Platoon is an Academy Award winning 1986 Vietnam War film written and directed by Oliver Stone and starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, Keith David, John C. McGinley and Johnny Depp. The story is drawn from Stone’s experiences as a US Infantryman in Vietnam and was written by him upon his return as a counter to the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne’s The Green Berets.[citation needed] The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1986. In 2007, The American Film Institute placed Platoon at #86 in their 100 Years…100 Movies poll. Channel 4 voted Platoon as the 6th greatest war film ever made, behind Full Metal Jacket and in front of A Bridge Too Far.
Plot
A young US Army soldier, Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), arrives in South Vietnam with several other replacements and is assigned to the 25th Infantry Division (which had a very successful combat record in Vietnam). As the new men step off the plane upon arrival in Vietnam, they see the seasoned veterans who have just finished their tours of duty (with the “thousand-yard stare” fully developed), taunting the new guys as they board a transport plane home. Along with fellow soldier Private Gardner, Taylor joins an experienced rifle platoon that has suffered in recent combat operations. His enthusiasm quickly evaporates as he goes on endless patrols and, as a new guy, is assigned to dig foxholes and perform other arduous tasks.
On his first night ambush patrol, his unit is set upon by a squad of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops who walk into the squad’s ambush position. The soldier meant to be on guard duty (Junior) has fallen asleep. Private Gardner dies after being shot while standing up in a firefight and Tex (a soldier with a bad attitude towards Elias and new recruits) has his leg blown off from a grenade thrown by Sgt. Red O’Neil (John C. McGinley)[1]. Private Taylor is grazed in the neck. Junior shirks all responsibility, stating that Taylor was on guard duty.
As Private Taylor recovers from his wound—a rite of passage that grants him greater social contact with his platoon mates—he reveals that he dropped out of college to volunteer for service in Vietnam (Stone himself had dropped out of Yale twice). He states that he felt college was leading him nowhere and that it was unfair that lower-class youths had to carry the burden of the fighting in Vietnam, while rich kids could avoid the draft. His new friends among the more experienced troops introduce him to the “Underworld,” a bunker converted into a pseudo-nightclub, where they smoke marijuana and opium, drink beer, and dance with each other to soul music.
After returning to field duty, Taylor sees more combat and, during another patrol, a bunker complex is discovered. (In real life, the 25th Division encountered tunnel complexes at Cu Chi much like the ones in the film.[citation needed]) During the examination of a campfire left by the enemy, two soldiers, Sanderson and Sal, are mortally wounded by a booby trap. After leaving the bunker complex area, the soldiers come across another member of their unit, Manny, who has been snatched from his guard duty, tied to a post, and mutilated.
Reaching a nearby village several kilometers north of the bunker with a belief that the enemy was spotted there, the platoon discovers food and weapons caches. This scene is loosely based on the true events surrounding the My Lai Massacre.[citation needed]The villagers insist they were given no choice by the Viet Cong. The troops, tired and angry because of the deaths of some of their comrades, take out their frustrations on the village. They also begin murdering and torturing several civilians on many occasions such as the murder of a one-legged villager by Bunny. While half of the men seem intimidated by these acts like Francis and O’Neil, the rest continue. Staff Sgt. Barnes kills a woman while interrogating her husband. The platoon burns the village and leaves, with a final scene depicting the gang rape of a teenage girl (which Chris stops).
Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), having witnessed Staff Sgt. Barnes’ (Tom Berenger) illegal actions and Lt. Wolfe’s (Mark Moses) condoning of them, attacks Barnes and then puts the two men on report to their Company Commander (played by Dale Dye, a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and technical advisor to the film). Chris, having originally admired Barnes, now finds his loyalties leaning towards Elias, while Barnes’ supporters talk of fragging Elias to prevent him from acting as an eyewitness in a formal report about the illegal killings. Taylor speaks of this as “a civil war in the platoon. Half with Elias, half with Barnes.
On yet another patrol, the platoon is ambushed. Lt. Wolfe fails to take charge as the platoon suffers losses, and he calls friendly artillery fire down on his own men. Sgt. Elias, correctly anticipating an enemy flanking attack, suggests a flanking ambush to counter the threat. Although Wolfe is skeptical, Barnes agrees to the plan. Elias and three other men, including Pvt. Taylor, move around the fighting to try to intercept the flanking NVA troops. Along with the heavy fighting, many wounded need attention and Barnes calls for them to pull back. This action leaves Elias and his three troops unsupported.
While the rest of the platoon retreats to its landing zone to be airlifted out of the combat area, Barnes goes back, ostensibly to get Elias and his three men out. Barnes orders Taylor and the two others back to the landing zone, telling them that he will get Elias himself. However, instead of bringing Elias back, Barnes ambushes and shoots him.
