20 War Movies EVERY Film Fan Should Have Seen

3. Platoon

Directed by the always controversial, always underrated Oliver Stone of Wall Street and Natural Born Killers fame, 1986's Platoon has the distinction of being one of few war films created by an actual veteran.

Stone's experiences serving a tour of duty in Vietnam infuse the righteously angry and unapologetically tragic script with real urgency, whilst the balletic violence renders the deaths of American soldiers a poignant spectacle.

Benefitting from a career best turn from Charlie Sheen only a few years after his father excelled in the stranger Apocalypse Now, Platoon is a crushing, deeply felt piece of war filmmaking which earns a place alongside Casualties of War and Full Metal Jacket as essential Vietnam cinema.