| | | The first casualty of war is innocence.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Special Edition, Documentary, Director's Cut, Spanish, Subtitled
Winner of 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and based on the first-hand experiences of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, Platoon is a movie "that regards combat from the ground level, from the infantryman's point of view, and does not make war look like fun" (Roger Ebert). Powerful, intense and starkly brutal, Platoon is "harrowingly realistic and completely convincing" (Leonard Maltin) from beginning to end! Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young naive American who arrives in Vietnam to quickly discover that he must do battle not only with the Viet Cong, but also the gnawing fear, physical exhaustion and intense anger growing within him. As the fierce battle rages around him, his two commanding Sergeants (Oscar-nominated Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe) draw a fine line between the war they wage against the enemy and the one they fight with each other, dangerously dividing the loyalty of the men. The fighting within, around and everywhere permeates Taylor, suffocating his realities and numbing his feelings to man's highest value...life. Platoon is "a dark, unforgettable memorial" (The Washington Post) to every soldier whose innocence was lost in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam.
"A staggering study of war." Washington Post
"...one of the finest war films ever made..." Find-A-Video
"Harrowingly realistic and completely convincing..." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Editor's Note
In PLATOON, Oliver Stone draws on his experience as an infantryman in Vietnam to convey the brutality of guerrilla warfare: the heat of the jungle, the brushes with such wildlife as snakes and leeches, and, most powerfully, the presence of the unseen enemy. Charlie Sheen stars as Chris, a raw recruit, or "new meat," who serves as the film's narrator. At first he wilts under the rigorous conditions of jungle life, freezes up in a fire fight, and wonders whether he'll be able to survive. But he gradually adapts and, as time goes by, begins to see that the platoon is divided into two groups. One consists of lifers, juicers, and subintelligent whites, the other of blacks and heads. Sgt. Barnes, a combat-loving burnout (Tom Berenger), is the informal leader of the lifers, and Sgt. Elias, a free spirit (Willem Dafoe), leads the latter group. When the platoon takes some gruesome losses, an enraged Barnes kills some Vietnamese and orders the burning of their village, outraging the temporarily absent Elias. As the conflict between these two reaches its tragic climax, Chris must decide what he really values. Widely regarded as one of the finest war films ever made, PLATOON reflects not only the United States' division over Vietnam but the timeless truths of battle: terror, disorientation, exhilaration, and horrible loss.
| Features | Spanish Subtitles | | Widescreen Version, Enhanced For 16X9 TVs | | French Dolby Digital Stereo | | Spanish Dolby Digital Stereo | | French Subtitles | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Original Television Spots | | English 5.1 Surround Dolby Digital | | Audio Commentary With Director Oliver Stone And Military Supervisor Captain Dale Dye | | Documentary Tour Of The Inferno Featuring Interviews With Director, Cast And Crew | | Photo Gallery |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: MGM |
| Release Date: 4/2/2001 |
| Running Time: 120 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1986 | | Catalog ID: 1002044 | | UPC: 00027616862815 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1987) |  | Oliver Stone, Winner, Best Director | | Arnold Kopelson, Winner, Best Picture | | Claire Simpson, Winner, Best Editing | | Charles Grenzbach, et al., Winner, Best Sound | | | Tom Berenger, Nominee, Best Supporting Actor | | | Willem Dafoe, Nominee, Best Supporting Actor | | | Oliver Stone, Nominee, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen | |
Golden Globe (1987) | | Oliver Stone, Winner, Best Director | | Tom Berenger, Winner, Best Supporting Actor | | | Oliver Stone, Nominee, Best Screenplay--Motion Picture |
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| | Professional Reviews | Premiere
"...Wrenching..." - Recommended 05/01/1995 p.136New York Times
"Nothing that Oliver Stone has done before...is preparation for the singular achievement of his latest film, PLATOON....A major piece of work, as full of pasion as it is of redeeming, scary irony..." 12/19/1986 p.C12 Entertainment Weekly
Rating: B 07/08/1994 pp.58-9 Variety
"...Intense....Very effective scenes....An impressive-looking production in all respects..." 12/03/1986 Los Angeles Times
"...This is movie-making with a zealot's fervor....[Stone] may have achieved a remarkable bridge with PLATOON. He has personalized a war for us..." 12/19/1986 p.C1 Total Film
"...With incredible set pieces and gripping firefights the belie the tiny budget, PLATOON's impact has barely diminished over the years..." 10/01/2000 p.112 Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] phenomenon....Importantly, Stone captured something of what it felt like to fight in the war." 04/01/2006 p.138 Washington Post 8 of 10
This is not the Vietnam of op-ed writers, rabble-rousers or esthetic visionaries, not Vietnam-as-metaphor or Vietnam-the-way-it-should-have-been. It is a movie about Vietnam as it was, alive with authenticity, seen through the eyes of a master filmmaker who lost his innocence there. - Paul Attanasio
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
There are no false heroics in this movie, and no standard heroes... There is no carefully mapped plot to lead us from point to point; instead, like the characters, we are usually disoriented. Anything is likely to happen, usually without warning... A film that says--as the Vietnam Memorial in Washington says--that before you can make any vast, sweeping statements about Vietnam, you have to begin by understanding the bottom line, which is that a lot of people went over there and got killed, dead, and that is what the war meant for them. - Roger Ebert
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