Platoon is a 1986 American epic anti-war film written and directed by Oliver Stone, starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, and Charlie Sheen, with supporting roles by Forest Whitaker, Francesco Quinn, John C. McGinley, Richard Edson, Kevin Dillon, Keith David, Reggie Johnson, Johnny Depp, Mark Moses, Chris Pedersen and Tony Todd. It is the first film of a trilogy of Vietnam War films directed by Stone, followed by Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven & Earth (1993). The film, based on Stone's experience from the war, follows a new U.S. Army volunteer (Sheen) serving in South Vietnam while his platoon sergeant (Berenger) and his squad leader (Dafoe) argue over the morality in the platoon and of the war itself.
Stone wrote the screenplay based upon his experiences as a U.S. infantryman in South Vietnam, to counter the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne's The Green Berets. Although he had written 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.
Platoon was released by Orion Pictures on December 19, 1986. Upon its release, Platoon received critical acclaim for Stone's directing and screenplay, cinematography, the battle sequences' realism, and the performances of Sheen, Dafoe, and Berenger. The film was a box office success upon its release, grossing over $138 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.
Platoon is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest films ever made, particularly within the war genre. In 1998, the American Film Institute placed Platoon at #83 in their "AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies" poll. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot 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 ruthless Staff Sergeant Barnes, and the more compassionate Sergeant Elias.
Taylor participates in a night ambush of an invading North Vietnamese Army force and a rebelling Viet Cong force. Taylor is wounded during the firefight while Gardner, another new replacement, is killed. 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 while Manny is captured and slain by unseen assailants. The platoon finds Manny's body and search a nearby village, finding a supply cache. Taylor is remorsefully unable to prevent Bunny from murdering a villager. Barnes aggressively interrogates the village chief and murders his wife in view of the villagers. When he also threatens to murder the chief's granddaughter, 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.
Back at base, company commander Captain Harris warns he will pursue an investigation and court martial anyone found to have killed any civilians, leaving Barnes worried Elias will testify against him. On their next patrol, the platoon is ambushed and pinned down, taking casualties. Wolfe accidentally directs artillery fire onto his own unit, causing more casualties, before Barnes calls it off. Elias asks for three men to intercept flanking enemy troops, a plan Barnes agrees to but only after telling Elias "out here you belong to me". Elias takes Taylor, Rhah and Crawford to intercept flanking enemy troops. Barnes pulls the rest of the platoon back, and goes out to retrieve Elias. Elias is separated from the others and finds Barnes alone, who then takes the opportunity to shoot him. Heading towards the helicopter extraction, he tells Taylor that Elias is dead, but as they fly out they see the wounded Elias chased from the jungle by NVA soldiers and VC guerillas before getting killed.
Realizing Barnes was responsible for Elias' death, 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 and taunts them. Barnes fights off an attack by Taylor, cutting his face with a push dagger before departing.
The platoon is sent back out to a defensive position. Taylor shares a foxhole with Francis. When a major NVA and VC night assault occurs, much of the platoon is killed, including Wolfe and most of Barnes' followers. An NVA or VC 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 wounded Barnes, who attempts to kill Taylor before both are knocked unconscious by the air strike.
Regaining consciousness after sunrise, an injured but walking Taylor picks up a rifle and finds Barnes who is injured and crawling away. Barnes orders Taylor to get him a medic, to which Taylor doesn’t respond. Barnes sees Taylor isn’t acting on the order, and then dares Taylor to shoot him. Taylor shoots him dead. Francis survives the battle unharmed but stabs himself in the leg, reminding Taylor that twice wounded men are returned home. As a helicopter carries the two men away, Taylor sobs as he flies away from the battlefield, reflecting on how his experiences in the war will remain with him.
Cast
Production Development
The seeds of what would become Platoon began as early as 1968, months after Oliver Stone had completed his own tour of duty fighting in the Vietnam War. Stone first wrote a screenplay called Break, a semi-autobiographical account detailing his experiences with his parents and his time in Vietnam. 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. 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.
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 directed the film with Al Pacino slated to star had there been studio interest. 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.
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 that he 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.
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 South 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.
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. 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.
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]". Denzel Washington expressed interest in playing the role of Elias, a character Stone said was based on a soldier he knew in Vietnam. 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. Kyle MacLachlan also turned down the role of Taylor. Sheen said that he got the part of Taylor, because of Dafoe's nod of approval. Jon Cryer auditioned for the role of Bunny, which eventually went to Kevin Dillon. Crispin Glover also met Stone regarding an unspecific role in the film.
Many Vietnamese refugees living in the Philippines at the time were recruited to act in different Vietnamese roles in the film.
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. 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.
Filming