Taylor discovers a light wound to his neck, and he is sent to the field hospital for treatment.
Taylor returns from the hospital and gains acceptance from a tight-knit group in his unit (the "Heads") that socializes, dances, and consumes drugs in an underground clubhouse. He finds a mentor in a poorly-educated but wise veteran, King (Keith David). Next door, more conservative members of the unit drink beer and play cards. As the patrols continue, Taylor becomes a more seasoned soldier, no longer standing out amongst the others. During one patrol, a soldier (Manny) goes missing. His mutilated body is found tied to a post close by. The platoon soon reaches a nearby village, where a food and weapons cache is discovered. The soldiers explore the village. In one house, Taylor discovers a one-legged young man and his elderly mother hiding in a ditch beneath the floor. Taylor "snaps", taunting the man and shooting at the ground before his foot, forcing him to "dance". Sergeant O'Neill, responding to the shots fired, tells the group to vacate the hutch. Bunny (Kevin Dillon) turns to leave, then attacks the one-legged man with the butt of his shotgun, bludgeoning him to death.
Despite the villagers' denials, Barnes believes they are aiding Viet Cong soldiers and shoots a defiant woman (the village chief's wife) in the head. When the murdered woman's daughter cries out, Barnes takes the child at gunpoint, threatening to shoot her next if the villagers do not reveal the whereabouts of the Viet Cong. Sergeant Elias arrives and gets into a fistfight with Barnes over the incident. Lieutenant Wolfe (Mark Moses) ends the fight, and orders the men to burn the village. As the men leave, Taylor comes across a group of soldiers (including Morehouse, Bunny, Tony and Junior) raping a Vietnamese girl. Taylor stops the attack and rescues the girl.
Upon returning to base, Elias reports Barnes' actions to Captain Harris (Dale Dye), who cannot afford to remove Barnes due to a lack of personnel; he warns the sergeants to "cease fire." The Captain says that if he found out an illegal killing took place, then "there will be acourt-martial." Taylor speaks of this as "a civil war in the platoon. Half with Elias, half with Barnes." On their next patrol the platoon is ambushed and becomes pinned down in a firefight. Elias, with Taylor and two other soldiers, goes to intercept flanking enemy troops. Barnes orders the rest of the platoon to retreat to be airlifted from the area, and goes back into the jungle to find Elias' group. After sending Taylor and the two soldiers back, Barnes finds Elias, fires three rounds into Elias' chest and leaves him for dead. Barnes reaches the helicopter, telling the others that Elias is dead. After they take off, a severely wounded Elias emerges from the jungle, running from a large group of NVA soldiers. As the helicopter circles in to rescue Elias, he dies after being shot several more times by the NVA.
At the base, Taylor attempts to talk his group into killing Barnes in retaliation. While drinking, Barnes overhears this, and enters the room, daring them to kill him. No one takes up the offer, but as Barnes leaves, Taylor attacks him. Barnes manages to get the upper hand, and holds a knife to Taylor's face. However, Rhah (Francesco Quinn) talks Barnes out of killing Taylor, so he leaves, but not before cutting him under the eye.
The platoon is later sent back to the ambush area in order to build and maintain heavy defensive positions against potential attack. Taylor shares a foxhole with Francis (Corey Glover). That night a large attack occurs, (Stone based the attack on a real life battle he survived) and the defensive lines are broken. Bunny and Wolfe are killed, while O'Neill survives in his foxhole by hiding under dead NVA soldiers. Captain Harris orders the Air Force pilots to "expend all remaining" inside his perimeter. During the chaos, Barnes and Taylor come face-to-face. Just before Barnes can swing his E-Tool to kill Taylor, both men are knocked unconscious by the start of the American napalm attack. A wounded Taylor regains consciousness the next morning and finds Barnes, who is also wounded. Taylor aims a rifle at Barnes, who dares him to pull the trigger. Taylor shoots Barnes three times in the chest, killing him. He then collapses and awaits medical attention. As he is loaded onto the helicopter, Francis reminds Taylor that because they have been wounded twice, they can go home. The helicopter flies away and Taylor weeps as he stares down at the destruction.

