Platoon (1986)

Platoon - Trailer

5 of 5 dogtags.

Wow. No wonder this movie won best picture! This movie exemplifies what a good movie is made of. This is going to go down as one of the best movies I have ever seen.

I'm all about joking and poking fun at movies, but this movie is just a piece of pure brilliance. I'd be hard pressed trying to find some obscure corner of this movie where something is misplaced or sloppily done. Everything in this movie had a purpose, no scenes were wasted...every word, sentence, paragraph, and facial expression was perfectly done.


What a story. The only thing I regret about this movie is that I wasn't around in 1986 to experience society's reaction, this movie must have gotten one hell of a reception.

Charlie Sheen is your typical young, well off, entitled, spoon fed 20 something year old who volunteers to go to Vietnam. He gets there, he enters a troop primarily of draftees of all walks of life. Immediately you see he's excited yet scared to be there, he's innocent, naive, eager to learn what stands before him. A feeling we can all easily associate with, it's what any normal guy would be thinking. He counts the days he's been there but he'll soon find out why his fellow troop-mates count down until they leave.

Time passes, he's involved in a battle or two, and a real heavy scene where his troop enters a village, and sees and experiences things he didn't think humans were capable of doing to each other. He often takes the higher ground, as you'd like to think you would. Slowly his innocence is robbed (is there no greater crime?). In a way, he slowly becomes the very type of person he was mortified by upon first entering Vietnam.

This movie really hits home with me because when I first see Charlie Sheen entering Vietnam, I say "Hey, that's pretty much how I would be." By the end of the movie, Charlie Sheen is a completely different man, having seen and even done things he couldn't imagine doing in a million years, but yet, I still say "Hey, that's pretty much how I would be." It makes me wonder..."Is this what people act like after being exposed to the horribleness of War? OR Is this what people are really like?"

This movie takes total control of your emotion and thoughts, and throws and twists them around at it's will. If you truly watch this movie, you are at the complete mercy of the movie. This mixed in with some heavy scenes and one of the most emotional movie endings I've ever been a part of, make this an easy score for me. A 5 for 5.

Fun Fact: Movie is loosely based on director Oliver Stone's experiences in Vietnam.

This will go down as one of my worst reviews in history because as the groom always says at the end of every episode of Bridezillas..."Words cannot describe how I feel about you, but here are a few words I prepared..."