User Comments for Platoon

Ashley (10 out of 10 )
This is one of the best war movies in 30 years.

little sister 2071 (10 out of 10 )
Platoon, what can i say about it? For starters it was the funniest film I have ever seen because I nearly died with laughter. I love it also because it is such a family film, I even let my 1 year old baby watch it and she loved it. Go platoon you are the best.

Jose (10 out of 10 )
I don't care what people say. Platoon of 1986 is and might probably forever be the best war movie ever made.

Gajowy (10 out of 10 )
Probably the best war movie - but, is there really only war? Maybe only war - but war in platoon doesn't mean only fighting of armed men, look at the last words of Chris. These two men (Burns and Elias - evil and good) will be always fighting in his memories.

Platoon love (10 out of 10 )
I think it was a great movie, lots of war. But hey that is what I watched it for!

kevin (10 out of 10 )
This is a good movie, hard to watch. But I got sucked in. After this movie I watched bat21, it was horrible.

David Grossman (1 out of 10 )
I served with the 82nd from 66-68in Vietnam. This movie does not at all represent what things were like over there. To hear Oliver Stone tell it, all we did was shoot each other in the backs and stay high on drugs while raping the the locale populace. I can assure you no one in our platoon behaved that way, if they did they didn't stay alive very long. This movie and other like it better represent Hollywood's attitude towards the military and those who served in combat overseas.

Jesse (8 out of 10 )
Great move, especially the scene were Elias is left behind. We still got one on the deck. Horrible. You guy's think that Rhah survived the war?

ash (8 out of 10 )
This movie was sweet but why leave Elias behind?

kelta (8 out of 10 )
Wow, such an amazing movie. I love it but I still say that Saving Private Ryan is better. It's a close tie though.

houssam (10 out of 10 )
I think that platoon is more than a fight between the good and the evil. Platoon is more about reality. I never fought in a battle but I lived war. I knew the deep impact on the soul caused by an explosion made by other human beings, I believe in platoon, it is pretty real.

Navychick53 (7 out of 10 )
I dont believe that it accurately depicts what actually happened in the war, but the struggle between good and evil and the complexity of how it effected the unit was interesting. As for that, other platoons may have been struggling with similar issues, (it's not unrealistic to think that illegal killings took place) but, the movie didnt actually depict the war. I see this as a movie aimed at Hollywood.

beedub (2 out of 10 )
PLATOON rhymes with CARTOON. It was a caricature, pure and simple. This isn't the best war movie ever made -- it's not even the best VIETNAM war movie ever made. FULL METAL JACKET kicks seven shades of C-Rations out of PLATOON. Kubrick > Stone by a country mile.

Ryan Davis (18) (9 out of 10 )
My first war movie I actually sit down and watch the whole way. I absolutely love this movie!! Since this the only one I watched so far, this is the best war movie of all time!! Definitely one of my top 10 movies, maybe 5!!! Oliver Stone really shows the realism of war (since he knows first-hand). The characters (all of them are great and shows most people in real life) this movie will question your humanity and sanity like another great movie I know (American Psycho). This movie can really some life lesson in a history class someday and I hope someone can alot from not only this, but all great war flims..

craig (7 out of 10 )
Platoon... metaphor film. Stone made it look real though. I agree with the guy from the 82nd (David Grossman) I was a gunner on a Spooky so did not have my "ass in the tall grass" like David. I too saw little in this film that represented my experience except the 24 hr fear, the heat, the tension and some the bullshit we all saw and heard from Command. A very good film though. It was, I think, concentrating on Stone's own personal experience and some of the guys he served with. I think Stone was in country in the 70's??. David (82nd) and I were there early on. The troops in the 60's were better mentally and we had a some seasoned Korea and WW11 experienced officers and senior NCO's.. By the early to mid 70's it was different. Lots of drugs, many professional soldiers rotated out. wounded etc. Anyway, I said it was a metaphor.. actually it looks more like a diary. Good line from Barnes " There's the way things are and there's the way things otta be"... Nam sucked for sure.. 58K plus of my brothers KIA and many many thousand have lost their lives since the war ended to drugs, agent orange, suicide ...and you'll never see their names on that wall...they should be..they are casualties of that war as well. Not to mention how many "them' we wasted. David G will have to agree with me on this...Charlie had only two ways home - death or victory. Tough SOB's those Slopes. We could use a couple of Divisions of NVA in Iraq. The towel heads would be no match for the gooks I shot at in Nam. God speed to all my Nam brothers and sisters. welcome home.

Andrew Philips (9 out of 10 )
I Served in Nam, and found it to be the same way as portrayed in the movie, a bloody shit hole. I now live alone in an apartment I have three grandchildren, god be blessed I got out alive. This movie just reminds me of the horrors of the war and reminds me of what I went threw. No no-one got raped in a village but they were shot and killed.

