Platoon (1986) on Netflix
Chris Taylor leaves college to fight in Vietnam. In a platoon near the Cambodian border, he is caught between two sergeants, the ruthless Barnes and the compassionate Elias.
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- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1967, Chris Taylor reaches South Vietnam as an Army volunteer and is posted to a platoon of the 25th Infantry Division, close to the border with Cambodia. The men treat him as an insignificant replacement. The platoon is commanded by the young Lieutenant Wolfe, who relies on two experienced sergeants: the ruthless Staff Sergeant Barnes and the compassionate Sergeant Elias. Taylor is wounded in a night ambush and, back at base, falls in with Elias and his circle of marijuana smokers. On a later patrol, a booby trap kills two soldiers. Searching a village, Barnes interrogates the chief and kills his wife in front of the villagers, and the platoon splits over the killing.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Platoon (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Oliver Stone's unproduced screenplay Break, which he later used as the basis for Platoon, was sent to Jim Morrison in the hope that he would play the lead. Morrison never responded, and he still had the script with him when he died in Paris.
- Before filming, lead actors including Sheen, Dafoe, Depp, and Whitaker went through a grueling 30-day military-style boot camp where their food, water, and sleep were restricted, and trainers fired blanks at night to keep the exhausted cast awake.
- Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay from his own experience as a U.S. infantryman in Vietnam, in part to push back against the war's romanticized portrayal in John Wayne's The Green Berets.
- Platoon nearly became a very different film: Oliver Stone says that Sidney Lumet was to have directed it, with Al Pacino slated to star, had there been any studio interest at the time.
- Platoon was the first Hollywood film to be both written and directed by a veteran of the Vietnam War; Oliver Stone, who had already written Midnight Express and Scarface, struggled to get it developed until Hemdale Film Corporation acquired the project along with Salvador.
- Oliver Stone confirmed that Mickey Rourke, Emilio Estevez and Kevin Costner were all considered for the part of Barnes, and he believes Costner turned the role down “because his brother had been in Vietnam”. Keanu Reeves turned down the role of Taylor because of the violence.
SPOILER
The Department of Defense refused to support the production, calling the script unrealistic and highly unfavorable for depicting American soldiers murdering and raping South Vietnamese civilians, one US soldier attempting to murder another, and drug abuse; the film was also accused of perpetuating racist stereotypes of African-American soldiers.- Filming in the Philippines was nearly canceled because of the political upheaval under president Ferdinand Marcos, and shooting only began, on schedule, two days after Marcos fled the country.
