Platoon: Review

It’s been sometime since I’ve done a movie review. I started up one for Spaceballs but got side tracked and lost motivation. Worse yet I can’t remember why I lost motivation. I think the summary style review worked against me there. However, I had been watching Platoon almost every night recently. I didn’t see it when it first came out and probably saw it on TV a few times over the years. I wouldn’t call this a terribly bloody movie compared to other war movies but it does have a few moments. I guess what fascinates me about this movie is the statement of war and the characters in this movie as well as the general period. Also, admittedly, there are a few really good fire fights that I enjoy for the rush.

Platoon is mostly shown through the eyes of one Chris Taylor. In a way, he represents director’s Oliver Stone’s experiences as a Vietnam veteran. The movie starts off with a plane landing in an air field where a bright eyed, naive Taylor steps off the plane with other presumably new recruits. Immediately, as he disembarks, he along with Gardner, another fresh recruit, spot several body bags being carted off, indicating the grimness of the situation. As a higher ranking official grab the new recruits, several soldiers who had been serving in ‘Nam greet the new recruits with sarcasm, “You’re going to love the ‘Nam.” There are no happy faces there, only a harsh reality that barely registers for Taylor as he watches a scarred up soldier passing him by.

From there the scenery changes to the lust but harsh jungle near the Cambodia border where the platoon make their way towards a point. Despite the greenery, the scene remains a tough environment as the vegetation is thick and hazardous while insects and other wild life threaten the soldiers at each turn. At this point, Taylor already is finding the conditions terrible and he’s beaten by red ants, face and arms red with rash and his physical endurance is tested. The other soldiers don’t really care about his situation because he’s new except for Sgt. Elias as Taylor is sickened from his first sight of the enemy: a corpse. As the group pauses, Elias and Doc inspect Taylor where Elias tells Taylor that he’s carrying too much but offers to help burden some of his load. In one of the few genuine moments of comedy in the movie though, despite being asked if he’s alright, Taylor lies about his condition and passes out cross eyed.

Gradually, the platoon make it to a rendezvous point that allows some choppers to drop off some supplies. Taylor gives some narration of their situation and his predicament where it’s clear that he’s way over his head and that fresh people like himself are more cannon fodder. We get a small peak at the various personalities and non-combat military life of this group as they setup camp, eat, piss, etc. As the group rests, the leaders gather to plan for the evening where Sgt. O’Neill reveals how another platoon had got his by claymore traps. Their Lt. Wolfe is an inexperienced, incompetent figure with a title in name only. The soldiers mostly report to Staff Sgt. Barnes, who is a scarred veteran and hardened tactician. The other two Sgts. in the group are the aforementioned Elias, a more compassionate, easy going leader and Warren, who apparently is (was) a heroin addict.

They plan to enter the zone later in the evening and a small argument breaks out on which group will be responsible, which falls onto Elias. However, Elias’ team is composed of new recruits and he instinctively knows that they’ll probably have an encounter later. O’Neill though is a politician and argues that his team are close to the end of their tour, which means that their morale would be low should they ship. In turn, Barnes has Elias go out and in compensation O’Neill accompanies since they need veterans while Warren’s group stays back.

The remainder of the night turns ugly for the patrol as heavy rain pours upon them. When they make camp, Taylor provides more narration about the general backgrounds of the soldiers to his unseen grandmother. He talks about the notion of a grunt and how they’re the backbone of the war. Unlike Taylor who was a willing recruit, the bulk of the men there come from bottom of the barrel backgrounds with little hope after their service finishes. It’s clear in a few cases why some belonged out there but in general the idea is that these people were expendable.

Eventually, Taylor gets a shift as he’s partnered with an unfriendly soldier called Tex. Taylor is given brief instructions on how to operate their own claymore traps and is warned by Tex effectively not to fall asleep. Eventually, Taylor’s shift is over and he swaps with another soldier, Junior. Junior is like that constant failure in class that gets straight D’s or worse. His main attributes besides failure are complaining and having a rotten attitude towards everything. When Taylor wakes Junior up, Junior does not take his duty seriously and almost falls back asleep, which allows the first ambush/combat to start.

