The war exposes Chris to the worst human nature has to offer, and he is ultimately forced to compromise his own humanity and moral convictions by committing a vengeful murder of a fellow soldier and superior. Truman wanted French support against Russia. Edit, Rhah and O'Neill are the only prominent characters left, as neither got so much of a scratch in the final battle. Barnes that Chris and Gardner were not ready for the all night ambush patrol. Gallery On the ambush, a soldier gets his arm blown off by a grenade and hysterically screams from the pain. The morale in the men is low - a civil war in the platoon, half the men with Elias, half with Barnes. Barnes, who drives Chris and the platoon hard throughout the jungle hikes. As the platoon departs on helicopters, Taylor witnesses the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) gun down Dafoe's character; a moment which ultimately fuels the final act conflict. Hes definitely obligated to his country, but theres nothing moral about his obligation. Much of this is illustrated in his letters to his grandmother. The men cower at the blunt prospect of having to kill their menacing sergeant. Vietnam War Movies That Best Show the Realities of the Conflict. Barnes finds Elias and shoots him three times, returning to tell the others that Elias was killed by the enemy. Dafoe was aware of the location of the explosive devices. (Stone, p. 95) Elias' decision to report Barnes' criminal conduct at the village precipitates a rift between the members in the platoon (some siding with Barnes and others siding with Elias), and ultimately causes Barnes to kill Elias. Chris contributes to the carnage by firing his rifle at the feet of a defenseless villager. Barnes questionable account of how he earlier found Elias dead in the jungle, prompting the following exchange of dialogue between Chris and other platoon members: Platoon, principal subdivision of a military company . RHAH: (puffing on his bowl) How do you know the dinks didnt get him. Answer: 3. He aint gonna bite you. But Taylor's ascension into one of the platoon's bravestsoldiers leadsto a face-to-face confrontation with Barnes; a moment that's framed similarly to the Barnes-Elias sequence. Barnes grievances focus on Chris Taylor who supports and follows Elias ideals eventually leading to their lethal confrontation. The war has exposed him to its dehumanizing qualities, and the insensitive depths to which the spirit of men can sink as a result. Elias murder, Chris tries to convince some of the others in the platoon that they need to kill Barnes in revenge. He is played by an Assistant Technical Adviser Mark Ebonhoch. How big is a platoon? Francis earned a one-way ticket home for stabbing himself in the leg. Barnes focuses on others inadequacies, and this in particular makes problems for Chris. The light also shines on his eyes, giving them a devilish glow. Barnes shoots and murders Elias when the two are alone in the jungle. Is the village massacre based on any actual events? Chris Taylor decides to drop out of college and enlist in the military for active duty in Vietnam; Sgt. In Platoon, the narrative constant is always chaos. All gave some during the Vietnam War, and some gave all. His extensive exposure to combat has caused him to develop warped ideals to support his cold, callous, and immoral behavior. Barnes: (to all) Yall take a good look at this lump of shit! Barnes committed war crimes, Sgt. A platoon is four squads: generally three rifle squads and one weapons squad, normally armed with machine guns and anti-tank weapons. KING: Way out of anything, man. In fact, Stone shot the entire movie in the Philippines and had plenty of trouble doing so. 2nd Squad (Bravo): squad leader.Pvt Flash (KIA) Killed by NVA soldier, seen lying dead next to Sgt. External Reviews (to Chris) And that goes for you, shit for brains. [hands pipe back and spits] Sgt. Forums. When you know you know. Barnes, who he sees as a worthless human being. Make it outta here, its all gravy, every day of the rest of your life - gravy(Stone, p. 95). Edit, As stated in the trivia, Charlie Sheen improvised this, as he felt Chris would be suicidal by the end of the movie, having murdered Barnes in cold blood and seen the horrors of what the men fighting on the same side as him would do to each other and innocent people during the conflict. Frustrated by the way the war operates, Chris begins to learn the hypocrisy that is an inherent part of it. The platoon pillages and destroys a small Vietnamese village it discovers has been harboring weapons for the Viet Cong. Chris gets his revenge and kills Sgt. When Chris Taylor first arrives in Vietnam, he is basically a naive, idealistic, young man who has dropped out of college to enlist in the militaryhes signed up for infantry and combat. There is no hesitation or contemplation when Barnes enters the village and begins interrogating and killing civilians; we dont see him ponder much about killing Elias or attacking Chris. Edit, Yes, and it's probably a composite of several of them. His vest was fitted with squibs and he held a detonator in his right hand. The light also shines on his eyes, giving them a devilish glow. