Happy Memorial Day to all those currently serving in the U.S. armed forces, and to you vets of America’s foreign wars. This week’s pick is Oliver Stone’s 1986 Academy Award winner for Best Picture Platoon, which depicts the horrors and struggles of infantrymen figthing not only the enemy, but themselves during one of the most difficult periods of the Vietnam conflict.
The film stars Charlie Sheen (Chris Taylor), Tom Berenger (SSgt. Bob Barnes), Willem Dafoe (Sgt. Elias), Forest Whitaker (Big Harold), Francesco Quinn (Rhah), John C. McGinley (Sgt. O’Neill), Kevin Dillon (Bunny), Reggie Johnson (Junior), Keith David (King), Johnny Depp (Lerner), Mark Moses (Lt. Wolfe), Chris Pedersen (Crawford), Corey Glover (Francis), and veteran Marine and the film’s technical advisor Dale Dye (Captain Harris).
The film is an autobiographical account of Stone’s own experiences during 1967-68 as told by a fresh-faced new recruit Chris Taylor (Sheen) who dropped out of college and volunteers for combat duty in Vietnam. The film opens with Taylor’s arrival in country as he and others deplane from an Air Force transport. Taylor and fellow recruit Gardner (Bob Orwig) see body bags which are being loaded onto their plane.
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