2. Platoon (1986)
Platoon was written and directed by Oliver Stone, a man who had been a soldier in Vietnam so we could hopefully expect some verisimilitude in the proceedings. The film is certainly highly decorated and critically acclaimed and is probably the best known and most appreciated of the Vietnam war films. The film follows the experiences of Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) as a soldier in Vietnam. He is adopted by a tight knit group of guys who socialise and do drugs in a cabin clubhouse. He is mentored by Sgt Elias (Willem Defoe) and makes friend with King (Keith David). Throughout the film Taylor, during combat, sees his fellow soldiers about to behave in despicable behaviour that goes against Just War Theory and directly contravenes the Geneva Conventions. The boss of his platoon - Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes is the type of guy to not give a monkeys about this sort of carrying on. The film focuses on the Taylor-Barnes conflict. Barnes is a very evil man who shoots Elias and blames it on the Vietnamese. Taylor knows exactly what sort of a psychopath he is and tries unsuccessfully to get the men to rebel against Barnes. The final exciting conclusion heads for a direct Barnes-Taylor showdown but both are knocked unconscious by a hit. When they come round, Barnes dares Taylor to shoot him and he blasts him to pieces. Hooray! Taylor is airlifted out of Vietnam - he has been injured twice and can now retire. He cries his eyes out as he is flown over the destroyed and desolate Vietnam. In the character of Bob Barnes, we have the personification of everything that is wrong, evil and immoral in war. Some of you may say the Vietnam War was wrong, evil and immoral. Some of you may say war full stop is wrong, evil and immoral. However, sometimes it is necessary. Could we really sit back and let Hitler run rough shod over Europe and kill every last Jew? Of course not. But war has rules and laws that must be obeyed such as the non-killing of civilians, the non use of torture etc. Platoon plays out in very black and white terms - Good way to fight war (Taylor) and Bad way to fight war (Barnes). Even the goodie is beaten in the end (psychologically distraught), so Platoon is a very powerful antiwar statement by director Stone. War is indeed hell.