Stone wrote the screenplay based upon his experiences as a U.S.infantryman inVietnam, to counter the vision of the war portrayed inJohn Wayne'sThe Green Berets. Although he wrote scripts for films such asMidnight Express andScarface, Stone struggled to get the film developed untilHemdale Film Corporation acquired the project along withSalvador. Filming took place in the Philippines in February 1986 and lasted 54 days.Platoon was the first Hollywood film to be written and directed by a veteran of the Vietnam War.[4]
Platoon was released byOrion Pictures on December 19, 1986. Upon its release,Platoon received critical acclaim for Stone's directing and screenplay, cinematography, the battle sequences' realism, and the performances of Sheen, Dafoe, and Berenger. The film was a box office success upon its release, grossing $137.9 million domestically against its $6 million budget, becoming thethird highest-grossing domestic film of 1986. The film was nominated for eightAcademy Awards at the59th Academy Awards, and won four:Best Picture,Best Director for Stone,Best Sound, andBest Film Editing.
Platoon is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest films ever made, particularly within the war genre. In 1998, theAmerican Film Institute placedPlatoon at #83 in their "AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies" poll. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[5][6][7]
In 1967, U.S. Army volunteer Chris Taylor arrives inSouth Vietnam and is assigned to an infantry platoon of the25th Infantry Division near theCambodian border. Theplatoon is commanded by the young and inexperiencedLieutenant Wolfe, who relies on two experienced non-commissioned officers: the ruthless Staff Sergeant Barnes, and the more compassionateSergeant Elias.
Taylor participates in a night ambush of aNorth Vietnamese Army 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 ofmarijuana users ("heads"), a clique distinct from Barnes and his hard-edged followers.
During another patrol, two soldiers are killed by abooby trap set by theViet Cong 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 aggressivelyinterrogates the village chief and murders his wife in view of the villagers. When he also threatens to murder the chief's daughter, 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 beinggang-raped by some of Barnes' men but is remorsefully unable to prevent Bunny from murdering a villager.
Back at base,company commander Captain Harris warns he will pursue an investigation andcourt martial anyone found to have killed any civilians, leaving Barnes worried Elias will testify against him. On their next patrol, the platoon isambushed and pinned down, taking casualties. Wolfe accidentally directs artillery fireonto his own unit, causing more casualties, before Barnes calls it off. Barnes orders Elias, Taylor, Rhah and Crawford to intercept flanking enemy troops, pulls the rest of the platoon back, and goes out to retrieve Elias. When Elias is separated from the others, Barnes takes the opportunity to shoot him. During the helicopter extraction, he tells Taylor that Elias is dead, but as they fly out they see the mortally wounded Elias chased from the jungle by NVA soldiers and killed.
Realizing Barnes was responsible for Elias' death, Taylor attempts to talk the heads intofragging Barnes in retaliation, not realizing Barnes has overheard them. He enters the abandoned bunker they use for gathering and taunts them. Barnes fights off an attack by Taylor, cutting his face with apush dagger before departing.
The platoon is sent back out to a defensive position. Taylor shares afoxhole with Francis. When a major NVA night assault occurs, much of the platoon is killed, including Wolfe and most of Barnes' followers. AnNVA sapper destroys the battalion headquarters in asuicide attack, forcing Captain Harris to call anair strike on their shrinking perimeter. In the chaos, Taylor encounters a wounded Barnes, who attempts to kill Taylor before both are knocked unconscious by the air strike.
Regaining consciousness after sunrise, Taylor picks up a rifle and finds Barnes who dares Taylor to kill him, and Taylor shoots him dead. Francis survives the battle unharmed but stabs himself in the leg, reminding Taylor that twice wounded men are returned home. As a helicopter carries the two men away, Taylor sobs as he flies away from the battlefield, reflecting on how his experiences in the war will remain with him.
"Vietnam was really visceral, and I had come from a cerebral existence: study ... working with a pen and paper, with ideas. I came back really visceral. And I think the camera is so much more ... that's your interpreter, as opposed to a pen."
The seeds of what would becomePlatoon began as early as 1968, months afterOliver Stone had completed his own tour of duty fighting in theVietnam War. Stone first wrote a screenplay calledBreak, a semi-autobiographical account detailing his experiences with his parents and his time in Vietnam. Stone's active duty service resulted in a "big change" in how he viewed life and the war. AlthoughBreak was never produced, he later used it as the basis forPlatoon.[8] His screenplay featured several characters who were the seeds of those he developed inPlatoon. The script was set to music fromThe Doors; Stone sent the script toJim Morrison in the hope he would play the lead (Morrison never responded, but his manager returned the script to Stone shortly after Morrison's death; Morrison had the script with him when he died in Paris). AlthoughBreak was never produced, Stone decided to attend film school.[8]
After writing several other screenplays in the early 1970s, Stone worked withRobert Bolt on the screenplay,The Cover-up (it was not produced). Bolt's rigorous approach rubbed off on Stone. The younger man used his characters from theBreak screenplay and developed a new screenplay, which he titledPlatoon. ProducerMartin Bregman attempted to elicit studio interest in the project, but was not successful. Stone claims that during that time,Sidney Lumet was to have helmed the film withAl Pacino slated to star had there been studio interest.[9] But, based on the strength of his writing inPlatoon, Stone was hired to write the screenplay forMidnight Express (1978).
