I guess I never realized that Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe) was the soldier on the movie poster.
This re-viewing hit me in a way that past viewings haven't. I'm not sure why. Why would a college student, Chris (Charlie Sheen), drop out of school to enlist as a grunt? Maybe he was looking to be treated like one of the boys, because we certainly see that low-ranking officers, like the Lieutenant, aren't respected at all. It's the grunts who fight, and it is the grunts who basically make the war happen.
Oliver Stone gives us just about everything we need to understand the war in four simple "acts":
1. The Ambush. Chris has only been in-country a week when he's on his third nighttime patrol. No one has taught him anything about patrols, and on this patrol, they're ambushed.
In films like this, you see the Americans going out to find and engage the enemy. The enemy must be doing the same, but this film, like most American war films, doesn't show us the enemy point of view. I kind of wish more war films did, but this limited point of view does heighten the fear of the unknown. The enemy is "not human." They seem to be a part of the jungle in the way that the Americans are not. The Americans seem and act out of place. They are not "one" with their environment. They might have the airpower and the firepower, but they are vulnerable, and this sequence captures how quickly they must learn to adapt.
2. The Bunker. Sgt. Elias jumps right in. No hesitation. He knows his job and does it. He and Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), as well as Sgt. O'Neill (John C. McGinley), are the veterans. They are the ones in charge of moral and making sure the mean do their duty. As the film goes along, Elias is the one who does what "should be done" and Barnes is the one who does what "has to be done." O'Neill might be more of a tweener. He's survived this long in the war, and he wants to keep surviving. He's not as savage as Barnes, but he also isn't one to put his neck out to defend an ethical point, as Elias is.
3. The Village Burning. The enemy can be everywhere, and thus, all Vietnamese are the enemy. They don't speak English. They don't have the same customs or even facial expressions, and when the platoon sweeps through the village, they assume they are either enemy sympathizers, or just the enemy. This paranoia is felt by almost everyone, even Chris. At first Chris tried to write his grandma to express how he felt about what he was experiencing. By this point, he can't write any more. He's feelings can no longer be translated into words. to varying degrees, everyone in the platoon has lost their humanity. Some to the point that they will rape and murder civilians.
This is what causes the rift between Elias and Barnes. Half the platoon may realize that the way Barnes fights the war is not "right," but no one but Elias was stand up to him. Chris would like to stand up to Barnes, and will later make an attempt, but Barnes is seen as too powerful to topple.
4. The Battle. The rest of the film is more or less combat, leading up to the final battle. Along the way, Elias and Barnes must work together, but it's not clear how long that will last. Barnes will be under investigation for what happened at the village, and Elias will be a witness against him.
When Chris meets Barnes in the jungle, Barnes tells him that Elias is dead. He thinks he is, because he shot him three times. Somehow, Elias survives, even arriving at the extraction site minutes too late. Chris watches the enemy finish off Elias, but he knows Barnes murdered him. Chris will seek justice for Barnes' crime.
The last lines of the movie go to Chris. They capture what he learned about serving the in the war. The duty of the survivors, Chris says, is to figure out how to tell the story and make the experience meaningful. Even a purposeless war must be given meaning.
Oh, and keep an eye out for Johnny Depp, he plays the translator, Lerner. If I wasn't watching for him, I wouldn't have recognized him in this relatively early role in his film career.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
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