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From The Stars & Stripes Forever To Semper Fidelis To Dixie & The 1812 Overture
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A young US Army soldier, Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), arrives in South Vietnam with
several other replacements and is assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. Along with fellow
soldier Private Gardner, he joins an experienced infantry platoon that has suffered in recent
combat operations. As he steps off the plane upon arrival in Vietnam, he sees the seasoned
veterans who have just finished their tours of duty, taunting the new guys as they board a
transport plane home. His enthusiasm quickly evaporates as he goes on endless patrols and,
as a new guy, is assigned to dig foxholes and perform other arduous tasks. On his first night
ambush patrol, his unit is set upon by a squad of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops who walk
into the squad's ambush position. The soldier meant to be on guard duty (Junior) has fallen
asleep. Private Gardner dies after being shot while standing up in a firefight and Tex has
his leg blown off from a grenade thrown by Sgt. Red O'Neil (John C. McGinley), who threw the
grenade and missed. Private Taylor is grazed in the neck. As Chris recovers from his wound—a
rite of passage that grants him greater social contact with his platoon mates—he reveals in
dialogue that he dropped out of college to volunteer for service in Vietnam. He states that
he felt college was leading him nowhere and that it was unfair that lower-class youths had
to carry the burden of the fighting in Vietnam, while rich kids could avoid the draft. His
new friends among the more seasoned troops introduce him to the "Underworld," a bunker
converted into a pseudo-nightclub, where they smoke marijuana and opium, drink beer, and
dance with each other to soul music.
After returning to field duty, Chris sees more combat and, during another patrol, a bunker
complex is discovered. During the examination of a campfire left by the enemy, two soldiers,
Sanderson and Sal, are mortally wounded by a booby trap. After leaving the bunker complex area,
the soldiers come across another member of their unit, Manny, who has been snatched from his
guard duty, tied to a post, and mutilated. Reaching a nearby village several kilometers north
of the bunker with a belief that the enemy was spotted there, the platoon discovers food and
weapons caches. This scene is loosely based on the true events surrounding the My Lai Massacre.
The villagers insist they were given no choice by the Viet Cong. The troops, tired and angry
because of the deaths of some of their comrades, take out their frustrations on the village,
murdering and torturing several civilians. Staff Sgt. Barnes kills a woman while interrogating
her husband. The platoon burns the village and leaves, with a final scene depicting the gang
rape of a teenage girl (which Chris stops). Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), having witnessed Staff
Sgt. Barnes' (Tom Berenger) and Lt. Wolfe's (Mark Moses) illegal actions, attacks Barnes and
then puts the two men on report to their Captain. Chris, having originally admired Barnes,
now finds his loyalties leaning towards Elias, while Barnes' supporters talk of fragging
Elias to prevent him from acting as an eyewitness in a formal report about the illegal killings.
On yet another patrol, the platoon is ambushed and suffers casualties. Lt. Wolfe fails to take
charge as the platoon suffers losses. Sgt. Elias, correctly anticipating an enemy flanking attack,
suggests a flanking ambush to counter the threat. Although Wolfe is skeptical, Barnes agrees to
the plan. Elias and three other men, including Pvt. Taylor, move around the fighting to try to
intercept the flanking NVA troops. Meanwhile, the inexperienced and incompetent Lt. Wolfe ends
up calling in an artillery barrage "danger close" to his own men. Along with the heavy fighting,
many wounded need attention and Barnes calls for them to pull back. This action leaves Elias and
his three troops unsupported. While the rest of the platoon retreats to its landing zone to be
airlifted out of the combat area, Barnes goes back, ostensibly to get Elias and his three men out.
Barnes orders Taylor and the two others back to the landing zone, telling them that he will get
Elias himself. However, instead of bringing Elias back, Barnes ambushes and shoots him. Barnes then
returns to the platoon. When Taylor asks where Elias is, Barnes tells him he is dead. During the
extraction by helicopter, however, the entire platoon sees Elias alive, badly wounded and running
away from the pursuing North Vietnamese. He dies, again in a Christ-like pose, in an open field
after being shot several more times by the North Vietnamese troops. Taylor now suspects that Barnes
caused Elias' death and begins talking to his fellow soldiers about killing Barnes in retaliation.
As a result there is a confrontation between Taylor and Barnes in the bunker.
The company is sent back into the area and builds defensive positions to bait the NVA. It had
been discovered that an entire NVA infantry regiment is on the move south down the Ho Chi Minh
Trail. This final battle ends with the obliteration of nearly the entire platoon, including Lt.
Wolfe, due to the heavy NVA attack and a US aerial napalm attack. During the battle, a berserking
Barnes nearly kills Chris. At dawn Chris regains consciousness, finding himself wounded and
surrounded by bodies. He takes an AK-47 rifle from a dead NVA soldier and wanders around,
aimlessly. Chris walks past, and ignores, a wounded but potentially dangerous NVA soldier
(in the background), suggesting that now he is focused on exacting revenge on Sgt. Barnes.
Eventually he finds the wounded Barnes. Barnes demands that Chris call a medic but Chris does
not budge and instead keeps the rifle trained on Barnes. Sneeringly, Barnes challenges Chris
to "do it." Chris shoots Barnes three times in the chest, killing him. One of the few other
survivors of the platoon is Pvt. Francis, who emerges from a bunker and is seemingly horrified
to find that he lived through the battle and will therefore be obliged to continue his tour of
duty. He grabs a knife and stabs himself in the thigh. The injured Chris is reunited with
Francis and the two are airlifted from the battlefield. The voiceover of the final scene
suggests Chris Taylor is going home to the US, profoundly affected and significantly
changed as a person. He states that those who survive have an obligation to those who
died there and meditates on his life as a product of two fathers, Barnes and Elias.
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Starring ... |
Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Forest Whitaker,
John C. McGinley, Johnny Depp, Kevin Dillon, Keith David
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Director: Oliver Stone
Producer: Arnold Kopelson
Year Released - Dec. 1986
Length - 120 minutes
Music Composer: Georges Delerue
Movie Distributed by Orion Pictures
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