Platoon (Special Edition)
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.99 You Save: $4.99 (33%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $2.46 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Platoon (Special Edition)
Movie Review: Necessary as opposed to gratuitous
Summary: 5 Stars
This review discusses the structure of the movie starting from the approach of a very important spoiler. Reader beware.
When I first saw this, I felt pretty disappointed in how a sense of the glory of war still seemed to have slipped its way into the mix through the character of Elias, played by Willem Dafoe. Somehow Dafoe's moralistic inner-strength and the way he can run into combat to kick butt without any support because, "Other people just slow me down," seemed incongruous with the overarching point of intensifying the destructive feelings of fear, stress, and anger felt during combat.
However, regarding Elias as a symbol of what the innocent people like Chris wanted to believe came out of war helps to reinforce the theme stated at the end of the movie: "We are in war against ourselves and our enemies are really within us." Sergeant Barnes' (Berenger) hidden execution of Elias shows the ultimate distruction of that romantic heroism from within rather than without.
It is from that point that the high levels of violence, bodies ripping apart, disturbing fights, and harrowing warfare surrounds itself to become more than just voyeuristic appraisal of the Vietnam War. Much has been said about Oliver Stone's involvement in the war and how this movie was created of his experiences, but I think it's important to point out that Stone's writing and directing is strong enough that his reputation as a veteran is not the only excuse for the disturbing and disgusting images of a film that has upon second-thought no inspection, but contains itself admirably as a parable for the state of American politics at the time. Sure his use of an almost all-black cast for Sgt. Elias' half of the troop and all-white cast (a good few with strong "hick" accents) for Sgt. Bob's half is a bit heavy-handed, but the point is still solid.
This is also probably a really good film to watch just to cast light on a lot of what happens in Stone's other films. Ultimately this is the only Stone film I've seen so far that I've felt comfortable calling a "Stone film" because of his strong and specific approach to it. Nothing in this seems as gratuitously extreme, only necessarily extreme.
--PolarisDiB
Movie Review: Excellent DVD edition
Summary: 5 Stars
This 20th anniversary edition of Platoon is the DVD we've been waiting for. Picture and sound are excellent and offer the best experience of Oliver Stone's Vietnam memoir yet.
Picture: Very good transfer captures Robert Richardson's beautiful but gritty cinematography perfectly. The picture is always sharp and never has the badly-compressed look of some other DVDs. I'm not sure if the transfer is new from the previous release, but it looks great.
Sound: Also excellent. Watching this DVD really brings the experience home. I know it sounds cliched, but I felt like I was there, and a lot of that impression is due to the wonderful quality of the sound on this DVD.
Extras: Some documentaries, trailers, TV spots, still galleries, and the like are all interesting, but seemed perfunctory. The real gem here is the feature commentary from Cpt. Dale Dye, the military advisor to the film. He had done a partial commentary on the new Dirty Dozen DVD and I enjoyed it immensely. When I saw that he had a commentary on this film as well, I watched it eagerly and wasn't dissappointed. Cpt. Dye's perspective on the film, both as a vet and a member of the crew, is really fascinating.
If you've been waiting for an outstanding DVD edition of Platoon, this is it. The good people at MGM have really outdone themselves this time.
Recommended.
Movie Review: No Soldiers, No War
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great movie that won Best Picture in 1987 and was acclaimed by both the public and the critic. Oliver Stone directs his first movie about Vietnam (the second was "Born on the Fourth of July", another great movie) telling his own experience about going to war. From the very beginning we can see everything about the military that they don't show when they recruiting (the ugly and painful true about the war). And the movie goes on an on until you see absolutely everybody completely nuts, doing drugs, killing randomly, even killing each other. This is waht war does with men. You are not a human being anymore. The movie is obviously rated R for violence, and there are some very tough scenes that make anybody cry. The toughest in my opinion is the one at the village, when they kill -among others- a mentally retarded (and of course harmless) young guy, and a woman. Then they set the village on fire, rape some women, and get away with it. The whole cast is excellent, specially Dafoe, who in my opinion nails his character. And the DVD comes with an excellent and terrific documentary called "Tour of the Inferno" (about 30 minutes long) about the film with Stone, Dafoe, Depp, etc. talking about the movie. There is also a commentary by Stone and a captain in there.
This movie should be mandatory in all High Schools in America. If there were no soldiers, there would be no wars, and the war in Iraq looks a lot like the war in Vietnam. USA is making the same mistake again, and the government is so blind to see that (or maybe they don't care about the people, just about the business all the weapons' companies -Bush' frieds- are making out of it!). But let's be smart, let's just ignore the government. They always get their way. Let's be smart and close all ROTC programs from schools. How can we be so hypocrites and have those programs in schools? Is that the education we really think our children deserve? That does not happen any other place in the world, not even in Cuba. Let's invest that money on education. REAL education. How many trilion dollars have Bush wasted in Iraq so far? How much money does the government invest on education? On health? For the people who live and work in America? Parents: teach your children. Nobody should join the Army. Let the politicians -real leaders, not the bunch of idiots we have today spread all over the planet- do the job, we'll see how many would go. Let the Commander in Chief go to war himself. There is no question about it: there would be no war. They wouldn't go. They would try to negotiate, and try to solve conflicts peacefully.