The fire fight is brief with Taylor having problems operating the claymore. During the fight, O’Neill badly throws a grenade which lands near Tex (and Gardner I think), blowing off Tex’s hand and causing him to scream in agony. Taylor also gets nicked in the neck as Barnes goes to shut Tex up while Doc is called to attend Gardner, who is mortally wounded. Big Harold, a friendly soldier, looks after Taylor to prevent him from going into shock as Doc tries to bandage up Gardner. However, Gardner passes which marks the first death in this group. Many of the soldiers are given a moment to process the situation with Taylor dealing with his own pain and the fact that the person he chatted with earlier has passed. The last person to react is Junior who seems mostly apathetic (probably because Gardner was white)

But Barnes gets up and scolds the platoon for letting this happen. In particular, he calls out Taylor, who protests that it was Junior that fell back asleep. Bunny and O’Neill gang up on Taylor before Elias cools them down. Barnes did confront Junior though before Taylor mentioned Junior’s failure but does not directly acknowledge that Junior had anything to do with the situation. However, as a fitting punishment, Elias gets Junior (along with another guy named Tony) to carry out the dead body of Gardner, telling Barnes that if Gardner had been given a few extra days, he could’ve learned something and lived.

With the first mission complete, we see Taylor returning from the hospital/medical back to the main base. He is greeted by King, who is one of the wiser men in the platoon. King has procured some beers but O’Neill charges King and Taylor with latrine duty (as well as recovering the beers for themselves). That allows Taylor to spend some time with King and another soldier named Crawford, who is from California and talks like a typical surfer. Both reveal the number of days left with Crawford acknowledging that O’Neill is a brown noser.

That moment provides a small bonding moment between Chris and the other two and he’s invited into a private den called the “Underworld” where Elias’ men hang out, listen to soul tunes and smoke pot. Chris is more accepted by this group who behave more like a family rather than callous soldiers in opposition to Barnes’ group, who hang out in the other barracks. Over there, Barnes’ men drink and smoke but distance themselves away from pot. We get some character background from Bunny, a more redneck, low IQ but brutal character and Junior, who despises Bunny’s “red neck noise” in favor of Motown jams. They discuss the effects of pot where Junior looks at pot as a way for white men to control African Americans while Bunny reveals a silly conspiracy about the enemy doing something with the pot to turn the Americans into pacifists. However, Junior does recognize that Bunny is a homicidal maniac regardless.

In turn, Lt. Wolfe shows up to hang out with Barnes’ group and he’s treated coldly. Once Wolfe leaves, O’Neill reveals his real thoughts to Barnes about Wolfe, knowing that he’s too inexperienced to be in that position. Then back in Elias’ barracks, the men there continue to sing, smoke and dance as one of the few actual happy moments of bonding occurs. Taylor is fully welcomed by the group as he starts becoming a pot head too.

That moment of happiness turns into a new mission for the following day. The group set out once again where they encounter an empty setting that is trapped. Two men are blown up by a map attached to a trap while Elias shoots an enemy in a hole. Elias figures that there’s more traps and they need engineers to disarm them but Lt. Wolfe tells them that they need to hit/investigate a nearby village. However, one other soldier has gone missing in Manny. The group goes to look for Manny and King finds him mutilated, strung up with his neck slit on a tree by the river. The cruelty sets the group off especially Sgt Barnes as Taylor mentions that they wanted to seek revenge for their fallen comrade.

The group show little mercy towards the farming village once they arrive. One villager attempted to run off with Barnes coldly shooting him in the back. With no real reason, Bunny shoots a random pig dead. Then the group search through the village, concluding that the excess rice and some weapons were most likely for NVAs. Barnes interrogates the village leader, who says that they hate the VCs but can do little about the situation. In the meantime, Taylor finds two more hiding villagers in a hut and goes ballistic on one of them, who is a cripple with one leg and an obvious mental disposition. The mother tries to beg off Taylor and gradually he relents, despite being egged on by Bunny. In turn, Bunny finishes the job in smashing the cripple’s head in which disgusts the other witnesses to his act.

Back outside Barnes loses his patience with the village leader where the leader’s wife attempts to intervene. Despite the wife’s pleas to get Barnes off her husband, Barnes shoots the woman in the head, which incites their young daughter who witnesses the murder nearby. But that only encourages Barnes to use the daughter to force the leader to admit something that probably isn’t true. Eventually, Elias breaks up the scene and starts a fight with Barnes. Both men are pulled apart by their respective squads with Wolfe finally coming in to order them to burn the village down. However, Elias accuses Wolfe of not doing anything about Barnes’ behavior, which Wolfe flat out denies.

The village is burnt asunder and the villagers are taken prisoner. Back at the camp, Captain Harris, who leads the overall group, talks to Elias about the incident and tells Wolfe and a nearby Barnes that a court marshal will happen if he uncovers that an illegal killing was conducted. Wolfe tries to placate the situation but Harris focuses on defusing the tension between Barnes and Elias for the moment. As Barnes walks away, Wolfe accompanies him and tries to assure the staff sgt. that Elias has no evidence. In truth, Barnes doesn’t care what Wolfe has to say as his two main enablers in Bunny and O’Neill try to get the lowdown. Once Wolfe is gone, Bunny tells them that someone should frag Elias because Elias could get the rest of the platoon into trouble. A deadly look from Barnes as he smokes a cigarette shows that the idea isn’t lost on him.

