When was the movie platoon released

Coming 11 years after the official end of the war, Platoon opened a conversation between veterans and civilians that had previously been too painful to have. Here are a dozen facts to shed some light on it. Stone has been described as difficult to work with even under the best of circumstances, and the grueling Platoon shoot—10 weeks in the miserable Philippine jungle—was in another category. Platoon was shot in the Philippines, which had the advantage of looking a lot like Vietnam without actually being in Vietnam.

Willem Dafoe said that to get into character for the sequence where the soldiers are lounging around the tent, smoking and drinking whatever they can get their hands on, he and the other actors got stoned ahead of time. By the time they actually shot the scene, a few hours had passed, and everyone had come down. Sure, they thought. By the end of shooting, only a handful the original actors remained on set.

It gave an added effect of loneliness and a sense of loss to those still on set, explained John C. McGinley, who played Sgt. When his fellow soldiers approach, Sheen drops the grenade. He oversees daily editorial operations, edits articles, and supports reporters so they can continue to write the impactful stories that matter to our audience. In terms of writing, James provides a mix of pop culture commentary and in-depth analysis of issues facing the military and veterans community. Contact the author here.

Mind games, crappy food, matching uniforms, and signing a contract without realizing what you're agreeing to. Sound familiar? Platoon is semi-autobiographical. Stone, who served as an infantryman in Vietnam, has grafted many of his experiences into the film, and the primary characters are based on individuals Stone served with.

The lead, Chris Taylor Charlie Sheen , represents the filmmaker. One could reasonably argue that the reason Platoon is so good is because it has such a deeply personal meaning for Stone. Consequently, his tendencies to over-direct and show off, which have marred some of his other efforts, are not in evidence here.

There's no razzle-dazzle — just basic, powerful storytelling. Platoon is not primarily a political film. The politics are all in the background. The movie isn't concerned about the rights or wrongs of being in Vietnam.

Those things are abstract, and this is about the concrete: surviving to see another fight, counting down the days until a tour of duty is over, and living each moment with the Angel of Death hovering close.

The Viet Cong are the enemy — not because they're Communists, but because they are shooting to kill. Platoon offers the point-of-view of the grunt, not of the officer or the strategist or the politician. Platoon recounts the tour of duty of Chris Taylor, beginning when he arrives, fresh from basic training, and ending when he is helicoptered out after being seriously injured in a major battle. As a new face, Chris gets little respect from those who have been in the war longer than he has.

He abandoned any attempt to make it clear where the various forces were in relation to each other, so that we never know where "our" side stands and where "they" are. Instead of battle scenes in which lines are clearly drawn, his combat scenes involve degrees: Any shot might be aimed at friend or enemy, and in the desperate rush of combat, many of his soldiers never have a clear idea of exactly who they are shooting at, or why.

Identifying with the soldiers, we feel that if we duck behind this tree or jump into this ditch, we will be safe from the fire that is coming from over there. In "Platoon," there is the constant fear that any movement offers a chance between a safe place or an exposed one. Stone sets up his shots to deny us the feeling that combat makes sense.

The Vietnam War is the central moral and political issue of the last quarter-century, for Americans. A film that says - as the Vietnam Memorial in Washington says - that before you can make any vast, sweeping statements about Vietnam, you have to begin by understanding the bottom line, which is that a lot of people went over there and got killed, dead, and that is what the war meant for them. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from until his death in In , he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Kevin Dillon as Bunny. Tom Berenger as Sgt. Forest Whitaker as Big Harold. Charlie Sheen as Chris. John C.