Platoon (1986)
Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young, naive American who gives up college and volunteers for combat in Vietnam. Upon arrival, he quickly discovers that his presence is quite nonessential, and is considered insignificant to the other soldiers, as he has not fought for as long as the rest of them and felt the effects of combat. Chris has two commanding officers, the ill-tempered and indestructible Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes (Tom Berenger) and the more pleasant and cooperative Sergeant Elias Grodin (Willem Dafoe). A line is drawn between the two officers and a number of men in the platoon when an unlawful killing occurs during a village raid. As the war continues, Chris himself draws towards psychological meltdown. And as he struggles for survival, he soon realizes he is fighting two battles, the conflict with the enemy and the conflict between the men within his platoon.
Books with substantial mentioning of Platoon
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David Thomson Have you seen?, A personal introduction to 1,000 films New York, 2008 |
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David Sterritt and John Anderson (eds.) The B list, The National Society of Film Critics on the low-budget beauties, genre-bending mavericks, and cult classics we love Cambridge, MA, 2008 |
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Jürgen Müller Die besten Filme der 80er Köln - London - Los Angeles - Madrid - Paris - Tokyo, 2005 |
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Don Kunz (editor) The Films of Oliver Stone Lanham, Md., & London, 1997 |
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Danny Peary Alternate Oscars, One Critic's Defiant Choices for Best Picture, Actor, and Actress - From 1927 to the Present New York, 1993 |
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| Frank N. Magill (ed.) Magill's Cinema Annual 1987, A Survey of the Films of 1986 Pasadena, California; Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1987 pp. 354-358 
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Reviews
| Ian Nathan, The Thin Red Line/Platoon, in: Empire, nr. 264 (June), 2011 pp. 146 (DVD review) |