The men set out for another mission. The night before Elias and Taylor spend a moment talking philosophy of the war. Elias admits that his views has changed over time where he’s come to realize that America can’t win this one. Once the next day comes about, the group get ambushed again with Lerner and Warren hit while on point. Taylor scrambles to help out Lerner while Elias finds Wolfe to discuss a plan to assault the enemy from a different direction to prevent a cross fire. Barnes has another argument with Elias over how they should handle the situation while Wolfe watches helplessly.

As the Taylor nails an NVA in a hole with a grenade, he pulls Lerner back. Wolfe, desperate calls in an air strike with bad coordinates and toasts some of his regiment. Big Harold tries to retreat as bombs land around him but gets his leg blown off from setting off a trap. Barnes’ radio guy is struck by shrapnel too. In turn, Barnes locates Wolfe to denigrate him and calls off the air strike. Before then, Elias takes Crawford and Rhah then Taylor to perform his mission by the river. Crawford, Taylor and Rhah setup a small defense perimeter so that Elias can rush solo. Rhah and Taylor manage to eliminate a few NVA but Crawford is injured during the fire fight. Barnes had gone searching for Elias after calling off the air strike so that Wolfe can order a tactical retreat. Barnes finds the three tending to Crawford and orders them back to the blasted church. However, Taylor tells Barnes that Elias is still in the jungle but Barnes says that he’ll find Elias.

Eventually, both soldiers convene with Elias smiling at Barnes. Barnes reciprocates Elias’ grin but his mouth droops as he takes aim and fires. Thinking Elias is dead, Barnes returns encountering Taylor and telling him that he found Elias dead by the river. Shocked, Taylor has no choice but to return to the retreat point where the wounded and dead are brought aboard the choppers to be lifted to safety. As the choppers take off, Taylor sees Elias being chased by NVAs with Wolfe trying to get the chopper to turn around and rescue their companion. Barnes though is mystified that Elias made it and takes a glance for himself. We get one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history with Elias getting gunned down by the NVAs and the choppers not providing enough cover in time for him to reach safety. He reaches towards the sky as the choppers fly overhead and leave him to die. Taylor though sees Barnes with a guilty though impassive expression and immediately knows what happened.

Back at the camp, Taylor talks to his remaining group of Elias followers on getting retribution as well as Barnes’ complicity. Rhah tries to talk Taylor out of it but Barnes sits by the door, drunk and listening for the right moment to interrupt their discussion. He knows that they all know he did it and effectively dares any of them to take him on. He provides one of the best lines in the movie as he looks at the camera with his scared up, hardened face and admits, “I am reality.” Since none of the soldiers take him up on his offer to attack him, Barnes disrespects the group. But that provokes Taylor into attack Barnes. The veteran soldier flips the tables on Taylor and overpowers him, taking his knife to his face. Once again Rhah intervenes on Taylor’s behalf this time but not before Barnes gives Taylor a swift reminder with a cut under his eye.

Despite the incident, the group is called out to perform another mission. They return near the village in preparation for a large encounter. Morale is very low with their numbers dwindling and reports of another group getting cut to shreds. With their remaining forces, they setup a perimeter and foxholes. King though gets relief and gets aboard a chopper while Taylor sees him off. On the other hand, Junior tries to pull a stunt by spraying repellent on his foot to pretend he’s injured to get on the chopper too. But the wily Barnes detects Junior’s falsehood and tries to pull a prank by having O’Neill almost fetch a centipede to shove down Junior’s crotch. It’s enough to force Junior to accept his duties as he’s almost completely broken down and forced to endure the night with Bunny. O’Neill makes his own appeal privately with Barnes to get out of the incoming firefight but Barnes merely tells him, “Everybody’s gotta die sometime, Red.”

From there, the soldiers merely wait as dusk approaches. Captain Harris tries to contact another platoon but finds the line cut as the NVA overrun that group. It’s clear to him that the night is going to be a long one. We return to Taylor who sits in a foxhole with Francis while the NVA quietly march towards the encampment. However, one NVA trips a flare which starts the first part of a firefight near Rodriguez’s hole. A blast dusts Rodriguez’s hole which brings Rhah down to Taylor and Francis. A brilliant flare is launched into the sky to try to scope out the hidden American troops in their dug outs where Rhah tells them to keep in their hole since an airstrike will be arriving. Then he leaves and promises to return soon.

