Journal Mighty-Troll's Journal: Platoon wins academy award 2
Platoon has won Academy Award. The movie, winning Best Picture in 1987 has won other awards as well - including Best Director (Oliver Stone), Best Film Editing (Claire Simpson; no relation to The Simpsons), and Best Sound.
There were other nominations as well - Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger), Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
Like no other movie could tell, Platoon shows us categorically that war -- and especially the Vietnam War -- is hell.
The story is vintage Oliver Stone -- based on his own experiences in the bush with only a few moments of fictionalization. In Platoon, Charlie Sheen plays a young and naive Private Chris Taylor, a newbie in Nam who is thrown waist-deep into the jungle only hours after arrival. Within a week he's regretting having volunteered, already a shell of the man he was in the States.
Charlie's great and all, but Platoon's thrill is in its supporting cast, namely Tom Berenger as a rather evil yet invincible Staff Sargeant, and Willem Dafoe as the unforgettably moral Sargeant Elias. When Berenger and Elias spar, it's epic acting -- and as Stone details on a commentary track, it's a bit ironic since up until this film, Berenger had always played good guys (a la The Big Chill) and Dafoe had always played terrorists. Dafoe, of course, would go on to play Jesus Christ.
Platoon also plays host to a cadre of then-unknown supporting players, including Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, and John C. McGinley (also in a celebrated role as the cowardly bully of the platoon), but it's Stone's unflinching script that makes this film ever so sobering. The Pentagon wanted nothing to do with it, claiming its brutality was "unrealistic," but technical advisor Captain Dale Dye helped Stone ensure this movie is the most accurate depiction of the war in Vietnam that you'll ever see. Both Stone and Dye have commentary tracks on the new DVD; Stone does his usual narration of the film ("...the VC fires! It's confusing! Oh, that's a good shot...") while Dye goes into the minutaie of every military detail you see.
Highly recommended as one of Stone's greatest works.
The best quote of course has to be:
You all take a good look at this lump of shit, remember what it looks like. You fuck up in a firefight and I goddamned guarantee you a trip out of the bush - in a body bag! Out here, assholes, you keep the shit wired tight at all times. And that goes for you, shit-for-brains. You don't sleep on no fucking ambush. And the next son'bitch I catch coppin Z's in the bush, I personally am gonna take an interest in seeing them suffer. I shit you not. Doc, tag 'em and bag 'em.
However my friends and I usually quote:
It ain't D-E-R-E, it's D-E-A-R. And "Sarah" ain't got no two R's, King. Damn you're dumb.
It don't make no difference, she know what I mean. She don't read too good nohow.
Mighty-Troll is going to lobby congress to fund a sub-comittee to enforce weekly viewings of this movie in all publicly-funded schools across America.
There were other nominations as well - Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger), Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
Like no other movie could tell, Platoon shows us categorically that war -- and especially the Vietnam War -- is hell.
The story is vintage Oliver Stone -- based on his own experiences in the bush with only a few moments of fictionalization. In Platoon, Charlie Sheen plays a young and naive Private Chris Taylor, a newbie in Nam who is thrown waist-deep into the jungle only hours after arrival. Within a week he's regretting having volunteered, already a shell of the man he was in the States.
Charlie's great and all, but Platoon's thrill is in its supporting cast, namely Tom Berenger as a rather evil yet invincible Staff Sargeant, and Willem Dafoe as the unforgettably moral Sargeant Elias. When Berenger and Elias spar, it's epic acting -- and as Stone details on a commentary track, it's a bit ironic since up until this film, Berenger had always played good guys (a la The Big Chill) and Dafoe had always played terrorists. Dafoe, of course, would go on to play Jesus Christ.
Platoon also plays host to a cadre of then-unknown supporting players, including Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, and John C. McGinley (also in a celebrated role as the cowardly bully of the platoon), but it's Stone's unflinching script that makes this film ever so sobering. The Pentagon wanted nothing to do with it, claiming its brutality was "unrealistic," but technical advisor Captain Dale Dye helped Stone ensure this movie is the most accurate depiction of the war in Vietnam that you'll ever see. Both Stone and Dye have commentary tracks on the new DVD; Stone does his usual narration of the film ("...the VC fires! It's confusing! Oh, that's a good shot...") while Dye goes into the minutaie of every military detail you see.
Highly recommended as one of Stone's greatest works.
The best quote of course has to be:
You all take a good look at this lump of shit, remember what it looks like. You fuck up in a firefight and I goddamned guarantee you a trip out of the bush - in a body bag! Out here, assholes, you keep the shit wired tight at all times. And that goes for you, shit-for-brains. You don't sleep on no fucking ambush. And the next son'bitch I catch coppin Z's in the bush, I personally am gonna take an interest in seeing them suffer. I shit you not. Doc, tag 'em and bag 'em.
However my friends and I usually quote:
It ain't D-E-R-E, it's D-E-A-R. And "Sarah" ain't got no two R's, King. Damn you're dumb.
It don't make no difference, she know what I mean. She don't read too good nohow.
Mighty-Troll is going to lobby congress to fund a sub-comittee to enforce weekly viewings of this movie in all publicly-funded schools across America.
Haven't you read... (Score:2, Troll)
It says war is first used for survival, keeping social order, and then entertainment.