One of many overrated oliver Stone movies. His one great Vietnam movie was "Heaven & Earth". "Platoon" did do nothing for me. It isn't a great war movie nor a great anti war movie... (C)

Levy....I am going to disagree with you here.

I feel Platoon strikes a cord with a viewer and I watched it 30 years after 1969 (Vietnam's worst year) and I was not alive during the time, but have family that was in the war and it strikes a cord with me. In my opnion, Stone is one of the greatest filmmakers (I have not seen Alexander yet, so don't make any comments) and shows his craft in this film. War films, even anti-war films usually glorify battle a tad bit, but in Platoon it is not glorified at all and I feel Stone accomplishes this by not having definte battle lines in the Tet Offensive, I am rambling in incomplete senteces.. I apoligize.

In conclusion, Platoon is a great film and second behind the Deer Hunter as best Vietnam movies, (that is if we are not counting Born on the Fourth of July).

A


I couldn't believe how I was stunned by this movie. It is a masterpiece and the best war movie ever made bar none. A cinematic perfection on every single level. It avoids the mistake that many war movies have made thus far. It does not have an overlong running time. It clocks just under 2 hours and that is the perfect running time for this movie.

It is hard to put in words how this movie impressed me. Everything about it was amazing. The cast was very well-chosesn and while Charlie Sheen is decent as the lead, Tom Berenger (in his career-best performance) and Willem Dafoe (another career-best) shine. The death scene of Dafoe is a classic movie image and a very hautning scene. The movie is well-filmed, very well-edited and provides the viewer with a good cast and a very engaging storyline. Its anti-war tones are there, but not too obvious. It leaves the viewer some space to think about it for himself/herself.

The movie is well-directed by Stone who really has lost his touch in recent years. But in this movie he still works at his best. Probably the best aspect of the whole movie is its score. Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings melody ranks among the ten best film melodies I have ever heard.

I can't recomment this movie strongly enough to all movie fans who have not seen this masterpiece yet. Astounding and fully deserving of the Best Picture Oscar it got. It is one of my all-time favorites.

A+

Just absolutely brilliant. A masterpiece of motion picture. Everything about it was just so...wow. It's hard to put into words. Like Lecter said, being 1 hour 55 minutes, instead of the usual 3 hours+, gives it a definite advantage and originality over the standard war epic. It doesn't waste time being slow and tedious, it just uses it'll full running to to deliver the goods as efficiently as virtually possible. Platoon also breaches another border in that although it is an action-packed Nam pic, it's also one of the most emotional movies that I have ever seen. The movie is not so much about the war situation, as is it is about the characters, and what being on the platoon is doing to their inside souls and emotions. Some of the death scenes just wowed me so much, totally knocking it out of the park. The Cambodian girl in the village, Dafoe on the field, everyone in that last ambush sequence. But best of all was Sheen at the end, shooting Berenger. That was one of the greatest film scenes that I have ever seen. The way he walked over, with the gun, the way Berenger dared him to shoot, the bulletfire, all of it unbelieavable.

Overall, Platoon is one of the best movies that I have ever seen. Oliver Stone proves that he is a genius, and one of the top directors ever. All of the accolades and the Best Picture win was completley deserved, and my kudos goes out to the Academy for recognizing it.

It's a fantastic film, but I actually don't think it's Oliver Stone's best. I liked Born on the Fourth of July and JFK better. Still, it's one of the best war films ever made, and is probably in the top three of films made about the Vietnam War.

A+

I think it's kinda crap, actually.

NO! You're kinda crap!

(Sorry.)

Platoon has long been on my list of "great" films I never got around to actually seeing. I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with the film, especially for only costing 6 million to make. It may not be as large in scope as other War films, but it feels just as real and even more suspenseful. It's quite the different experience than other great and competently made Vietnam films like Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, and Born on the 4th of July, and that I attribute much to Oliver Stone. This is his passion project of almost 18 years and it really shows. The frenetic cinematography really captures what has often been explained by veterans in the same way The Normandy Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan was to them. This is exactly how I would believe Vietnam to be. Now that doesn't mean it's my favorite film about Vietnam. There are some pacing issues and the cast ranges from great (Berenger, Dafoe) to effective (David, Sheen) to a little awful at times. But I'm glad I finally got around to this. Now seeing this Stone really kicked some serious ass with this Wall Street, Born on the 4th of July, and JFK all in a row.

A