The film was a critical and commercial success, as were some other Stone films at the time, but most studios were still reluctant to financePlatoon, because it was about the unpopular Vietnam War. After the release ofThe Deer Hunter andApocalypse Now, the studios then cited the perception that these films were considered the pinnacle of the Vietnam War film genre as reasons not to makePlatoon.[8]
Stone responded by attempting to break into mainstream direction via the easier-to-finance horror genre, butThe Hand failed at the box office, and he began to thinkPlatoon would never be made. Instead, he cowroteYear of the Dragon for a lower-than-usual fee of $200,000, on the condition from producerDino De Laurentiis would next producePlatoon.Year of the Dragon was directed by Stone's friendMichael Cimino, who had also helmedThe Deer Hunter. According to Stone, Cimino attempted to producePlatoon in 1984.[9]
TheDepartment of Defense refused to support the production of the film due to its depiction ofAmerican war crimes, claiming the script was "rife with unrealistic and highly unfavorable depictions of the American soldier" for its depiction of the murder and rape of Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers, the attempted murder of one US soldier by another, drug abuse and portraying the majority of American soldiers as "illiterate delinquents." The film was also accused of perpetuating racist stereotypes of African-American soldiers.[10][11]
De Laurentiis secured financing forPlatoon, but he struggled to find a distributor. Because De Laurentiis had already spent money sending Stone to the Philippines to scout for locations, he decided to keep control of the film's script until he was repaid.[8] Then Stone's script for what would becomeSalvador was passed toJohn Daly of British production companyHemdale. Once again, this was a project that Stone had struggled to secure financing for, but Daly loved the script and was prepared to finance bothSalvador andPlatoon. Stone shotSalvador first, before turning his attention toPlatoon.[8]
James Woods, who had starred in Stone's filmSalvador, was offered the role of Barnes. Despite his friendship with Stone, he turned it down, later teasingly saying he "couldn't face going into another jungle with [Oliver Stone]".[12]Denzel Washington expressed interest in playing the role of Elias,[13] a character Stone said was based on a soldier he knew in Vietnam.[14] Stone confirmed in a 2011 interview withEntertainment Weekly thatMickey Rourke,Emilio Estevez andKevin Costner were all considered for the part of Barnes. He believes Costner turned down the role "because his brother had been in Vietnam." Stone also verified in the interview thatKeanu Reeves turned down the role of Taylor because of the violence.[9]Kyle MacLachlan also turned down the role of Taylor.[15] Sheen said that he got the part of Taylor, because of Dafoe's nod of approval.[16]Jon Cryer auditioned for the role of Bunny, which eventually went to Kevin Dillon.[17]
ManyVietnamese refugees living in the Philippines at the time were recruited to act in different Vietnamese roles in the film.[18]
Stone makes acameo appearance as the commander of the3d Battalion, 22d Infantry in the final battle, which was based on the historicNew Year's Day Battle of 1968 in which he had taken part while on duty in South Vietnam.Dale Dye, who played Captain Harris, the commander of Company B, is aU.S. Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran who also served as the film's technical advisor.[19] The third US Army veteran who appears in the film is a member of the crew who was briefly seen shirtless in the climactic battle.[citation needed]
Exterior shooting began on the island ofLuzon in thePhilippines in February 1986, although the production was almost canceled because of thepolitical upheaval in the country, due to then-presidentFerdinand Marcos. With the help of well-known Asian producer Mark Hill, the shoot commenced, as scheduled, two days after Marcos fled the country.[20] Shooting lasted 54 days and cost $6.5 million. The production made a deal with the Philippine military for the use of military equipment.[8] Filming was done chronologically.[21] As a result of the Department of Defense refusing to supply historically-accurate equipment and uniforms, the film instead used equipment belonging to theArmed Forces of the Philippines.[10]
Upon arrival in the Philippines, the cast was sent on an intensive training course, during which they had to digfoxholes and were subjected to forced marches and nighttime "ambushes," which used special-effects explosions. Led by Vietnam War veteranDale Dye, training put the principal actors—including Sheen, Dafoe, Depp and Whitaker—through an immersive 30-day military-style training regimen. They limited how much food and water they could drink and eat and when the actors slept, firedblanks to keep the tired actors awake.[22] Dye also had a small role as Captain Harris. Stone said that he was trying to break them down, "to mess with their heads so we could get that dog-tired, don't give a damn attitude, the anger, the irritation ... the casual approach to death".[8]Willem Dafoe said "the training was very important to the making of the film", adding to its authenticity and strengthening the camaraderie developed among the cast: "By the time you got through the training and through the film, you had a relationship to the weapon. It wasn't going to kill people, but you felt comfortable with it."[23]
