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Platoon
As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.
1986 · Directed by Oliver Stone · 120 min · Drama · War · Action · Screenplay in the scene database · 29 frames
Tagline
The first casualty of war is innocence.
Plot
In 1967, U.S. Army volunteer Chris Taylor arrives in South Vietnam and is assigned to an infantry platoon of the 25th Infantry Division near the Cambodian border. The platoon is commanded by the young and inexperienced Lieutenant Wolfe, who relies on two experienced non-commissioned officers: the ruthless Staff Sergeant Barnes, and the more compassionate Sergeant Elias.
Taylor participates in a night ambush of an invading North Vietnamese Army force and a rebelling Viet Cong force. Taylor is wounded during the firefight while Gardner, another new replacement, is killed. Taylor returns to base from the aid station and bonds with Elias and his circle of marijuana users ("heads"), a clique distinct from Barnes and his hard-edged followers.
During another patrol, two soldiers are killed by a booby trap while Manny is captured and slain by unseen assailants. The platoon finds Manny's body and search a nearby village, finding a supply cache. Barnes aggressively interrogates the village chief and murders his wife in view of the villagers. When he also threatens to murder the chief's granddaughter, Elias intervenes and assaults Barnes. Wolfe breaks up the ensuing fight, orders the supplies destroyed and the village razed. Wolfe feigns ignorance when Elias accuses him of not stopping Barnes. Taylor prevents two girls from being gang-raped by some of Barnes' men, but is remorsefully unable to prevent Bunny from murdering a villager.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Oliver Stone
- Cinematography: Robert Richardson
- Edited by: Claire Simpson
- Music: Georges Delerue
- Production design: Bruno Rubeo
- Produced by: Arnold Kopelson
Cast
- Charlie Sheen as Chris Taylor
- Willem Dafoe as Sergeant Elias Grodin
- Tom Berenger as Sergeant Robert "Bob" Barnes
- Kevin Dillon as Bunny
- Forest Whitaker as Big Harold
- Mark Moses as Lieutenant Wolfe
- Keith David as King
- Richard Edson as Sal
- Francesco Quinn as Rhah
- John C. McGinley as Sergeant O'Neill
Production
- Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English, Vietnamese
- Studios: Hemdale Film Corporation, Arnold Kopelson Productions
- Budget: $6,000,000
- Box office: $138,530,565
- Themes: dying and death, vietnam war, helicopter, ambush, war crimes, village, mine, bunker, infantry, jungle
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