by Chris Marshall:
Before Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen became members of the
Cleveland Indians in Major League, they
fought together in Vietnam, and I think it’s safe to say their relationship was
slightly more contentious in Platoon.
Berenger, as the sinister Sgt. Barnes, is the platoon leader, while Sheen,
playing the tastefully-named Chris, is a neophyte recent arrival to the war.
The film is mostly based on Chris’s experiences,
particularly on his relationships with Barnes and Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe). In
many ways, the main thematic element of the plot is similar to Oliver Stone’s
next film, Wall Street. A character
played by Charlie Sheen is forced to choose between the “good” father figure
(Dafoe here, Martin Sheen in Wall Street)
and the “bad” one (Berenger, Michael Douglas).
The Slovenian cultural critic Slavoj Zizek argues that the
problem with Oliver Stone’s films is that the message he wants to deliver is
obscured by the way he goes about it. Specifically, he argues that even though
we are supposed to disagree with Berenger’s and Douglas’s tactics in the two
films, that’s not what actually happens because the villains are the most
dynamic, charismatic characters in the movies.
While I think that likely is the case with Wall Street, I’m not entirely convinced
with Platoon. I feel like you’d have
to be pretty twisted to actually identify with the sadistic, egomaniacal Sgt.
Barnes. Meanwhile, even though young Willem Dafoe looked just as crazy as ever,
his character is actually quite likeable. In this case, at least, it’s a clear
and easy choice concerning who to root for.
There really isn’t a single, clear plot to Platoon. It’s more of a series of
incidents that occur during Sheen’s tour of duty, and there isn’t necessarily
an obvious connection tying them together. It’s more of a tale about how a
person changes during war, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
It’s also about the relationships that exist among soldiers, who know that any
or all of them could be dead at any moment.
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| This is the same man who played Jesus the next year. |
Platoon boasts
quite an impressive supporting cast, in addition to its stars. Keith David,
Forest Whitaker, and even a very young Johnny Depp appear, but even better was
seeing John C. McGinley, who is best known for playing Dr. Cox on Scrubs. The problem was that it was hard
to take him very seriously because the character he plays in the movie is so
very similar to his character on the show. Add in Sheen, Berenger, and Dafoe,
and you’ve got a pretty famous set of actors.
That being said, I wouldn’t argue that the acting in the
film was of such a high quality. Only Forest Whitaker has an Oscar out of that
group, and while some of the others probably deserved one at some point in
their careers, nobody ever confuses Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger[1]
with “great actors.” Nevertheless, they did a serviceable job, and I wouldn’t
say that the film suffered in any way because of acting issues.
There has been no shortage of war films throughout The Oscar
Project, and I honestly think Platoon
was one of my favorite to watch, even if I can’t pick out anything truly “great”
about it. It’s enjoyable, despite its brutality and dark tone. It’s also
strange to think about a time when Charlie Sheen was considered to be a serious
actor, rather than just a run-of-the-mill crazy person.
It seems like there’s always a period of eight years between
war movies (Lawrence of Arabia in
1962, Patton in 1970, The Deer Hunter in 1978, and Platoon in 1986), but I won’t have to
wait that long this time around. Dances with Wolves is a kinda sorta war movie coming up in four years, and then I
have Schindler’s List in seven. It’s
going to be a heartwarming few years.
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