Again, this is a GREAT movie everybody should watch. A masterpiece that is just not that, but also makes us think, and educates us. Everybody should ask themselves: war ... is it worth it? What for ... ?
Movie Review: A DVD set befitting this significant milestone!
Summary: 5 Stars
The last Platoon DVD had some impressive extras, most notably two audio commentaries and a retrospective making of documentary. These have been included along with several additional featurettes and deleted scenes.
The first disc features an audio commentary by Oliver Stone. He talks about the challenges of making Platoon on a low budget and working in a harsh, unforgiving environment. This track is filled with fascinating personal insights and is essential listening for any fan of the movie.
Also included is a commentary track by the film's military advisor Dale Dye, a retired Marine of 22 years with 30 months in Vietnam. This is a great track that is technical but also accessible and really makes you appreciate the amount of work that went into this movie.
All of the new extras are contained on the second disc, starting with "Deleted and Extended Scenes" with optional commentary by Stone. Most interestingly, is an alternate ending for Barnes which Stone says he now wishes had been used.
"Snapshot in Time: 1967-1968" gives a historical perspective to the time period the film takes place in and puts things into perspective by exploring the origins of the conflict and how the U.S. got involved.
"Creating the `Nam" takes a look at how the filmmakers created the condition of Vietnam in the Philippines on a limited budget. Some highlights include a bit about how they created the village in the movie from scratch and did such a good job that locals moved in with no prompting!
"Raw Wounds: The Legacy of Platoon" examines the film's legacy and how it gave veterans the dignity they deserved and allowed the U.S. to come to terms with the war.
"One War, Many Stories" features a group of vets talking about the movie after a screening and how it relates to their own experiences. These guys tell some fascinating stories that are in turn juxtaposed with Stone talking about his own experiences.
Included from the previous edition is "Tour of the Inferno," an excellent, in-depth retrospective documentary that brought back a lot of the film's cast who talk about their experiences making the film. This is a fantastic doc that manages not to repeat too much of what was said in the two commentary tracks.
"Preparing for the `Nam" examines what basic training was like with vets talking about their experiences. It was tough but also taught them valuable lessons that helped them survive and bonded them with their fellow recruits.
Finally, from the previous edition, there are photo galleries, three T.V. spots and a theatrical trailer.
Movie Review: Remembering
Summary: 5 Stars
Twenty years later, after PLATOON was released in 1986 and brought some of the horrors of the Vietnam experience to the public's media-jaundiced eye, at last the film can be seen and discussed critically. 'At last', in this viewer's vocabulary, includes the fact that more time for healing from actually being in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969 has passed, making the response to Oliver Stone's film more rational. Now the film is a film, not a nightmare memory inducer, and that fact in no way diminishes the power of the message.
Oliver Stone wrote and directed this musing on the effect of war on the psyche and emotional crippling that Vietnam produced in those who survived. Stone was there and that makes his cinematic lead Chris (Charlie Sheen), an random kid from a privileged family who volunteers to go to Vietnam for 'patriotic reasons', an exception in the platoon to which he is assigned, the leader of which is the mentally broken and emotionally scarred Staff Sgt. Bob Barnes (Tom Berenger). Chris' positive influence is Sgt. Elias Grodin (Willem Dafoe), and the two are the polar opposites of evil and good. But the main characters of this gripping film are the other kids who daily are subjected to the horrors of life in the Vietnam jungles with the atrocious living conditions of filth, rain, heat, vermin, and the constant threat of the VC hidden in the atmosphere, ready to kill them at any moment. And these conditions along with the destructive effects of the government's insane war result in mankind stooping to its lowest level, such as decimating a village of people in the manner of My Lai.
The combat scenes are viscerally rigorous and well staged, but the odd thing about seeing this film as a veteran of that war is how watered down the atrocities now seem: scenes of dead bodies, both US and VC, lying on the ground or being scooped into mass burials ignores the fact that in reality what would have been seen are strewed body parts, unrecognizably torn by booby traps, mines, and powerful gunfire.
But there is only so much the public can tolerate and so the film must be tidied up a bit. The impact remains in the eyes of the actors called upon to recreate the veterans. Stone does his best to show the insanity of war, a statement as powerful as any that war must not be the answer in today's world. And we haven't learned. And that is what this viewer is remembering. Grady Harp. May 06