10 Things We Learned From Oliver Stone On Joe Rogan Experience
5. How He Made Platoon As Realistic As He Could
As we've mentioned a few times already in this list, Platoon is famed for being one of the most authentic depictions of war people have ever seen in cinemas. However, that level of detail doesn't just end up in a movie by chance.
Stone's own experience in the war definitely helped him build the story, but the director also managed to bring in an excellent combat advisor who had been in the war as a marine known as Dale Dye. Stone referred to him as a 'lifer type', which meant that he remembered all the details when it came to things like uniforms and the realistic fire power used at the time.
In order to produce a film which was as honest about the Vietnam war experience as possible, Stone also insisted on casting younger people ('who didn't look like they'd done other movies') for the roles. He also wanted these actors to really feel as tired as he routinely felt when in Vietnam. So, to do this he had his stars put through an intense training camp which would leave them physically tired and irritable.
He mentioned that at first there was 'a lot of bitching' about the camp, but the people who didn't want to be there eventually quit and were replaced by other names the director had on his list of potential players.
Bet, they wish they stuck around now...