10 Most Important War Films Ever Made

One of the earliest Vietnam films created by an actual combat veteran of the conflict, Born on the Fourth of July director Oliver Stone's 1986 drama Platoon was one of the first anti-war films to portray the personal struggle of soldiers during their bloody, brutal invasion of the small nation.

Written as a rebuttal to the embarrassingly misguided late career John Wayne propaganda piece The Green Berets, Platoon is a film critical both of individual soldier's amoral actions in Vietnam and more broadly of the callous administration which sent them to kill indiscriminately and be killed in their droves.

Oliver Stone was one of only few veterans of the Vietnam War to chronicle his experiences in a full scale studio production, and the operatic tragedy of the film offered a voice to a generation of young boys sent to slaughter civilians, most of whom lost their lives or learned too late that their dreams of heroism were a lie sold to them by an uncaring government interested only in their bottom line, regardless of how many lives it cost.