Did you love the movie Platoon? Well here's a documentary about the making of Platoon.

james t kirk

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Aug 17, 2001
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Just finished this doc and thought I'd post it for the few mongers out here in TERB-Land who have more than one dimension to their personalities. Maybe some will find it as fascinating as I did.

This doc is amazing. Awe inspiring the bond and the comradery between the actors who made this academy award winning movie that blew my 20 year old self away when it was released. I left that theatre in the dead of winter in Hamilton back in the day shaken to the core. Watching this documentary, it really takes you for a walk through your memories. Incredible the bonds that were formed with these young actors. And great to see Charlie Sheen not being a douche for the first time in decades. Who knew there was still a human being under there.

Oh, and Tom Berringer was robbed for the Best Supporting Actor
 

mandrill

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Aug 23, 2001
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The only great war movie ever made.

(When I was a young guy who should have know better, I took my brand new girlfriend to see it. I got dumped on the way out of the theatre - LOL! I learned the hard way that it wasn't exactly your ideal date movie.)
 

james t kirk

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Aug 17, 2001
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The only great war movie ever made.

(When I was a young guy who should have know better, I took my brand new girlfriend to see it. I got dumped on the way out of the theatre - LOL! I learned the hard way that it wasn't exactly your ideal date movie.)
Yeah. 15 / 20 years ago I watched it with my then girlfriend. And there was this rape scene where a few American soldiers in the Platoon rape a couple of young girls, (like 12 year old girls) and Chris (Charlie Sheen) stops the rape - trying to emulate his mentor Elias (Wilem Defoe) who stopped Barnes (Tom Berringer) from executing a kid in the scene before. Elias then comes upon Charlie Shern (Chris) and instead of supporting Chris, he just hollers at him "get out of there".

My then GF was completely outraged at Elias being non plussed about the whole rape scene. She felt completely betrayed and disgusted. I told her I understood the scene and why Elias was not outraged with the rapists and she got upset with me. -(I damn well should have known better.) I don't think she ever thought the same of me and we didn't last much longer.

Definitely not a movie for the women folk.
 
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unassuming

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The only great war movie ever made.

(When I was a young guy who should have know better, I took my brand new girlfriend to see it. I got dumped on the way out of the theatre - LOL! I learned the hard way that it wasn't exactly your ideal date movie.)
What about Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket?
 

Insidious Von

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War films can be admired not loved.

Platoon is a classic, then Oliver Stone completely miscasts the story of Ron Kovic (Born on the 4th July), it was a howler. Stone fired Eric Roberts for being a degenerate cokehead. I walked out of the film and never say the girl who asked to see it again. I was in NJ for American Thanksgiving and asked my Nam Vet cousin, who knows Ron Kovic, if he'd seen it. I've never forgotten his words, "Pee Wee Herman would have been more convincing than that whiny POS Cruise".


My cousin is 73 now, he's retired but still does photography for real estate agents. When his time comes he has plot at Arlington National Cemetery reserved for him - should the family consent.
 
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james t kirk

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What about Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket?
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.



 
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Insidious Von

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Stanley Kubrick was too old to go to Vietnam, he was 39 in 1968. Francis Ford Copolla was the son of Met conductor Carmine Copolla, he may have gotten a pass. He was 29, a script writer in 1968, probably working on Patton.

 
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Resetset

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All the 'nam movies that era were the same to me.

You love this movie because of the chick you watched it with OP.
 
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Ref

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Just finished this doc and thought I'd post it for the few mongers out here in TERB-Land who have more than one dimension to their personalities. Maybe some will find it as fascinating as I did.

This doc is amazing. Awe inspiring the bond and the comradery between the actors who made this academy award winning movie that blew my 20 year old self away when it was released. I left that theatre in the dead of winter in Hamilton back in the day shaken to the core. Watching this documentary, it really takes you for a walk through your memories. Incredible the bonds that were formed with these young actors. And great to see Charlie Sheen not being a douche for the first time in decades. Who knew there was still a human being under there.

Oh, and Tom Berringer was robbed for the Best Supporting Actor
Incredible documentary, thanks for posting.
 

Insidious Von

My head is my home
Sep 12, 2007
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Stanley Kubrick shot the second half of Full Metal Jacket at Shepperton Soundstage. It was an accurate depiction of the Battle of Hue (America's Stalingrad) after which the Chiefs of Staff knew they could not win the war, President Johnson did not seek re-election.

One aspect where these movies are same, the Viet women are portrayed as duplicitous waifs. Denise Kumagai (Night Court) set the standard in Go Tell The Spartans ,being both horny and a Viet Minh operative. Gorgeous VanVu has blown that stereotype to smithereens, she has a smokin hot body.

 
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