Platoon

1986 • 119 minutos

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Chris Taylor is a young, naive American who gives up college and volunteers for combat in Vietnam. Upon arrival, he quickly discovers that his presence is quite nonessential, and is considered insignificant to the other soldiers, as he has not fought for as long as the rest of them and felt the effects of combat. Chris has two commanding officers, the ill-tempered and indestructible Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes and the more pleasant and cooperative Sergeant Elias Grodin. A line is drawn between the two officers and a number of men in the platoon when an illegal killing occurs during a village raid. As the war continues, Chris himself draws towards psychological meltdown. And as he struggles for survival, he soon realizes he is fighting two battles, the conflict with the enemy and the conflict between the men within his platoon.

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This movie touched my soul. I was 13 years of age during the time of the Vietnam War, without a care in the world . A few years later, some of the friends I had grown up with, were drafted, and sent to fight in Vietnam as well as a family member. Most of them never made it home and the few that did, were forever changed. As for the family member, he was wounded 3 separate times, and sent home 3 times, but was unable to adjust. In the end he took his own life. After viewing this movie thinking of the family and friends I'd lost in that war and what they must have gone through , I cried for days. Even now at times when I think of how our country turned their backs on these soldiers, our fathers ,brothers, husbands, uncles, cousins, friends who paid the ultimate price , I cry . I will forever remember and miss them.

This movie captured every nuance of the US Army as it really was better than any other movie I've ever seen. Surprisingly, it wasn't even about the Army. It was about life choices. Are you going to choose to do things by the book, or are you going to choose to be willing to do whatever it takes to go home alive, rules and morals be damned. Elias click versus Barnes click. It's interesting to note that neither went home alive and that sometimes it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

If you want a great movie on Vietnam I recommend you watch "WE WERE SOLDIERS". Platoon is an aberration of the war, 15 year span of time in the time span of one movie. I served in Vietnam 14 months not as an infantryman but in the Signal Corp, but I saw more than I needed of "incoming" and death. No one can deny atrocities occured by our troops, My Lai is possibly the most horrible and widely known, but there were very few occurrences during the war by our troops. Another problem blown out of proportion is the drug use. It was there but drug use was much more prevalent in the military in other places, such as Germany and even the U. S., but it was not as sensational for the press.