Charles (9 out of 10 )
A fantastic film. A fantastic story. Based on the real experiences of the Vietnam War by the writer and director Oliver Stone.

flubndub (8 out of 10 )
Platoon is not a anti-troops movie it is a anti-war movie which oddly makes it a standard war movie. It has the classic themes of good vs evil, the duality of man and the "average" guy being the pawn of the "powers that be". The story is told by Chris Taylor a idealistic young man of middle class background thrown into into the middle of a terrifying war with people from varying cultures American or not. It is a ruthless film. Sometimes sparing the gore sometimes not. Immensely watchable with a morally satisfying ending. The GI's are portrayed as a mixed bag of good, bad and everything in-between. The Vietcong are shown more in this movie than Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. Most often they are obvious antagonists. But in one important grueling village scene the Vietcong are ambiguous to the point that the platoon divides over how to treat them. For the most part the action seems authentic given that it is a movie. The uniforms, effects and make-up are spot on. The gunfire and explosions look like they will rip you apart. The standard Vietnam movie images and sounds are all here. Helicopters, sweat, dirt, blood and malaria. Willem Defoe is brilliant as Sgt. Elias and Tom Berenger is a very scary Sgt. Barnes. Charlie Sheen does a good job in the lead as young Chris Taylor but he gets a lot of help from the entire supporting cast and Stone's superb direction. There are many recognizable faces, even Johnny Depp. Platoon has aged more like Hamburger Hill than movies like Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. It simply doesn't have the rich feel and scale of these movies. This is not to say Platoon isn't as good as these movies. There are epic images with much going on in the backgrounds. In fact I dare say that both A. And and F. M. J drag in some places where Platoon is always moving forward to it's tragic napalm coated conclusion. Highly recommended if you like these types of movies. Should be required viewing to anyone thinking about enlisting.

leo (10 out of 10 )
This movie for sure portrayed war as it really was. Horrible and downright bad! I don't think Barnes, played by Tom Beringer, was evil but he was tired and he was very much in trying to instill discipline in his men so they don't get blown to bits or shot up. Overall, the movie ruled.

Randy (10 out of 10 )
Platoon is certainly the best Vietnam war movie ever made, likely the best war movie of any era. The only other work of any kind about the Vietnam war that holds a candle to Platoon is Michael Herr's book Dispatches. This is a movie that changes people. Take a walk with this platoon, and only those who aren't closed off and already dead inside will walk on.

Gary K (7 out of 10 )
It was not surprising to read David Grossman's comments, as being someone that was actually there in the thick of it. I very much admire and respect those that were drafted and those that volunteered. That said I admit that I never served but of those I know that did say that the most realistic was Full Metal Jacket. One of the first things that stood out to me as potentially unrealistic was here they were on patrol toward a known ambush, in the first part of the film and none of them wearing helmets. I don't know for sure but I honestly believe that everyone would be wearing helmets if not from requirement from fear of getting their head shot off. There was also the definite aspect of anti-war sentiment brought into the film which while it was a war we shouldn't have been in those that were there, for the most part, I assume wanted out as fast as possible.

Mike (10 out of 10 )
Watched this movie when it came out, shortly after I got out. Then watched it again as an older man. It had the same affect on me now as then. Heavy and somber. I was never in combat but served in an air ambulance unit in Korea(377th Dust-Off) I served with many men, enlisted and officers, who served in Nam. Many crew chiefs like me and many pilots. Some just damned crazy dudes and some of the best damned pilots I have ever had the good fortune to sit behind. I have known many of these same men as single, torn up, drug and alcohol abusing, old men. Ravaged by anguish, chemical poisoning, old wounds, grief. Until they died. I've drank with them, cried with them, let my children meet and hang with them, had cook outs with them and I watched them die. Even though I was not there, I feel some of it. It never leaves me either. I encourage my children not to enlist. I know our wars are for corporate ends. I see through the eyes of an adult now. No longer blinded by patriotic ideals. Too much pain and suffering for the war corporation. They using our misguided patriotism and ideals. Anyway, good movie. Yes it was hollywood, but I have known the men, heard their stories and read enough about Nam to know that the type of shit depicted here took place.

Ric hard (9 out of 10 )
I remember this film coming out when I was a nipper and there hasn't been more than a couple of years between viewings. I wasn't in nam so can't say rapes and killings did or didn't happen in my platoon. I don't think it's fair to say the film is inaccurate because you were a decent man during the war though. But I understand people feel strongly about how portrayal the troops are portrayed in any war. I think that the film is fair, not just about troops but the conflicts in life with those who have an impression on us. It's hard to compare platoon with Apocalypse Now or FMJ. Oliver stones films all demonstrate a perspicaciousness that finds a place accessible to all without sacrificing artistic integrity. Platoon is a subjective account, a personal story and a more straightforward film as a result. Apocalypse Now is definately a more important film because of the scope of its statements. I would say Apocalypse Now is the most important film ever made, as well as the most visually beautiful, but whereas it's power comes from an overarching politics, truth and chill psychological impartiality, Platoon doesn't attempt to confront the external at all. It is simply human where A.N. is about the stripping away of any humanity . FMJ is in the place between these two films, both subjective with a politically astute aspect. FMJ is comparable with Apocalypse Now, but Platoon is not. It speaks a simpler language we can all relate to, and even if Apocalypse Now is likely going to stay the eternally insurmountable masterpiece of film, the warmth inherent in Stones story technique make Platoon my personal favourite. It makes me feel, whereas Apocalypse Now makes me sympathetic to destruction of the hypocrisy Kurtz is set against, and which some of us confront as and when we imagine it in life. Platoon requires our participation , Apocalypse Now requires nothing and just shouts downat us from somewhere high above. It's not a friend, Platoon is

Add your own comment