Platoon: 1986

I had to skip over Out of Africa (1985) due to it being checked out of my library. But never fear...I have placed a hold and hope to have it soon. Right now, the 1980s are kicking my butt with long Best Picture winners. Fortunately, Platoon is 120 minutes and excellent but dark, which shouldn't be surprising since it's about the Vietnam War. The story follows Chris Taylor (a very young Charlie Sheen), a college student who volunteered to join the army in 1967 to fight in the war and who soon learns how hopeless this war was.

The film starts with him arriving in Vietnam, and the opening music is a melancholy classical piece that seems to hang over each moment in the scene. As Chris leaves his plane, he and the other new soldiers encounter body bags that are waiting to be sent to the U.S.

What struck me in this opening is the sound. The music works to set this sorrowful tone, and the noises of the jungle follow the music as the setting changes. The jungle sounds provide such a strong contrast, and I found myself nervous as the soldiers moved through the growth, expecting at any moment something to grow wrong because of how the music made me feel. It was a powerful use of a sound, and just one of many moments in the film where I experienced something that makes this film truly worthy of the Best Picture award.

Platoon is one of those films that leaves me thinking. At the end of the film, in his internal dialogue, Chris says, "We did not fight the enemy; we fought ourselves." I think he's right about this war and about more. When we fight, is it really against someone or something? Or is it more about us not understanding?