Everybody's favorite party movie! 'Platoon' details a year in the life Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) while he serves in Vietnam. He's a young man who volunteered to go rather than being drafted. His first lesson there is that no one likes the new guys. They don't seem worth the effort. He'll learn more lessons as he goes. All of them from the 'War is Hell' book (not written by Matt Groening).
He serves in an all star platoon. His sergeants are Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe (Forest Whitaker and Johnny Depp are also present). The sergeants represent two different philosophical paths. Berenger is an old blood 'n' guts, do what it takes type. Dafoe is more of a noble warrior, wanting to win hearts and minds in the field while smoking dope back at base.
The two come head to head after Berenger tries to beat some information out of a possibly innocent villager. He becomes enraged and executes one of the women. This splits the platoon as soldiers are forced to choose up sides.
Did I like the movie? It was good but not great. The technical side of making war movies has advanced so much that it doesn't look good. Also, there are now about 800 'Vietnam was horrible' movies. Probably shouldn't penalize this as it did quite a bit to launch those movies...but it sure didn't make me more anxious to watch it, either. Worst of all? It's impossible to take Charlie Sheen serious.
No comments:
Post a Comment