81 Days With Oscar And Me

Oliver Stone is to directing movies what a croquet mallet is to carving a turkey.

Platoon is yet another movie – the most heavy-handed to date – that proves war is hell.

War is hell.

I get it, Hollywood. I get it. In fact, I’ve been getting it since All Quiet on the Western Front back in 1930. Your movies haven’t prevented any wars. All they’ve done is polarize and demoralize our country.

Lest anyone forget Platoon‘s heavy-handed message, the tagline for the movie – printed on the front of the DVD case – reminds us: “The first casualty of war is innocence.”

Really? Damn, I’m glad someone told me it’s not all glitz and glamor in the trenches. I could have gone through my entire life with my noggin in my bottom had it not been for Platoon setting me straight.

Here’s the summary of the movie from the back of the DVD: “Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young, naive 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.”

It’s impossible not to notice the heavy-handed anti-American message that permeates the movie. According to Oliver Stone, American soldiers are drug-addled, merciless, violent, foul-mouthed, dull-witted terrorists and rapists just as apt to shoot and kill civilians (or each other!) as whatever the enemy happens to be at any given moment.

Words can’t describe how little I think of Oliver Stone, or his steaming pile of a movie.

What perplexes me is why anyone in the Academy would vote for this excrement. Platoon isn’t a movie, it’s a knife in the back of every American soldier who ever served his/her country. It is Leftist propaganda so blatant in its message that I find every frame of the movie vile.

The dialogue is so incredibly heavy-handed and poorly acted that I can’t believe this isn’t a high-school play I’m watching. I mean, it’s really, really bad. Doubt me? Read this transcript of the voice-over narration supplied by Charlie Sheen as he’s lifted by chopper away from the jungles of ‘Nam at the end of the movie:

I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy. We fought ourselves. And the enemy was in us. The war is over for me now. But it will always be there the rest of my days. As I’m sure Elias will be, fighting with Barnes for what Rhah called possession of my soul. There are times since I felt like a child, born of those two fathers. But be that as it may, those of us who did make it have an obligation to build again. To teach to others what we know. And to try with what’s left of our lives to find a goodness and meaning to this life.

Believe me, that sounds as bad in the movie (especially with Sheen’s lackluster voice) as it looks in print. It’s childish, shallow, and club-like in its anti-war message. If I ever write dialogue like that in one of my scripts, I hope somebody slaps me silly.

A title card just before credits reads roll: Dedicated to the men who fought and died in the Vietnam War.

Seriously? Does Oliver think that by slapping a title card on the end of this twisted movie it makes the Vietnam vets feel better, after he just slapped them all in the face by portraying them in the ugliest possible way? Did things happens in Vietnam that happened in the movie? Possibly. Oliver Stone will tell you, definitely, yes. Did some soldiers snap and go on killing sprees? Yes. But did they all? Did every one? Was the content of Oliver’s movie the norm in Vietnam? I hardly think so. He’s only showing the reality he experienced as a soldier in the jungles, which is a very small slice of the reality as a whole. That’s what I find offensive about the movie. Oliver Stone is saying this was Vietnam. This is what happened. By implication, since this is an anti-war film, he’s saying this is how all American soldiers behave in combat. That message I find unconscionable.

The Cast
Tom Berenger (1949- )………………………Sgt. Barnes
Willem Dafoe (1955- )………………………..Sgt. Elias
Charlie Sheen (1965- )……………………….Chris
Keith David (1956- )…………………………..King
Forest Whitaker (1961- )……………………..Big Harold
Francesco Quinn (1962- )……………………Rhah
Kevin Dillon (1965- )………………………….Bunny
John C. McGinley (1959- )…………………..Sgt. O’Neill
Reggie Johnson (?-?)…………………………..Junior
Mark Moses (1958- )………………………….Lt. Wolfe
Corey Glover (1964- )…………………………Francis
Johnny Depp (1963- )…………………………Lerner

Directed By
Oliver Stone (1946- )

Writing Credits
Oliver Stone, 1946- (written by)

Platoon was nominated for eight Academy Awards (although I can’t imagine why) and won four (what was the Academy smoking that night?): Best Director (Oliver Stone), Best Film Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound.

I think the Academy needs to devise a category called War Is Hell so that everyone knows what’s what when movies like this are released.

Incidentally, the behind-the-scenes, making-of feature is vastly more interesting than the movie itself. So, tell ya what. If you feel you must buy this DVD, skip the movie. Watch the making-of instead. You’ll enjoy it more. And you’ll still get the message: War is hell.