In the meantime, more explosions go off as a single American soldier hobbles his way towards Taylor and Francis. They signal him to their hole as the soldier reveals the fate of his group along with the impending NVA forces. It’s clear by his disheveled appearance and tone that things are going to get ugly quickly. The street smart Francis tries to encourage Taylor to ditch but Taylor is more confident at this point so they both stay put. Then it’s their turn to meet the enemy as more fire rages. But a blast temporarily knocks Taylor down. As Francis continues to fire blindly into the dark forest, Taylor hears whistles and the NVA shouting. He realizes that their foxhole is the next one to be blown apart and he gets Francis to escape before an RPG takes the hole out.

They find another spot to hide while more NVA penetrate the perimeter. Taylor waits a moment before running off to take down a few of the invaders. As Taylor smashes in one soldier’s head, Francis finds his courage to cover Taylor’s back. Both men now engage with the enemy with Taylor’s slowly losing his mental faculties in the orgy of war, telling Francis, “It’s fucking beautiful!” before running out of the hole to hunt down more of the enemy. Futilely, Francis calls for his friend to no avail.

In another foxhole, Bunny and Junior make their stand. It’s mostly Bunny with his shotgun while Junior cowers underneath. Junior loses his cool though and decides to take off which distracts Bunny. As Junior runs in desperation, he blindly knocks himself out cold in colliding with a tree. But the incident is enough for Bunny to take his eyes off the fight and he gets shot by one soldier, falling into the hole before the soldier takes the barrel of his rifle, shoves it in Bunny’s mouth and presumably blows his brains out. Following that, Junior meets his end too in the other comedic moment where he gets stabbed while cross eyed. Then Barnes tries to fight through his section and gets blasted in the leg, losing his weapon but ends up picking up a shovel to bludgeon his opponents on a rampage. O’Neill uses a corpse to pretend he’s dead and evades a patrol.

By that point, the perimeter is penetrated and the camp is slowly being overrun. Sappers take out the forward command (with a cameo from the director himself) Captain Harris witnesses the destruction with grimness while the camp is taken apart. Over by Lt. Wolfe’s section, he tries to contact others but can only reach the Captain. He wants to pull back but the Captain realizes that there’s no place they can pull back to and is ordered to stand his ground. Thereafter, his section is taken down as the NVAs make their way through the camp. I believe Doc is blinded by a shot and drops dead while Wolfe too tries to fight but gets blinded by shrapnel before another NVA takes him out. Now, things are bleak which forces Captain Harris to have an airstrike drop all remaining ammo within their perimeter since their camp would be taken down regardless.

Taylor finds Barnes pummeling an NVA to death and calls him out (I assume to warn Barnes about the air strike) but Barnes in blind rage knocks Taylor to the ground. It’s clear Barnes has lost his sanity as he’s about to bludgeon Taylor with his shovel. At that time, the strike occurs, causing for a brief second Barnes’ eyes to glow red with hatred but the world is lit up around them while napalm is dropped.

Eventually, Taylor wakes up but badly wounded and burnt. He manages to stumble to his feet and procure an enemy AK-47. He finds Barnes crawling nearby and aims the rifle towards Barnes with conviction even though Barnes orders Taylor to find a doc. But the killer glance Taylor gives Barnes is something Barnes is familiar with and accepts as he permits Taylor to end his life. Taylor then waits as a crew of soldiers come in to survey for survivors. Taylor is hurt and can’t walk so they call a doctor. From there Francis leaves a foxhole and stabs himself in the leg while O’Neill exits his hiding hole when a soldier with a punk style hair cut asks what happened.

Several other soldiers like Rhah take souvenirs from the massacre as the bodies are hauled off, tossed into holes to be buried in mass graves while bulldozers come in to help clean up the catastrophe of a battle. Taylor is carried on a stretcher and sees Francis who is smiling in knowing he is leaving ‘Nam with his injury. There’s very few survivors remaining from Taylor’s original platoon, including Rhah who gives Taylor a barbarian’s cry while Harris charges O’Neill with taking 2nd platoon since the others are dead. Slowly, Taylor is carried off on his chopper as he surveys the carnage, now seeing from the proverbial 10k feet in the sky the horror of war that he got caught up in. He talks about the real war, which was of themselves where Taylor was internally struggling between Elias and Barnes, the two fathers who groomed him in this event. He cries seeing the tragedy and understanding more fully what the duty of the survivors ought to be coming out of this.