[edit]Cast

  • Charlie Sheen as Private Chris Taylor
  • Tom Berenger as Sergeant Barnes
  • Willem Dafoe as Sergeant Elias
  • Forest Whitaker as Big Harold
  • Francesco Quinn as Rhah
  • John C. McGinley as Sergeant O'Neill
  • Richard Edson as Sal
  • Kevin Dillon as Bunny
  • Reggie Johnson as Junior
  • Keith David as King
  • Johnny Depp as Lerner
  • David Neidorf as Tex
  • Mark Moses as Lieutenant Wolfe
  • Chris Pedersen as Crawford
  • Corkey Ford as Manny
  • Corey Glover as Francis
  • Bob Orwig as Gardner
  • Tony Todd as Warren
  • Kevin Eshelman as Morehouse
  • James Terry McIlvain as Ace
  • J. Adam Glover as Sanderson
  • Ivan Kane as Tony
  • Paul Sanchez as Doc
  • Dale Dye as Captain Harris
  • Peter Hicks as Parker
  • Basile Achara as Flash
  • Steve Barredo as Fu Sheng
  • Chris Castillejo as Rodriquez
  • Andrew B. Clark as Tubbs
  • Bernardo Manalili as Village Chief
  • Than Rogers as Village Chief's Wife
  • Li Thi Van as Village Chief's Daughter
  • Clarisa Ortacio as Old Woman
  • Romy Sevilla as One-Legged Man
  • Matthew Westfall as Terrified Soldier
  • Nick Nickelson as 1st Mechanized Soldier
  • Warren McLean as 2nd Mechanized Soldier
  • Li Mai Thao as Rape Victim
  • Alex Kelsey as Medic
  • Mark Ebenhoch as Ebenhoch (uncredited)
  • Robert Galotti as Huffmeister (uncredited)
  • Oliver Stone as Alpha Company Major in Bunker (uncredited cameo)

[edit]Development

"Vietnam was really visceral, and I had come from a cerebral existence: study... working with a pen and paper, with ideas. I came back really visceral. And I think the camera is so much more... that's your interpreter, as opposed to a pen."
—Oliver Stone's return from active duty in Vietnam resulted in a "big change" in how he viewed life and the war. Unproduced screenplayBreak was the result, and it eventually provided the basis for Platoon.[2]
After his tour of duty in Vietnam ended in 1968, Stone wrote a screenplay called Break: a semi-autobiographical account detailing his experiences with his parents and his time in Vietnam. In 2010, Stone, during an interview with the U. K. Times, discussed his killing of a Viet Cong soldier and how he blended this experience into his screenplay. [3] It featured several characters who were the seeds of those who would end up in Platoon. The script was set to music fromThe Doors; Stone sent the script to Jim Morrison in the hope he would play the lead (Morrison never responded but the script was returned to Oliver Stone shortly after Morrison's death by Morrison's manager - Morrison had the script with him when he died in Paris). Though Breakwent ultimately unproduced, it was the spur for him to attend film school.[2]
After penning several other produced screenplays in the early 1970s, Stone came to work with Robert Bolt on an unproduced screenplay, The Cover-up. Bolt's rigorous approach rubbed off on Stone, and he was inspired to use the characters from his Break screenplay (who in turn were based upon people Stone knew in Vietnam) as the basis for a new screenplay titled The Platoon. Producer Martin Bregman attempted to elicit studio interest in the project, but Hollywood was still apathetic about Vietnam. However, the strength of Stone's writing on The Platoon was enough to get him the job penning Midnight Express in 1978. Despite that film's critical and commercial success, and that of other Stone-penned films at the time, most studios were still reluctant to finance The Platoon, as they feared a film about the Vietnam War would not attract an audience. After the release of The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, they then cited the perception that these films were considered the pinnacle of the Vietnam War film genre as reasons not to make The Platoon.[2]
Stone instead attempted to break into mainstream direction via the easier-to-finance horror genre, but The Hand failed at the box office, and Stone began to think that The Platoon would never be made. Stone wrote Year of the Dragon for a lower-than-usual fee of $200,000, on the condition from producer Dino De Laurentiis that he would then produce The Platoon. De Laurentiis secured financing for the film, but struggled to find a distributor. Because de Laurentiis had already spent money sending Stone to the Philippines to scout for locations, he decided to keep control of the film's script until he was repaid.[2] Then Stone's script for what would become Salvador was passed to John Daly of British production company Hemdale. Once again, this was a project that Stone had struggled to secure financing for, but Daly loved the script and was prepared to finance both Salvador and The Platoon off the back of it. Stone shot Salvador first, before turning his attention to what was by now called Platoon.[2]

