Stone wrote the screenplay based upon his experiences as a U.S. infantryman in Vietnam, to counter the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne's The Green Berets. Although he wrote scripts for films such as Midnight Express and Scarface, Stone struggled to get the film developed until Hemdale Film Corporation acquired the project along with Salvador. 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]
Upon its release, Platoon received critical acclaim for Stone's directing and screenplay, the cinematography, battle sequences' realism, and the performances of Sheen, Dafoe, and Berenger. The film was a box office success upon its release, grossing $138.5 million domestically against its $6 million budget, becoming the third highest-grossing domestic film of 1986. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards at the 59th Academy Awards, and won four: Best Picture, Best Director for Stone, Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.
The 25th Infantry Division patch of the U.S. Army, in which Taylor's platoon serves in the film. Director Oliver Stone served in the 25th Infantry in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968.
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 cynical Staff Sergeant Barnes, and the more compassionate Sergeant Elias.
Taylor participates in a night ambush of a North Vietnamese Army force. Taylor is wounded during the firefight while Gardner, another new replacement is killed due to his inexperience. 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 and Manny is abducted by unseen assailants who stage the corpse. The platoon finds the 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 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 being gang-raped by some of Barnes' men but is unable to prevent Bunny from murdering a villager.
Company commander Captain Harris threatens to court-martial anyone found to have illegally killed civilians, and orders Barnes and Elias to put aside their differences. On their next patrol, the platoon is ambushed and pinned down. Wolfe directs artillery fire onto his own unit 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.
Taylor attempts to talk the heads into fragging Barnes in retaliation, not realizing Barnes has overheard them. He enters the abandoned bunker they use for gathering, taunts them, and fights off an attack by Barnes, cutting Taylor's face with a push dagger.
The platoon is sent back out to a defensive position. Taylor shares a foxhole with Francis. When a major NVA night assault occurs, much of the platoon is killed, including Wolfe and most of Barnes' followers. An NVA sapper destroys the battalion headquarters in a suicide attack forcing Captain Harris to call an air strike on their shrinking perimeter. In the chaos, Taylor encounters a seriously wounded Barnes, and as they grapple both are knocked unconscious by the air strike.
When Taylor regains consciousness after sunrise, Barnes dares Taylor to kill him, and Taylor shoots him dead. Francis stabs himself in the leg, reminding Taylor that twice wounded men are returned home. As a helicopter carries the two men away, Taylor waves goodbye to Rhah. Command of the platoon is given to the cowardly Sgt. O'Neill. An overwhelmed Taylor sobs as he flies away from the battlefield, narrating how the war has changed him forever.
"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 become Platoon began as early as 1968, months after Stone had completed his own tour of duty fighting in Vietnam. Stone first wrote a screenplay called Break, a semi-autobiographical account detailing his experiences with his parents and his time in the Vietnam War. Stone's active duty service resulted in a "big change" in how he viewed life and the war. Although Break was never produced, he later used it as the basis for Platoon.[8] His screenplay featured several characters who were the seeds of those he developed in Platoon. The script was set to music from The Doors; Stone sent the script to Jim 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.) Although Break was never produced, Stone decided to attend film school.[8]
After writing several other screenplays in the early 1970s, Stone worked with Robert 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 the Break screenplay and developed a new screenplay, which he titled Platoon. Producer Martin 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 with Al Pacino slated to star had there been studio interest.[9] But, based on the strength of his writing in Platoon, Stone was hired to write the screenplay for Midnight 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 finance Platoon, because it was about the unpopular Vietnam War. After the release of The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, the studios then cited the perception that these films were considered the pinnacle of the Vietnam War film genre as reasons not to make Platoon.[8]
Stone responded by attempting to break into mainstream direction via the easier-to-finance horror genre, but The Hand failed at the box office, and he began to think Platoon would never be made. Instead, he cowrote Year of the Dragon for a lower-than-usual fee of $200,000, on the condition from producer Dino De Laurentiis would next produce Platoon.Year of the Dragon was directed by Stone's friend Michael Cimino, who had also helmed The Deer Hunter. According to Stone, Cimino attempted to produce Platoon in 1984.[9]
The Department of Defense refused to support the production of the film due to its depiction of American 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 for Platoon, 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 become Salvador was passed to John Daly of British production company Hemdale. Once again, this was a project that Stone had struggled to secure financing for, but Daly loved the script and was prepared to finance both Salvador and Platoon. Stone shot Salvador first, before turning his attention to Platoon.[8]
Casting
James Woods, who had starred in Stone's film Salvador, 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 with Entertainment Weekly that Mickey Rourke, Emilio Estevez and Kevin 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 that Keanu 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]
Many Vietnamese refugees living in the Philippines at the time were recruited to act in different Vietnamese roles in the film.[18]
Stone makes a cameo appearance as the commander of the 3d Battalion, 22d Infantry in the final battle, which was based on the historic New 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 a U.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]
Filming
Exterior shooting began on the island of Luzon in the Philippines in February 1986, although the production was almost canceled because of the political upheaval in the country, due to then-president Ferdinand 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 the Armed Forces of the Philippines.[10]
Upon arrival in the Philippines, the cast was sent on an intensive training course, during which they had to dig foxholes and were subjected to forced marches and nighttime "ambushes," which used special-effects explosions. Led by Vietnam War veteran Dale 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, fired blanks 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, entitled Platoon: 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-day President'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]
Home media
Due to a legal dispute between HBO Home Video and Vestron 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] Vestron reissued the film twice, in 1991 and 1994. It made its DVD debut in 1997 through Live Entertainment. It was released again on VHS in 1999 by PolyGram 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 by MGM Home Entertainment (who now owns the rights to the film through their purchase of the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library).[37] MGM released the 20th anniversary DVD through Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in 2006 while 20th 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.[38]
Reception
Critical response
On Rotten 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."[39] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 92 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[40] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[41]
Roger Ebert gave it four out of four stars, calling it the best film of the year, and the ninth best of the 1980s.[42][43]Gene Siskel also awarded the film four out of four stars,[44] and observed that Vietnam War veterans greatly identified with the film.[45] In his New York Times review, Vincent Canby described Platoon as "possibly the best work of any kind about the Vietnam War since Michael Herr's vigorous and hallucinatory book Dispatches.[46]
"The film has been widely acclaimed," Pauline Kael admitted, "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]
War correspondent Wallace Terry criticized the film's portrayal of its African-American characters as what he saw as lazy and lacking leadership ability.[47] Some Vietnam War veterans criticized the film for showing the killing of civilians, drug use among soldiers, and its portrayal of officers as ineffective. Others praised Stone for a realistic depiction of the war.[48][49][50]
Avalon Hill produced a 1986 wargame as an introductory game to attract young people into the wargaming hobby.[52]
Platoon (1987), a shooter video game, was developed by Ocean Software and published in 1987–88 by Data East for a variety of computer and console gaming systems.
↑ Peers, Benedict Carver,Martin (October 22, 1998). "MGM closes in, again". Variety. Archived from the original on September 3, 2018. Retrieved September 2, 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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