Platoon (1986)
Action | Drama | War

The first casualty of war is innocence.

Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and based on the first-hand experience of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, Platoon is powerful, intense and starkly brutal. “Harrowingly realistic and completely convincing” (Leonard Maltin), it is “a dark, unforgettable memorial” (The Washington Post) to every soldier whose innocence was lost in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam.

Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young, naïve American who, upon his arrival in Vietnam, quickly discovers that he must do battle not only with the Viet Cong, but also with the gnawing fear, physical exhaustion and intense anger growing within him. While his two commanding officers (Oscar-nominated Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe) draw a fine line between the war they wage against the enemy and the one they fight with each other, the conflict, chaos and hatred permeate Taylor, suffocating his realities and numbing his feelings to man’s highest value…life.

User Comment: Marc-André Deschênes (deschenes@contact.net) Montréal, Canada • Wow... That's the kind of movie that leaves me just staring at the blank screen for ten minutes after the credits have ended, mouth opened. I mean, that's one of the best movie to show to a guy who would like to sign up for joining the army. Not that I've ever been to war, but I think this really confronts you to the reality of being a pray in the jungle. Oliver Stone is a pure genius, and that's all I could say!

Summary: A man's struggle to survive Nam.

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