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The world here is seen through the eyes of raw recruit Chris Taylor (Charlie
Sheen) who dropped out of college and wanted to do his share for his
country, touring 'Nam for a year from September 1967. He really doesn't know
what he's letting himself in for though with insects in the jungle biting
him being the least of his worries as troops from the other allegiances are
out to hunt him and his platoon out too.
This is an exceptionally powerful film with strong dialogue, a number of
surprise scenes and plenty of violence as the men tour from place to place
setting up camp, getting high to ease the pain, torching "gook" villages and
committing illegal acts as they go.
A large cast is effectively led by Charlie Sheen with his narration in the
form of letters home to his grandma. There are the two warring Sargeants,
Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Elias (Willem Dafoe) leading to a
tense showdown, the aptly-named Big Harold (Forest Whitaker), the
big-talk-but-chicken-shit Sargeant O'Neill (John C. McGinley),
the over-zealous Bunny (Kevin Dillon, who later appeared in Stone's
The Doors) and translator Lerner (Johnny Depp).
Stone obviously drew upon his recollection of his own time in Vietnam for
this film. It's certificate is a mystery too, since the content is typical
for most 18-cert war films, but Stone was favoured by the BBFC and the film
was given a 15-cert, whilst the less-violent Full Metal Jacket from Stanley
Kubrick was stuck with an 18.
Sargeant Barnes. He's not very nice.
Presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio, the print is anamorphic
similar to the recent Region 1 release, making them both better picture-wise
than the previous Region 1 Special Edition, although with much less extras.
There are a few flecks on the print but nothing to worry about particularly.
The average bitrate is 7.65Mb/s, often peaking above 9Mb/s.
In 1992, a widescreen video was released in the UK framed at approx 2.00:1. On comparison
with this DVD, some scenes have been matted a little bit more to get that ratio, while
others appear to have lost a little info from the sides. Given that the film was shot
open-matte in the first place and that the 1.85:1 ratio is stated on the Region 1 Special
Edition as a 'Director-approved transfer', then this is the ratio we'll forever be left
with but there's never a scene that looks badly-framed so I'm happy with it and the colours
on the DVD are a lot stronger.
A remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is available for English dialogue and comes
into its own when the gunfire lets rip in the jungle, not to mention the evocative
use of Barber's Adagio for Strings, often played during the film - particularly
at the end - and it was recently bastardised by William Orbit and stuck in the
charts with a dance beat behind it. Dialogue is clear too, which is essential for
Sheen's narration.
Sargeant Elias poses for the cover.
This time round we get the extras we deserve. First up are trailers for
both Platoon and the DVD release of Salvador. Note that the latter
is a promotional trailer so doesn't tell you what the actual film is like.
There are also three 30-second TV Spots, focusing on different areas of the
production, along with Stills Galleries for 'Behind the Scenes' and
'Poster Art'.
The documentary, Tour of the Inferno, runs for 50 minutes and is
superb. It showed that the cast all took in two weeks of basic training that
would normally be done in 14 weeks. Charlie Sheen talks about making a
choice between not breathing while sleeping, or letting mosquitos eat him all
night and then wake up looking like the Toxic Avenger; John C. McGinley
discusses being woken up with water bugs copulating in his mouth; Willem
Dafoe mentions the time he drank water from a stream then noticed further
up the stream was a fat, dead pig in there, which caused him to be delirious
for the next 24 hours. Finally, Tom Berenger complains about having to
walk miles and miles carrying heavy luggage, while Oliver Stone casually
drives past in his jeep.
Two Audio Commentaries are also included. One from director Stone and
the other from Military advisor Captain Dale Dye.
There are 32 chapters to the movie, dialogue comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 for
English and Spanish, while subtitles come in 13 languages: English (and hard
of hearing), Spanish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese,
Polish, Greek, Hungarian, Hebrew, Turkish and Czech.
The menus are silent but contain subtle animation.
War's a drag for Charlie Sheen.
Overall, this is one of my all-time favourite films and it's great to finally
combine an anamorphic transfer with some great extras.
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Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