Barnes then returns to the platoon. When Taylor asks where Elias is, Barnes tells him he is dead. The film’s most iconic moment in which during the extraction by helicopter, however, the entire platoon sees Elias alive, badly wounded and running away from the pursuing North Vietnamese. Elias reaches up to the sky, as the Huey helicopters fly overhead, as seen on the movie poster, and finally collapses. He dies in an open field after being shot several more times by the North Vietnamese troops.
Taylor now suspects that Barnes caused Elias’ death and begins talking to his fellow soldiers about killing Barnes in retaliation. As a result there is a confrontation between Taylor and Barnes in the bunker.
The company is sent back into the area and builds defensive positions to bait the NVA. It had been discovered that an entire NVA infantry regiment is on the move south down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This final battle ends with the obliteration of nearly the entire platoon, including Lt. Wolfe, due to the heavy NVA attack and a US aerial napalm attack. During the battle, a berserking Barnes nearly kills Taylor.
At dawn Taylor regains consciousness, finding himself wounded and surrounded by bodies. He takes an AK-47 rifle from a dead NVA soldier and wanders around, aimlessly. Taylor walks past, and ignores, a wounded but potentially dangerous NVA soldier (in the background), suggesting that now he is focused on exacting revenge on Sgt. Barnes. Eventually he finds the wounded Barnes.
Barnes orders Private Taylor to call a medic but Taylor does not budge and instead keeps the rifle trained on Barnes. Sneeringly, Barnes challenges Taylor to “do it.” Private Taylor shoots Barnes three times in the chest, killing him. He then collapses and awaits medical attention. A unit of mechanized infantry arrive and begin tending to the survivors. One of the few other survivors of the platoon is Pvt. Francis, who emerges from a bunker and is seemingly horrified to find that he lived through the battle and will therefore be obliged to continue his tour of duty. He grabs a knife and stabs himself in the thigh.
An interesting detail to note is that when he is finally rescued after the final battle of the film, Taylor drops an object. It turns out to be a hand grenade, because Charlie Sheen thought that the character would, at this point, be suicidal.
After the final battle in the movie, the only Platoon members left alive are Rodriguez,Rah,Francis,Chris,Doc,O’Neil,and Barnes’ radio man.
The injured Private Taylor is reunited with Francis and the two are airlifted from the battlefield. The voiceover of the final scene suggests Chris Taylor is going home to the US, profoundly affected and significantly changed as a person. He states that those who survive have an obligation to those who died there and meditates on his life as a product of two fathers, Barnes and Elias.
Characters
Platoon is a character driven movie. Like the real life military subunit of from which the movie gets its name, the film’s characters have a nominal leader in Lieutenant Wolfe, though real power has become invested in the Platoon Sergeant, Staff Sergeant Barnes, because of his experience. The characters of the platoon are organised into three squads, led by Sergeants Elias, O’Neil, and Warren though in many cases the film does not explicitly state who belongs to which squad.
Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is the protagonist of the film, a college age volunteer through whose eyes and thoughts (delivered by voice over) the viewer experiences the events of the film. He describes his family as being traditional, upper-middle class. His grandfather and father fought in World War I and World War II, respectively. Chris had a stable, suburban life but after some time in college, felt it unfair to be exempt from service due to his school attendance, while the poor who can’t afford higher education are sent off to fight. Feeling he’s not learning anything substantive, he drops out and volunteers for the infantry and deployment to Vietnam. He also becomes part of the “Underworld” after being befriended by King.
Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes (Tom Berenger) is a hardened, ruthless, facially-scarred, and determined platoon sergeant who believes in what he is doing and cares about his men, but gives little regard to conventions of warfare or authority of superiors. It is revealed that he has survived being shot 7 times. He is shot to death by Taylor after the final battle.
Sergeant Elias K. Grodin (Willem Dafoe) is a compassionate sergeant and veteran of three combat tours of duty who has lost his enthusiasm for the war. He is most respected by the “Underworld” regulars, but is seen as a “do-gooder” and “crusader” by Barnes’ clique. During the film, Elias is murdered by Barnes after an incident in which Elias threatened to report him for war crimes.
Big Harold (Forest Whitaker) is a large, friendly soldier who spends his down time in the bunker socializing in the “Underworld.” He expressed empathy for the Vietnamese woman that Barnes had killed. He loses a leg from a Viet Cong booby trap as he tries to find cover during the artillery barrage called in by Lieutenant Wolfe.
Rhah Vermucci (Francesco Quinn) is the king of the underworld “heads” and a friend of Elias, he also respects Barnes’ fighting ability and realises if Taylor attempted to kill Barnes it would only bring more trouble upon himself. After the death of Elias he takes over as a squad leader.
