Platoon

This one was a conflicting watch for me, not due to my background as a soldier, but because I read the novelization as a kid and it had a marked impact on my understanding of being a soldier. Finally watching the film more than three decades later was like revisiting a memory and seeing it differently.

Obvious statement up front - the film both aligned and disagreed with my history as a combat infantryman. The breakdown of both discipline and the chain of command - the isolation of the platoon given relation to the company command or larger org structures is a world apart from how the modern military operates (though might bear more similarity to the reality in Ukraine.) This disparity kept taking me out of the film.

But the rapid evolution of soldiers to combat, how Chris evolved from a cherry humping too much gear to a hardened soldier to a broken soldier carries the feeling of truth. Especially for a regular infantry unit. Especially when surrounded by folks who didn’t want to be there. I have two photos of myself from the start and near the end of my time in Iraq. The growth was visible. As it was for Sheen’s protagonist.

Well shot, well paced. A little melodramatic. But Stone is a craftsman for both story and film, so it’s beyond competent.