Platoon

1987
US
2h

Directed by: Oliver Stone
Written by: Oliver Stone
Cast: Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen

Vietnam veteran writer/director Stone's movie won four deserved Oscars, vividly portraying the experience of the ordinary infantryman on combat duty around the turn of 1967-8. Private Sheen is a university dropout, who finds his ideals crushed by survival instinct in the sweat, blood and fear of battle. A highly uncomfortable and well crafted experience, which remains a landmark in grimy authenticity in an over-subscribed genre.