Sergeant “Red” O’Neill (John C. McGinley) is a lifer and squad leader who recognises Barnes as the actual power in the platoon and is very loyal to him, seeing him as a way to keep himself alive. He is war weary to the point of feeling no shame in requesting relief from combat duty just before a battle. He survives the final battle, unharmed, having hidden beneath a corpse when the NVA overruns his position. He is given command of 2nd Platoon by Captain Harris after the incident because, with LT Wolfe and SSG Barnes having both died in the fight, he (O’Neil) is the ranking NCO (a not-uncommon occurence in wartime). While happy that he has survived he tells the relieving soldiers he was abandoned by his comrades. When told that he is the new commander of 2nd Platoon, Red is quite obviously unhappy and left breathless by the news.
Bunny (Kevin Dillon) typifies young and uneducated soldiers; he murders a mentally handicapped villager by hitting his head with his gun until it “comes apart” and expresses enjoyment of being in Vietnam. He feels that it is great because in Vietnam you can do “Whatever you want”. He appears mentally unstable, enjoying violence, and alying himself with Barnes. During the final battle Bunny is shot in the chest and face after being distracted by a retreating Junior.
Junior Martin (Reggie Johnson) is a black radical who is depicted as a malingerer who falls asleep during ambush patrols and attempts self-inflicted maladies to avoid combat. He thinks that the “White man” is oppressing him, and does not support the war at all. He also attempts to rape a young Vietnamese girl. Having lost the will to fight in the last battle he retreats but an NVA soldier bayonets him to death.
King (Keith David) is a poorly educated yet understanding and combat-experienced soldier from Pulaski, Tennessee who befriends Taylor. Before the big battle at the end King’s tour is over and he leaves for home.
Sergeant Warren (Tony Todd) is a squad leader and morphine addict.[citation needed] He is wounded along with Lerner in the battle by the church. His primary concern seems to be letting Barnes lead him because he thinks he holds the key to his survival, even if this means letting innocents be killed along the way. Junior comments that his judgement may be clouded as a result of his morphine addiction.
Lieutenant Wolfe (Mark Moses) is an Ohio University graduate who establishes only shallow relationships with his men. He is inept at giving or receiving orders, cannot read a map (which results in a disastrous friendly fire artillery barrage), does nothing to discipline his men when they step out of line, cedes control of the platoon to Barnes, and by the end of the film exclaims, “I just don’t give a flying fuck anymore.” In the final battle in a very dark scene he is forced to hold and fight by Cpt. Harris but, unfortunately for him, is blinded by a grenade explosion and then shot through the chest. U.S. Military training schools have used the character of LT Wolfe as an example of how not to behave as an infantry leader.
“Gator” Lerner (Johnny Depp) is the platoon’s interpreter. One of the “heads”, he often parties with the rest of Elias’s side of the platoon, but members who get into the partying like Rhah unnerve him. Before the village massacre, Lerner translated the village chief’s words for Barnes. Later, during the village ambush, Lerner is on point moments before the Vietcong ambush and is shot several times. Chris risks his life to grab Lerner and drag him to safety, but his wounds are so bad that it is doubtful he survives.
Gardner (Bob Orwig) is an overweight new soldier from the South who arrives in the platoon at the same time as Chris. He has a girlfriend named Lucy Jean whom he reminisces about. He tries to fit in by buying hippie paraphernalia, but the experienced soldiers still insult him because he’s new to the unit (an FNG, as they were known) and overweight. When a detail is sent out on night ambush, Elias pushes O’Neill to have two experienced soldiers go instead of Gardner and Chris, but O’Neill refuses to send out two short-timers just so “…two lame-asses just in from the World can get their beauty sleep”. Gardner is shot in the throat when he stands up during the ambush, and Doc Paul Gomez is unable to save him. As they leave, Elias looks at Gardner’s body and says regretfully that if he had lived for a few more weeks, he could have learned the necessary skills to survive.
Rodriguez is a devout Catholic who is somewhat anti-social (he is seen reading the Bible as opposed to playing cards with the rest of the men in one scene). He is not a major character, but he does ally himself with Elias due to his religious beliefs, and survives at the end.
Production
Platoon was filmed on the island of Luzon in the Philippines between March and May of 1986. The production of the film on a scheduled date was almost cancelled 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 director, Oliver Stone, makes a cameo appearance as the battalion commander in the final battle. When the command bunker is blown up by an NVA sapper, his character is presumably killed.
Music
The piece played throughout the film is Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber.
White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
Okie From Muskogee by Merle Haggard
Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival
During the memorable scene in the “Underworld” the soldiers sing along to The Tracks of My Tears by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles.
Various audio samples from the movie can be heard in the Ministry song “Flashback” from album The Land of Rape and Honey.
During the movie trailer Hello, I Love You by The Doors can be heard.
Awards and nominations
- Winner of 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound.
- Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tom Berenger), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Willem Dafoe), Best Cinematography and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