[edit]Production

The famous scene depicting Elias with his hands in the air is a recreation of a 1968 photograph by Art Greenspon[4]
Platoon was filmed on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, starting in February 1986. The production of the film on a scheduled date was almost canceled due to the political upheaval in the country with then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos, but with the help of a producer well-known in Asia, Mark Hill, the shoot went on as scheduled. The shoot lasted 54 days and cost $6.5 million. The production made a deal with the Philippine military for the use of military equipment.[2]
James Woods, who had starred in Stone's previous film, Salvador, was offered a part inPlatoon. He turned the role down, later saying he "couldn't face going into another jungle with [Stone]". Upon arrival in the Philippines, the cast was sent on a two-week intensive training course, during which they had to dig foxholes and were subject to forced marches and night-time "ambushes" which utilized special-effects explosions. Stone explained that he was trying to break them down, "to mess with their heads so we could get that dog-tired, don't give a damn attitude, the anger, the irritation... the casual approach to death".[2]
Stone makes a cameo appearance as the battalion commander of 3/22 Infantry in the final battle. Dale Dye, who played Bravo company's commander Captain Harris, is a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran who also acted as the film's technical advisor.[1]
Adagio for Strings
The famous theme of Platoon, composed bySamuel Barber.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.
Music used in the film includes Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane and "Okie From Muskogee" by Merle Haggard. During a scene in the "Underworld" the soldiers sing along to "The Tracks of My Tears" by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, which also featured in the film's trailer.

[edit]Soundtrack

Platoon features a variety of licensed songs from the late sixties and early seventies.

[edit]Reception

Critics both praised and criticized Platoon for its presentation of the violence seen in the war and the moral ambiguity created by the realities of guerrilla warfare, when unit leaders have to make a choice between saving the lives of their own men and taking those of suspected guerrilla sympathizers. Roger Ebert gave it four stars, calling it the best film of the year, and the 9th best of the 1980s.
The film currently has an 88% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 86%.[5]

[edit]Awards and nominations

[edit]Wins

[edit]Nominations

[edit]Honors

[edit]Marketing




The film was marketed with the tag line, "The first casualty of war is innocence", an adaptation of Senator Hiram Johnson's assertion in 1917 that "The first casualty of war is the truth."[6] (c.f. Aeschylus (BC 525 - BC 456), "In war, truth is the first casualty.") Several licensed tie-ins were released between 1986-1988. A video game was produced by Ocean Software for various formats. The Nintendo Entertainment Systemversion was ported and published by Sunsoft. Loosely based on the film, the object of the game is to survive in the Vietnamese jungle againstguerrilla attacks. A wargame was also produced, by Avalon Hill, as an introductory game to attract young people into the wargaming hobby, and a board game was also produced.[7] A novelization of the film was written by Dale Dye. In the late 1990s, MGM Interactive produced a Real Time Strategy game based on the film.

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