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books, and anything that has to do with history. Elias is the Aramaic form of the Biblical Elijah. After Elias death, Sgt. This can be seen early in the film after the platoon engages the enemy on an all night ambush where a new recruit, Gardner, ends up getting killed. Dale Dye says in his commentary that Huffmeister is played by an Assistant Technical Advisor called Robert Galotti, he is the guy who rolls down the hill in the opening credits and also chucks a grenade down the well in the village scene.Pvt Francis (WIA): Stabs himself in the leg to get second Purple Heart and thus get sent home, along with Taylor.Pvt Rodriguez (WIA): On chopper with Francis at end of film. Harris (Survives): He's seen briefly at the beginning when on patrol with the platoon but most of his onscreen time comes in the final attack. The reference to "decorated" can be misconstrued as medals considered to be "worthless." Huh. Stone's filmalso has a familial connection to Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 war classic Apocalypse Now, whichstars Charlie Sheen's father, Martin Sheen. KING: Way out of anything, man. Chris presumes Barnes killed Elias as if it were a fact. This brief moment of reflection is effectively Oliver Stone talking through his narrator, expressing his own experiences and what he's taken from them: a drive to make the world better. Death What do yall know bout death? is what Barnes asks Chris and the others of the head when he confronts them about Elias. In the final scene the dead arent even in body bags. This provokes Chris to attack Barnes, signifying that Chris does stand for something, and he honors the beliefs and ideals that Elias stood for. "Adagio for strings", composed by Samuel Barber and performed by the New Zealand Symphony. Karmic Death: Shot three times by Chris in the torso, similar to how Barnes killed Elias. Sgt Barnes, Elias sadistic staff sergeant, was in direct contrast to Platoons main character. Barnes, severely wounded himself, says, "Do it." Taylor obliges and kills him. In the film Barnes clearly represents the darkness and evil while Elias is the light and goodness. . You dont sleep on no fucking ambush! Three or four squads make up a platoon, which has 20 to 50 soldiers and is commanded by a lieutenant. Chris is the only one to make a feeble attempt to attack and kill Barnes. Barnes decision to kill Elias and later, his decision to try and kill Chris, provokes Chris to kill him. Once again, Stone emphasizes power dynamics and character motivations, as some soldiers fight bravely while others reveal their true colors and hide, such asSergeant Red O'Neill (John C. McGinley). Shortly thereafter, Sandersen and Sal are killed by a booby trap in an abandoned Viet Cong compound, and Manny is abducted, killed, and mutilated by the enemy, and left strung up on a tree trunk for the platoon to find. He became quite famous and was a hero to Army soldiers for decades and is still widely remembered to this day. What's with the booby trap that kills Sal and Sanderson? CHRIS: Yever get caught in a mistake King and you just cant get out of it? Oliver Stones 1986 film Platoon is considered one of the greatest war films ever made. Chris respects and values the humanity of the Vietnamese civilians. Ironically, it is the impact of Sgt. With his unique perspective, Stone filmed one of the most iconicdeath scenes in cinema history the dramatic end of Sgt. How does bunny die in Platoon? Company-sized units, 130 to 150 soldiers, are normally commanded by captains. He doesn't kill any civilians during the raid on From none of you. Barnes covers the soldiers mouth and demands him to stop screaming and take the suffering, so potential enemies dont locate their position. Emotions and tensions riding high, Sgt. The meetings closed. He was friendly to squad members and smoked marijuana with them, and he became rivals with Sergeant Bob Barnes over his cruelty towards Vietnamese civilians while . For instance: Chris drops out of college and enlists in the military to do something positive for his country; He shoots his rifle at the feet of a young, retarded man he finds hiding. He overpacks his back pack, has difficulty climbing, drinks too much water and cramps up, doesnt yet know how to conserve his energy, and ends up passing out. Platoon Barnes was in co-command of 2nd Platoon along with Sgt. (Stone, p. 85) Why? Barnes. Excluding the WIA's, who is left behind to fight from the platoon? Barnes impact on Chris eventually dehumanizes him to the point where he is capable of killing his commanding officer, fully conscious that he is committing the same type of immoral act that Sgt. It doesn't kill Elias and he leaves him for dead as we later see. Conversely, Lt. Wolfe, who doesnt have past experience in the war has nothing from which to draw on in situations where it is a necessity. There is a scene in the head hutch where Rhah points out to Chris how much Chris respected Barnes when he first arrived: How many days you short? There is a lot of speculation whether he lives or dies, confused even more by the fact Depp mentions Lerner dies in a documentary about this movie. He had some trouble with the law, his vision went to sh*t, and he changed his name to Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn. Barnes approaches what he sees as the problem of inadequacies, by taking the direction of letting everyone know what is acceptable. (Stone, p. 21). Understanding the volatile