Did you love the movie Platoon? Well here's a documentary about the making of Platoon.
- Thread starter james t kirk
- Start date
I heard Oliver Stone say he went to Vietnam for the "experience". I guess to have street cred or rites of passage cred. Or looks good in his resume cred. Or bragging rights cred. Not too much mention of the completely wrong invasion and destruction of Vietnam and the deaths of millions of Vietnamese people, who living in a country the size of a postage stamp, somehow was a threat to America 8000 miles away. You see American vets (presumably) wearing T shirts saying "Freedom ain't free". Vietnamese certainly paid the price.While Apocalypse Now was a brilliant movie, it wasn't realistic. It was art-house. Kafkaesque even.
Platoon was cold hard in your face reality. You could almost smell the reality coming at you right from the screen. That's what made it so fucking incredible to watch. I had never seen anything like it by that point in my life. Still don't know if I have.
And when you add in that Oliver Stone (Writer and Director) who can only be described as a thinking man, a complex man, did two tours of duty in Vietnam (you heard me, two tours) in the army, it's fucking chilling. And he wasn't in the rear, he was on the front. Kubrick and Copola (especially) are both geniuses, however, they didn't do 2 tours in the jungles of Vietnam.
Superb war film. I would have been happy with any of those nominees winning that year they were all brilliant. Willem Dafoe was also nominated for the same film. But my choice would have been Dennis Hopper for Hoosiers.
My bad! The Ride of the Valkyries scene in AN is probably the visually best war movie sequence I have ever seen. Not sure I ever bought into the Joseph Conrad remake idea though. I never saw Full Metal Jacket and probably should.
Yes you should. And shame on you for not seeing it. Easily a top 5 war film in my books.
Saw this back in 1987. Pretty good depiction of Ironically what the Russians are doing in the Ukraine right now.
Full Metal Jacket is a great movie as well. Hard for me to say one is better than the other as the stories are different. All have incredible actors.
Another scene that is spot on (I have heard this from veterans), is the opening sequence to Saving Private Ryan. Extremely realistic and you are glued to your seat. Sounds incredible with surround sound.
I'm glad you liked it.
I found it fascinating to see the various stars as young men, and how they all built deep friendships which have lasted lifetimes and there exists a comradery between them like no other relationships in their lives.
It reminded me very much of this scene from Band of Brothers where the German General spoke to his men after the German surrender and talked about the bond between the men that can only be forged in combat.
Everyone paid the price and neither side was innocent. Don't ever kid yourself.
If you want to see a really good Vietnam war documentary then I’d recommend the Ken Burns PBS Vietnam War documentary.
Very thorough and interviews people from both sides.
Platoon and Full Metal Jacket are great but I’d also recommend the film Hamburger hill and the tv series “Tour of Duty” to round our the Vietnam War collection.
Very thorough and interviews people from both sides.
Platoon and Full Metal Jacket are great but I’d also recommend the film Hamburger hill and the tv series “Tour of Duty” to round our the Vietnam War collection.
Absolutely, women don't like "Dark". They'll do everything they can to avoid it.
These themes appeal to our male psyche of honour and brotherhood.
Women see completely different themes as they're filtering what they see through their psyche.
Where you'll see a young man channel his inner warrior, bleed and break his bones to save his friends, a woman would simply say: "why is he there in the first place?"
Well, I'd cut the side who didn't fly 8000 miles to invade the another country a little more slack the side who did.
You mean the side that publicly beat to death political dissidents and their families?
Oh. That was the reason the US carpet bombed them. Same time period lynching was a sport in the American South.
