Platoon

'The first casualty of war is innocence'.

I first heard about the film Platoon when my father purchased the soundtrack CD. I found the music extremely atmospheric and thought provoking even before I had had seen the film. Of course this inspired me to view the movie, which I found not only entertaining and exciting but harsh, gritty and most importantly, honest.

War is unrelenting, which is mirrored effectively in the pace of the film: there is no room to breathe. Scene after scene invokes tension and sadness. The audience is shown the real grittiness and evil of war, where hereos do not exist.

We get an insight into the thoughts and feeling of our main character, a young American recruit (played by Charlie Sheen) who enters the army by choice with the intention to do his duty for his country. However we find that, as does Chris Taylor (Sheen) 'innocence is the first casualty of war'. Because of his circumstances, Taylor is forced to do things he never thought he would be able to do, therefore he finds he must distance himself from his emotions if he is to do his job correctly and more importantly, survive himself: his innocence is lost. Also, if the viewer did not know much about Vietnam then their innocence is lost also by watching this film.

Platoon uses symbolism greatly through its characters, the most obvious example being that of Elias and Barnes who represent, respectively, good and evil. Taylor represents innocence.

I thought the direction by Oliver Stone was fantastic, the movie felt real, often being difficult to believe you were watching a movie at all. I found that I never sat back and thought about a particular shot, good or bad, which I do with most films I watch. I was completely engaged with the plot, it was unrelentingly fast paced and the battle scenes honestly explicit.

The performances were equally as good as the direction. It took me a while to distance the association between Charlie Sheen's character Taylor and Sheen's lighter comedy roles which are all I have seen him in before now. However the supporting cast, Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger were fantastically convincing, making the experience, sometimes, almost too real.

Essentially, Platoon is not really about war, but the phscological effects it has upon individuals. It was based upon Oliver Stone's real experiences which I feel helps to give the movie a true feeling of authenticity, a lack of Hollywood gloss: A true experience.