relationship between Sgt. Platoon won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. Contents 1 Chris Taylor 2 Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes 3 Dialogue 4 Cast 5 Taglines 6 External links Chris Taylor [ edit] This is definitely a war America is not winning. Barnes finds Elias alone and shoots him, then returns and tells Chris that Elias was killed by the enemy. But they saw a bloodied Sgt. I cant believe we are fighting each other when we should be fighting them. New posts Search forums. Elias running after them, being chased by the enemy, even after Sgt. Francis - portrayed by Living Colour frontman Corey Glover - emerges from a foxhole and correctly determines that help is indeed on the way. BARNES: What the hells matter with you Taylor! Fortunately for Sheen's character, though, he can at least walk. France wanted Vietnam. ): Day by day, I struggle to maintain not only my strength, but my sanity. In his rage, he even tries to kill Taylor. Elias's onscreen death in Platoon. By the end of the film, the platoon and several other military companies are completely overrun at their base by the enemy. Through voiceover narration, Taylor explains his experiences through letters home to his grandmother and eventually proves himself to be the most morally righteous of the main characters. (Stone, p. 4), When the all night ambush goes awry, Sgt. Written and directed by Oliver Stone. Barnes conceives the idea of challenging Chris and the others to kill him. The fact that the men in the platoon, as well as the enemys lives, are not given much value, slows the progress of the objective story. Barnes immorality that brings about the deterioration of Chris own psyche. As an example, he is able to home in on who it is that is called to war, and who is excused: The war will be over if the platoon and the rest of the American military run out of men; If the men in the platoon become two timers (if they get substantially injured twice) they return home; If the U.S. Military achieves their objective of winning the war, then the war will be over and the goal will have been met. When Barnes condemns the men by saying, I shit on all of you! he is basically telling Chris and the others they are worthless. Hes willing to kill civilians, and even his own men, to support his immoral beliefs. Insufficiency, inadequacy, deficient to the purpose are ways to look at the term non-accurate. User Ratings Barnes when Barnes confronts him and others about killing Sgt. When Sgt. Barnes eyes: Sgt. Susanna", written by Stephen Collin Foster in 1847 or 1848. Barnes says, Do it! and without thinking, Chris shoots and kills Sgt. More can be read about him here. Taylor doesn't kill Barnes solely for retribution or because the staffsergeant appears to be evil, but rather because of something more fundamentally tied to his character arc. New posts New media New media comments New resources Latest activity. We just dont add up to a rats ass. Murphy was a small guy but was a wrecking crew against the Germans. There are many illustrations of Chris doing throughout the film, however, the sequence where he and his platoon ravage a Vietnamese village illustrates Chris engaging in activities contrary to his essential nature. Hes able to make observations that other people miss. Top 4 Reasons the Property Management Companies are Thriving. The U.S. forces are so overwhelmed, they order an air strike on their own compound. Barnes focuses on Chris preconscious responses as being the cause of the problem. One needs to learn from the past to do well in war. Each of the men begin to have a moral conflict with one another over what the other considers as right and wrong. Outraged by Sgt. Obsessed with the idea of an international communist conspiracy, Truman and his advisors contended that Stalin, Mao, and Ho were united by the single ambition of world domination. (Martin, Roberts, Mintz, McMurry, and Jones, p. 922) By the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, America was financing a major portion of Frances war in Vietnam. We just dont add up to a rats ass. Barnes makes a profound impact on Chris. Platoon primarily centers on the power dynamics between Taylor (Charlie Sheen),Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes (Tom Berenger), andSergeant Gordon Elias(Willem Dafoe). At the end, we see an entire regiment used as bait to draw out the larger Viet Cong regiment. Barnes controversial behavior and questionable leadership in the village. Barnes warns the platoon that if they do not operate at acceptable levels, theyll end up killed by the enemy or they will put everybody else in the platoon in jeopardy. Chris memory of Barnes evil deeds and the memory of Elias and what he stood for, enable him to finally shoot Barnes. Barnes RTO.Doc (KIA): Also shot while defending CP bunker, he is still rolling around after being shot but would appear to have died from his wounds as he is not seen at the end with the other survivors (this is also the case in the script). One of the dead under ponchos at battle's end, seen carried to chopper at end. Close search Momentarily losing control of his senses, Chris fires his gun at the feet of a retarded village man. You fuck up in a fire fight and I goddamn guarantee you a trip out of the bush, in a body bag! 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