2. Sergeant Bob Barnes - Platoon
Shut up! Shut up and take the pain! Take the pain! - Sergeant Bob Barnes
Just look at his face. Barnes has clearly gone through some stuff and it has left him in a dark place. The war has driven him so far off the edge that that everyone and everything is now an enemy to him. No longer fighting for any cause the only rules that apply to a man like Barnes are: 1) What stands in his way, and 2) How easily can it be killed. When Sergeant Elias stops him from executing children in a village Barnes growls at him, "You're dead, Elias!" At the end of the movie, Chris (Charlie Sheen's character) finds him alone and wounded after a battle. Soon Barnes realizes that Chris is not there to help him, but to exact revenge on Barnes for later shooting Elias in the jungle and leaving him for the enemy. The look on his face is remorseless as he taunts Chris to kill him. The film Platoon is obviously very well made, but not a watch many would enjoy. Director Oliver Stone based the story on his own personal experiences and those related to him by others while he fought in the war which makes the elements in the movie seem more true to life. What is sad about the picture is that it depicts accurately the American on American violence that occurred almost every day over there. Officers who were unpopular often got shot in the back while out in the jungle. When the men got back to base they told their commanders whatever story they wanted. A friend of mine used to work with a mechanic who carried a toolbox with a noose hanging off it everyday to work. Finally my buddy asked, "Hey man, why the noose?" "Oh," he answered, "just an old joke from Vietnam." "What's the joke?" "Well, one night a marine jumped a guy from our squad and beat him up pretty badly. So later we found the guy at a bar, took him outside, and hanged him." "You killed the guy?" The mechanic simply shrugged, "We killed everyone over there man."