Directed by Oliver Stone - 1986 Poster
Having now watched The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, I was interested to see what Oliver Stone would make of the Vietnam conflict. The first scene is certainly stark: new soldiers are coming off the tail end of a transport plane in Vietnam. They spot a line of black body bags and one says: "Oh, man! Is that what I think it is?" Other memorable sentences include: "All right, you cheese-ducks, welcome to the Nam" and "New meat". One feels this is all authentic, particularly after you read that Oliver Stone not only directed the movie but wrote the script, which was based on his own experiences as a US infantryman in Vietnam. It's September 1967, and the whole war is going badly for the Americans. Charlie Sheen, the main lead character (Chris Taylor), has volunteered and he is fresh-faced and, simply, naive. The movie charts his increasing disillusionment (he is, after all, the Oliver Stone figure), as he encounters not only the savagery of warfare but the knowledge that there is downright enmity within the ranks as well as against the enemy.
Charlie Sheen as Chris Taylor
This is personified in the hardened and cynical Sergeant Bob Barnes (Tom Berenger) and the more reasonable Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe). Barnes says: "I am reality" and castigates Elias for being "full of shit...a crusader". Barnes even says to one group, "I shit on all of you." The camera work is excellent, whether focussing on close-ups of the strain and fear in the American faces (although once or twice this was overdone and went on far too long) and of the napalming of villages and forest. The raising of the village and killing of the village elder was horrific (a reference to the notorious My Lai Massacre in 1968).
Berenger and Dafoe
Filming was done chronologically and employed Vietnamese refugees living in the Philippines (where it was filmed). The main actors were put through a 30-day military-style training regimen, with limited food and water. When the actors slept, blanks were fired to force them awake. Forced marches and night-time 'ambushes reinforced a 'reality' for them.
So what's the problem? My major concern was I felt I was too often being preached at. Now, Stone's version of the war is much closer to mine than John Wayne's The Green Berets. But I want the space to think for myself. Dialogue and, especially, Sheen's voice-over comments were bordering on the didactic and often too wordy. "The poor is always being fucked over by the rich. Always have, always will." Of some of the recruits : "Most have got nothing. They're poor. They're the unwanted. Yet they're fighting for our society and our freedom." Stone has every right, particularly as he was a participant, to be anti-war etc., but let's have more nuance. Secondly, there were so many 'fucks', 'fuckings' and 'shits' that I lost count. Okay, it was probably like that - but it's a film, to be seen by a wide range of age groups and temperaments. Even broad-minded me got fed up with the swearing.
Critical responses? Tim Newark, in his 50 Great War Films, talks of a grim vision of an American platoon out of control, torn apart by deadly rivalry and drug taking and says it chimed with the anti-war spirit of the time, but now seems overly melodramatic. Roger Ebert called it the best film of the year, but Pauline Kael remarked that the movie crowds you, it doesn't leave you room for an honest emotion. It was a success at the Box Office grossing $138.5 million domestically against its $6 million budget. It won 4 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound and Best Film Editing.
2006 DVD
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