Platoon (1986)

Platoon. Film review. I had an impression that for us, a generation that hadn't really comprehend the notion of war first hand, war is just a fascinating game. One would only have to look at the film, book, and game industry. War has been and always will a theme that become one of the main selling point of these industries. There's generally two kind of war related theme to these industries. 'War' is where the theme took one side of the warring faction and generally, made it the 'good guys' battling the 'bad guys'. And of course, since we knew whence these industries are known to came from, it is easy to see who the generally accepted 'good guys' are. The second theme, is an 'Anti-War' theme where it took the war anywhere but 'good guys' against 'bad guys'. Usually, it's in a personal level where the theme looked into what war has been bought to the actors participated in the said war or any other who had suffered the consequences of it. But, if you asked me, war is just.. well, war. It's still an ugly beast.

In Platoon, as the narrator of the film pointed out, the war is not just fought against the enemy. It was also fought among themselves, even among one's self. In the end, there's no glory in it. There'd be only the deads and the survivors. Even the survivors would have something that left for dead in the field of war.

There were at least four characters in the film that made it to a much interest and kept the film going. An incompetent leader who you'd feel sorry just to look at him, a man who dedicated to his job as a soldier, enjoyed the thrill of strategizing, outwitting the enemies and ultimately came out as a victor in what he had believed a fair battle where he killed only enemies who held a pointed gun, a yet another man who also loves his job, but to an extreme point where he develops an 'if-you're-not-with-me-then-you're-against-me' attitude who doesn't hesitate to kill anyone that crosses path with him armed or not, and finally, a young recruit too bored for life newly enlisted as a volunteer. The war was Vietnam. A war where i believed, the U.S had taken quite a blow.

These four characters were on a same platoon. They went out together to the woods, and got into a fire-fight almost everytime. But that doesn't mean that there's a seed of love sowing among them. And after the practically haunting scene in a Vietnam village, a scene where all the prominent characters has been properly introduced, where the roles of the characters firmly established, a scene where, had you seen the film with me, you'd hear me whispered some decorated words that expressed my general contempt with what the scene presents, the personal war begins. From there on, you wouldn't care about how the film ended anymore. You'd be more care about how the characters ended. There's a significant difference in it. If you'd care about the characters more about the film itself, that means there's a sense of involvement between you - a general audience - and the film. And more often than not, that was what separated a good film with an okay film.

For myself, the pinnacle of this film's quality lies on a Vietnam village scene. I took the scene, disgusted with what the men with guns had excersied their power against. The scene was effective, and it also served as a turning-point for the main character, the newly enlisted soldier. And as i have said earlier, i took the point of this film, as a film that proposed the fact, that more often than not, the war was usually fought not against the enemy, but more to one's self either he fought for a desire to excercise power, for a virgin mind to stay pure, for a reason, or for anything that matters. The actual visible battlefield was just a backdrop. But heck, war is just war. It's ugly.

In term of quality, when it comes to films revolved around Vietnam war, i'd put this film right over there with Apocalypse Now. Alas, the shorter running time demands less commitment and thus put this film, in my opinion, did all the right things where Appocalypse Now had put it wrong, which makes this film, in my opinion, is the best film that i ever saw about Vietnam war. Though of course, i've only seen Apocalypse Now once. The fact that you could feel a personal touch from Oliver Stone who has personally served in Vietnam. It was so easy to believe that the young recruit (Charlie Sheen) in this film represents Stone hisself.