Platoon (Special Edition) | 
 enlarge | Actors: Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David, Johnny Depp, Kevin Dillon
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $4.07
You Save: $10.91 (73%)
New (68) Used (47) Collectible (4) from $4.07
Avg. Customer Rating:  292 reviews
Sales Rank: 2146
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 120
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: D1002044D
UPC: 027616862815
EAN: 0027616862815
ASIN: B00005AUJQ
Theatrical Release Date: December 24, 1986
Release Date: June 5, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com essential video
Platoon put writer-turned-director Oliver Stone on the Hollywood map; it is still his most acclaimed and effective film, probably because it is based on Stone's firsthand experience as an American soldier in Vietnam. Chris (Charlie Sheen) is an infantryman whose loyalty is tested by two superior officers: Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe), a former hippie humanist who really cares about his men (this was a few years before he played Jesus in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ), and Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), a moody, macho soldier who may have gone over to the dark side. The personalities of the two sergeants correspond to their combat drugs of choice--pot for Elias and booze for Barnes. Stone has become known for his sledgehammer visual style, but in this film it seems perfectly appropriate. His violent and disorienting images have a terrifying immediacy, a you-are-there quality that gives you a sense of how things may have felt to an infantryman in the jungles of Vietnam. Platoon won Oscars for best picture and director. --Jim Emerson
Description
Winner* of 4 Academy AwardsÂ(r), including Best Picture, and based on the first-hand experience of OscarÂ(r)-winning** director Oliver Stone, Platoon is powerful, intense and starkly brutal. "Harrowingly realistic and completely convincing" (Leonard Maltin), it is "a dark, unforgettable memorial" (The Washington Post) to every soldier whose innocence was lost in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a young, naive American who, upon his arrival in Vietnam, quickly discovers that he must do battle not only with the Viet Cong, but also with the gnawing fear, physical exhaustion and intense anger growing within him. While his two commanding officers (OscarÂ(r)-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, the conflict, chaos and hatred permeate Taylor, suffocating his realities and numbing his feelings to man's highest value life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 287 more reviews...
 Wonderful May 3, 2008
For those of us who only knew of the Vietnam War from A little High School History , Television , and A few Books ,this Movie showed A new , eye opening story about this Cvil War , that we got invovled in , and lost A lot of great people in .
Platoon review April 29, 2008
Platoon 20th anniversary edition is a great addition to my DVD library. The comentary by Oliver Stone and his advisor give great perspective into the movie and the Vietnam war.
 Conservatives, You Can Come Out of Your Foxholes April 6, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
First, let me lay my cards on the table: I'm a conservative republican, am generally pro-military (i.e. U.S.), and distrust Oliver Stone nearly as much as I do Michael Moore. Further, I don't know if I've ever agreed with a thing that the Sheen family has said. Yet even though some of my political pals disdain this movie, I feel differently. I half-expected a heavy dose of lefty-propaganda and intentional distortion, but for the most part was pleasantly surprised. I try to evaluate every item I encounter fairly and individually (instead of a knee jerk reaction), and these are my thoughts on Platoon, after viewing it again tonight:
On the 'positive' side, the film rightly shows the awfulness of war. Again and again, liberals seem to think that those on the right somehow deny this. Of course we do not! I give the movie high marks for depicting war as a living nightmare. Personally, I cringe when some of the older movies represent war as little more than a comic book boys' fantasy. I also thought Platoon contained some admirable acting (Sheen, Dafoe, Berenger, David), and combat scenes. It held me throughout.
The one major criticism I would make, and the flaw that keeps it from being an elite film in my opinion, is the way in which it reaches too far to show the dark side and corruption of the soldiers (American). Stone has a crippling weakness for sensationalism (evidence: JFK), and it seeped through some here. For instance, you cannot take the worst atrocities (even if they are all factual, which I question) and then portray them as representative of a typical company of soldiers and their Vietnam experience. Yet this was the impression given. In fact, it was basically the story. This is irresponsible and misleading. One of the film's few faults, but a bad one.
However, when considered as a whole, Platoon has much to commend it. While it is unfortunate that its weaknesses diminish its merit, they do not ruin it. I'd be very surprised if Stone ever makes another movie nearly as good.
Wow, One of the greatest of all time. March 25, 2008
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
Im mad I bought this great dvd! It's by far the best edition out, I want to see all this on blu-ray as well.
horrors of war March 8, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Oliver Stone's Platoon transcends the romanticization that so often infuses our thinking about war with a painfully honest portrayal of its dehumanizing effects. Charlie Sheen plays Chris Taylor, whose idealism drives him to leave college for the hellish jungles of Vietnam. He sheds his innocence quickly, however, as the horrors of war take a heavy toll on his body and his sanity. After witnessing acts of barbarity by fellow soldiers--including rape and the deliberate killing of civilians--Taylor becomes aware that he is fighting not only an external enemy, but an inner one as well.
Representing the sides of this internal battle are Sergeant Elias (William Dafoe), who shows compassion towards his men and is outraged by atrocities he witnesses, and Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger), who displays no regard for human life. With their sanity pushed to its limits by the terror of combat, members of the platoon are torn between the two men and begin to turn on each other.
This film is disturbing in its brutal realism, and the painful questions it raises remain relevant decades after the Vietnam War, particularly in light of incidents such as the Haditha massacre and the overwhelming numbers of Iraq veterans struggling with PTSD. Platoon sheds light on the conditions that breed atrocity and the devastating psychological effects of war upon soldiers. It is not an antiwar film, nor one with a political agenda; it is simply a raw, candid film about war's impact.
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