In 1986, a novelization of the film script, written by Dale Dye, was published.[26] In 2018 actor Paul Sanchez, who played Doc in the movie, made a documentary about the making of the film, entitledPlatoon: Brothers in Arms.[27][28]
Platoon was released in the United States on December 19, 1986, and in the Philippines[30] and the United Kingdom in March 1987, with its release in the latter receiving an above 15 rating for strong language, scenes of violence, and soft drug use.[31]
In its seventh weekend of release, the film expanded from 214 theaters to 590 and became number one at the United States box office with a gross of $8,352,394.[32] It remained number one for four weekends.[33] In its ninth weekend, it grossed $12.9 million from 1,194 theaters over the four-dayPresident's Day weekend, being the first film to gross more than $10 million in a weekend in February and setting a weekend record for Orion.[34]
Due to a legal dispute betweenHemdale Film Corporation andVestron Video over home video rights, the film was delayed from its planned October 1987 release.[35] After a settlement was reached, it was finally released on tape on January 22, 1988, through HBO, and then reissued on September 1, 1988, by Vestron.[36] The HBO release generated sales of $24 million from 380,000 videos sold.[37] Vestron reissued the film twice, in 1991 and 1994. It made its DVD debut in 1997 throughLive Entertainment. It was released again on VHS in 1999 byPolyGram Video (who briefly held the rights to the film through its purchase of the Epic library). The film was rereleased on DVD and again on VHS in 2001 byMGM Home Entertainment (who now owns the rights to the film through their purchase of the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library).[38] MGM released the 20th anniversary DVD throughSony Pictures Home Entertainment in 2006 while20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the Blu-ray version on May 25, 2011.Shout! Factory released the 4K remastered Blu-Ray on September 18, 2018, and released a 4K Ultra-HD/Blu-ray combo pack on September 13, 2022.[39]
OnRotten Tomatoes,Platoon has an approval rating of 89% based on 123 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Informed by director Oliver Stone's personal experiences in Vietnam,Platoon forgoes easy sermonizing in favor of a harrowing, ground-level view of war, bolstered by no-holds-barred performances from Charlie Sheen and Willem Dafoe."[40] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 92 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[41] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[42]
Roger Ebert gave it four out of four stars, calling it the best film of the year, and the ninth best of the 1980s.[43][44]Gene Siskel also awarded the film four out of four stars,[45] and observed that Vietnam War veterans greatly identified with the film.[46] In hisNew York Times review,Vincent Canby describedPlatoon as "possibly the best work of any kind about the Vietnam War sinceMichael Herr's vigorous and hallucinatory bookDispatches.[47]
"The film has been widely acclaimed,"Pauline Kael wrote, "but some may feel that Stone takes too many melodramatic shortcuts, and that there's too much filtered light, too much poetic license, and too damn much romanticized insanity ... The movie crowds you; it doesn't leave you room for an honest emotion."[29]
However, black journalistWallace Terry, who spent a two-year tour in Vietnam, and wrote the 1967Timecover story titledThe Negro in Vietnam, criticized the film for its depiction ofAfrican-American soldiers in Vietnam. In an interview with Maria Wilhelm ofPeople, he called the film's depiction of black troops "a slap in the face". In the interview, Terry noted that there were no black actors playing officers, and the three notable black soldiers in the film were all portrayed as cowards. He further went on to criticise the film for perpetuatingblack stereotypes, stating the film "barely rises above the age-oldHollywood stereotypes of blacks as celluloid savages and coons who do silly things".[48] This criticism was echoed by African-American veteran Bennie J. Swans, who stated that "Millions of people are going to accept this movie as an accurate picture of blacks in the war... That makes this a dangerous movie."[49]
Some Vietnam War veterans criticized the film for showing the killing of civilians, drug use among soldiers, and its portrayal of officers as ineffective as adhering to sterotypical views of soldiers. Others praised Stone for a realistic depiction of the war.[50][51][52] Some veterans accused Stone of covering up war crimes he had himself witnessed as a soldier by failing to report them to his superiors, given the film was based on his autobiographical experiences.[53]
Avalon Hill produced a 1986wargame as an introductory game to attract young people into the wargaming hobby.[55]
Platoon (1987), a shooter video game, was developed byOcean Software and published in 1987–88 byData East for a variety of computer and console gaming systems.
^"Homevideo Track".Variety. November 2, 1988. p. 42.
^Peers, Benedict Carver,Martin (October 22, 1998)."MGM closes in, again".Variety.Archived from the original on September 3, 2018. RetrievedSeptember 2, 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
