Platoon (1986)

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1987	Won	Oscar	Best Director Oliver Stone
			Best Film Editing Claire Simpson
			Best Picture Arnold Kopelson
			Best Sound John Wilkinson Richard D. Rogers Charles Grenzbach Simon Kaye
	Nominated	Oscar	Best Actor in a Supporting Role Tom Berenger
			Best Actor in a Supporting Role Willem Dafoe
			Best Cinematography Robert Richardson
			Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Oliver Stone

Orion Pictures
Directed by Oliver Stone
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, DVD, MGM)

Oliver Stone's depiction of the Vietnam war, based on his own experiences, is realistic but unfocused. It follows one platoon through the eyes of Charlie Sheen. The leadership of the platoon alternates between the evil Tom Berenger (you know he is evil because of the facial scars) and the good William Dafoe (hangs out and smokes pot with the guys). When they raid a Vietnamese camp, Berenger murders an old woman because she won't stop talking, while the men of the platoon murder and rape other residents. Sheen watches in horror. Dafoe confronts Berenger, but without proof he escapes punishment. More fighting follows, the platoon is decimated by casualties, until they are overrun by the enemy in the final battle. Sheen gets retribution for Berenger's atrocities in a rather contrived scene, proving that the real enemy was ourselves all along. This is the weakest of the three great Vietnam war movies, behind Coppola's Apocalypse Now and Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.