Platoon - The final Scene

Platoon is probably my all time favorite war movie. I know it doesn't get as much attention as Saving Private Ryan or Apocalypse Now, but I always find it the most engaging.

I've found Oliver Stone's films to be of the hit and miss variety. He's made masterpieces (JFK, Born on the Fourth of July) and he's made some truly awful films (U-Turn, Alexander). But Platoon is his finest work.

What makes Platoon so unique, is that it deals with good and evil between the same side. The platoon is separated into two camps. One led by Elias (Willem Dafoe) who believes in showing empathy and questions the morality of war and the other camp led by Barnes (Tom Berenger) who is a sociopath and treats all Vietnamese people as the enemy.

As Stone was a Vietnam vet, you could imagine how personal the film was to him and it really shows. The actual war scenes are purposely confusing. Its hard to really tell who's shooting at whom. But it really gives you a sense of the discombobulation that soldiers must feel.

This is not a war movie about good guys vs bad guys. There is no rooting involved. Stone just paints a brilliant picture of what war does, and the viewer can take it or leave it.

The scene above leaves an undeniably haunting image in your mind before you start to see the credits. By the time you get to this scene, you are completely emotionally drained, and seeing the piles of dead bodies being put into a large hole will leave even the most pro-war people asking questions.

Click Here To See All Of "Platoon" Streamed On Your Computer.