Platoon

Saw Platoon yet again. Saw it alone for the first tile at Chanakya god knows how many years ago and have seen it again many a time on VHS, VCD, DVD. The film apart, I like the sensitivities that Oliver Stone captures.

I guess that is what made me look forward to all subsequent Oliver Stone movies but all left me disappointed (Wall Street apart).

Why would a film that is so inherently 'American' appeal to me.

The divisions that war creates be it the internal conflict that torments Charlie Sheen - the rich kid who decides to volunteer.

The strife between Tom Berenger and William Dafoe - the good and the evil both fighting on the same side and yet fighting against each other with the former shooting the latter in cold blood.

A badly wounded Dafoe running away from the Vietcong (after having been shot by Berenger) to see his regiment being air-lifted. He hops and crawls and finally falls to his knees and looks skywards his arms stretched out as though in prayer and a gesture of anguish before he falls face down.

The manic Kevin Dillon who smashes the face of a retarded Vietnamese and then shouts out amazed "I've never seen brains spill out that way' .

The invisible Vietcong who surface as menacing shadows.

Good film.