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 enlarge | Actors: Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Keith David, Johnny Depp, Kevin Dillon
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $3.38
You Save: $11.60 (77%)
New (67) Used (42) Collectible (4) from $3.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  297 reviews
Sales Rank: 2674
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: 027616862815
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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| Customer Reviews:
 cuss kill July 31, 2005
9 out of 34 found this review helpful
Cuss, kill, cuss, get high, cuss, get killed, cuss, kill, cuss, get high, cuss, get killed ... That's it. Sorry for giving away the plot.
 A Great Film!! A Great DVD!!! July 18, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Having never been to Vietnam, it is hard for me to say that this is the most accurate Vietnam film made. My cousin was in Vietnam and he described the place to me and it definitely sounds like the movie. I also have friends who have said this was a very accurate film. Oliver Stone's main objective in writing and directing this film was to show people what it really was like in Vietnam. He said in an interview that Hollywood had their idea of what Vietnam was like and it never was on cue, (the closest being "Apocolypse Now").
To create some of the realism, Stone had the cast and crew do some military training in the Phillipines, which is where the film was shot. Charlie Sheen is quoted as saying, "It was so tiring, and when we were done we thought we'd be given a catered meal, but we're given military meals-ready-to-eat instead. We slept in two man foxholes that we dug. Stone wanted to grab the feeling of exhaustion and confusion, and did it exceptionally by putting the cast through rigorous conditions. As you watch the movie, you might find yourself saying, "Man, they look tired." It's because they are.
Oliver Stone used several of his own experiences in Vietnam in this film, especially the scene where Charlie Sheen is so frustrated with the situation, he starts shooting his M-16 at the feet of a Vietnamese villager to make him dance. He also said that the drug use in Vietnam had never really been accurately portrayed in Hollywood.
Great actors, a great script, and a great director, Platoon is a great film, that was the big winner at the 1986 Academy Awards Ceremony. I recommend it highly.
A Descent Into Hell July 13, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I think Platoon is meant to be an allegory. Stone, Dye and everyone else involved took aspects of their own Vietnam War experiences & experiences they knew about and mixed all the experiences into one movie. Platoon is a catalogue of the horrors of war. Certainly, it is impossible for one Company to be so completly cursed. As displayed in Platoon, Charlie Company is just about the worst company in the history of the US Army. Every loser, incompetent, brown noser, shirker, pothead, psycho, idiot and degenerate seems to have managed to get into Charlie Co. Also, they are cursed with the worst luck imaginable. Ambushes, booby traps and being overrun seem to be the order of the day for these guys. Their fatality and injury rate is appalling. The leadership is nonexistant & the soldiers never learn. If I served in Charlie, I'd demand a transfer. Platoon plays like all the absolute worst possible experiences one could have rolled into one miserable six week (or so) tour of duty. Defoe & Berenger are excellent & the village scene is one of the most emotionally intense & difficult to watch scenes I've ever seen. Platoon is less about an according-to-hoyle description of a tour of duty in Vietnam & more about what it felt like to be there.
 Bad audio? June 23, 2005
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
Is it my imagination, or is there some really bad audio in the movie? I bought my copy at "Target", so I assume it is not a bootleg. Anyhow, in the first half of the movie there is a scene where they are all sitting around outside, and in the background there is a very LOUD "hissing" noise. The noise comes and goes, and it sounds like the background hiss on old audio cassette tapes. I assume it isn't crickets or anything, becuase I heard it on DVD on my very expensive 5.1 theater system. A very bad job re-mastering in my opinion.
Gory Graphic and Defoe, what more could we want? June 18, 2005
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
Platoon is a movie that was made in the same spirit of Apocolypse now, set in the Vietnam war, Platoon was supposed to be a real life occurence of Oliver Stone. How accurete to life, or the liberties he took with it I don't know, neither do I care. Platoon is a movie to be watched and respected and not degraded because Oliver Stone took certain liberties with his own life story.
Like Apocolypse now, Platoon's main star is Charlie Sheen (Well correction, it was Martin Sheen in Apocolypse) Williem Defoe, Tom Berenger and Johnny Depp. Both Depp and Stone have brief appearences, all us Depp fans who wanted more...well, just be glad he had his cameo, for it was wonderful. Also, just in case you can't pick him out, he'll be playing Pvt. Gator Lerner, and at the village he's the main interpreter. He's kinda hard to pick out since it was '84. So his career was just starting.
Williem Defoe and Berenger play the Sgts at war with each other. Defoe is Elias, who has respect for his men and the country they are against, while Berenger is just there to get the job done anyway he possible can. Some have said that this occurence did not really happen in real life, but I have no way of knowing the truth, and wether it was fiction or not, it still enhanced the story that Oliver told.
Gritty, gory, hardcore and realistic, Platoon is not for the weak hearted just looking for an entertaining movie. Think Saving Private Ryan.
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