Platoon tells the story of Vietnam from the point of view of a young, naive soldier, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen).
The film showed its viewers about war, and what it really was. Hot the dramatized part you see on TV, but the hell that it really was. Oliver Stone, the director of the movie, was actually a soldier during Vietnam. So parts of the storyline and the general idea behind the film were based on some of his personal experiences there. Sergeant Elias is portrayed as a caring leader who likes to use drugs to get away from the war. His enemy in the platoon, Sergeant Barnes (Tom Beringer), is portrayed as a fighting machine that will stop at nothing to get the job done. When you watch this movie, you see that Barnes will do everything and anything to survive. Barnes has much hubris. He thinks he can do anything.
The story is narrated by Chris Taylor and begins with his arrival in Vietnam. The first thing he sees is rows of bodies being readied for shipment back to the U.S. He sees soldiers giving him the “stare” thinking that Chris has no idea what he is up against in Vietnam. He finds out that other soldiers don’t associate with the newcomers because they haven’t put in their time. After Chris has been there a while, other soldiers advise him to count the days he’s put in, not how many he has to go. That way it won’t seem so long. After only a week, Chris realizes he’s made a horrible mistake by volunteering. Taylor goes through perpetia and wishes that he hadn’t have come to Vietnam. .
The Essay on Vietnam War Chris Barnes Vietnamese
... all of the people who fought in the Vietnam War. In the movie, Chris Taylor is a young man from a wealthy family, ... Chris is very upset about it and shares his anger with the other soldiers. He did not know that Barnes was listening in. Barnes ... the episode and punches Barnes. In the end, the soldiers burn the village and take the villagers with them. Chris doesn't think that ...
During a patrol, a competition develops between Barnes and Elias which causes two factions to form in the platoon. This is the rising action of the movie. The two factions in the platoon argue about everything and you know that something is going to happen between the two leaders, Barnes and Elias. The platoon is obdurate and ignores the fact that the platoon being in two different parts will not help them win the war. This leads to the final confrontation.
The platoon is sent out on a mission to search and destroy any enemy they find. During the patrol, they come up against heavy enemy forces. During the battle Elias go out to try and run around the enemy and catch them from the rear. Barnes orders everybody to retreat, leaving Elias behind enemy lines. Barnes then goes out and hunts Elias down and shoots him, just because of the arguments that had about the platoon. This catastrophe starts Taylor thinking about the events that have been happening in his platoon.
After the platoon is evacuated from the area by helicopter, they see a man running on the ground, away form the enemy. It is Elias. Taylor recognition that Barnes actually tried to kill Elias, but did not succeed, sets him off onto a course to seek revenge.
The next battle is the climax of the movie. Barnes is wounded and instead of Taylor calling for a Medic to help Barnes, he shoots him as revenge for murdering Elias. We feel pathos for Taylor and the ordeal he has had to go through in Vietnam and all the friends he made he sees die through the course of the movie. Taylor himself in wounded in the fighting and in the conclusion of the movie, we hear him thinking on his way out in a helicopter. He says:
Looking back, we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves-and the enemy was within us. The war is over for me now, but it will always be there-the rest of my days. Be that as it may, those of us who did make it have an obligation to build again, to teach to others what we know and to try with what’s left of our lives to find a goodness and meaning to this life.
After this speech the viewers of the movie experience catharsis and they really gain a new insight on the horrors of war and what it did to the men who fought in them.