Obviously, Platoon is Oliver Stone’s magnum opus and it’s considered one of the best war movies ever. But if you think plot-wise, there’s very little that goes on. It’s more of a series of events that Taylor goes through in experiencing the war. The story is more of the growth of Taylor from someone who volunteers and comes in ignorant to a hardened survivor, injured both externally and internally by what he has witnessed and participated in. His viewpoint changes over time where the turning point occurs during the village raid. That moment was where the real war of his soul had peaked as he went from a vengeful soldier to someone who realizes that what they might be doing is wrong especially once Barnes terminates the village leader’s wife and threatens the daughter.

A lot of understanding Platoon is through examining the various characters and their relationships to one another. In that, I want to talk about the significant ones in the story (besides Taylor):

• Sgt Elias – Elias is probably one of the more likeable characters in the movie as he shows compassion and sense to his men and others. He is a polar opposite character to Barnes in that Elias has managed to retain his humanity despite seeing and participating in the horrors. The signature moment of his pose symbolizes what I think is not just Elias acting as a martyr but one who had been abandoned in ‘Nam. But it’s not just a physical abandonment; it’s also a soulful and emotional one.
• Staff Sgt Barnes – Probably, the most complex character in the movie. Barnes doesn’t really show what he’s truly thinking in many cases. Instead, his subordinates tend to speak what Barnes probably is considering. And while Barnes comes off as callous most of the time, some people may interpret his character as evil. Instead, I see Barnes as a victim of circumstances where the scars on his face mirror how he probably feels internally. For instance, when Taylor discovers Barnes smoking by himself, it’s clear that Barnes is processing the two deaths from earlier that day with the booby traps. Then upon seeing Manny’s mutilation, it’s clear that the visual sends Barnes over the edge where his only thought is to retaliate without mercy. But Barnes also is a survivor type and he keeps going until he’s out of options, which is where he submits to Taylor’s wish to kill him. In a way, that death is a mercy killing because Barnes probably has little left beyond the war.
• King – Another very likeable character. Like Elias, King is a bit of a mentor especially towards Taylor. While Elias teaches Taylor how to have a heart in the war, King teaches Taylor how to survive. Taylor is not academically smart (as indicated by a letter he miserably fails to write in proper spelling to his girlfriend) but he’s street smart. When the chopper arrives to take him away, he doesn’t hesitate to leave the situation, even if it means abandoning the friends he made. But he knows what the real situation is because the war itself is worse than anything that they can throw at them back home.
• Big Harold – One more likeable person. Harold doesn’t have a whole lot of scenes but he does have heart. He’s one of the first to treat Taylor with some dignity after Taylor gets injured in the first battle. Ironically, after Harold suffers a major injury from the booby trap, it is Taylor is there to see him safely aboard the chopper.
• Rhah – Another hard edged veteran. He’s also street smart and understands the practicality of the system. Not surprisingly, he gets promoted to take over the platoon after Elias’ demise and is witness to Wolfe’s complete shutdown by the end.
• Sgt. O’Neill – A cunning coward who knows how to play the political game by being a brown noser. He realizes that Sgt Barnes is the real power in the group in terms of making the key decisions. So he hangs around Barnes, lighting his cigarettes and feeding him information so that his group can stay out of harms way. Of course, all this later comes back to bite him in a very karmic sense.
•  Bunny – A war like the Vietnam War is well suited for a person like Bunny. In the real world, Bunny would be considered a sociopath at best and most likely a murderer and potentially a rapist. The war serves to contain a person like Bunny where civilization really has no place for him which is probably why he joined in the first place. In a way, I see Bunny as a foil to Taylor where they are almost opposites. And serves as a reminder of Taylor’s own humanity.
• Junior – Another coward in the group but he’s more of a failure than anything who doesn’t take responsibility. As far as I can tell, no one likes him as he mostly just complains. It’s no wonder why they pair him up with Bunny as they both are suited for one another. The way I describe Junior is like that guy you knew in elementary school that grew up alongside you. Maybe he got D-‘s all the way through or just enough to pass but eventually was either forced to repeat a grade or two or just dropped out.
• Francis – If Bunny is Taylor’s foil, then Francis and Junior are foils to one another. Francis probably is one of the smarter African Americans in the group (partly indicated by him correcting King when King writes a letter to his girlfriend). But Francis shows his street smarts in a few key instances, especially when he stabs himself to get out of serving any longer. However, Francis does show empathy too as he tries to get Taylor to back down when they discover the two hiding villagers in the hut. In pairing Taylor with Francis, you can see how they manage to survive to the end where Francis regains his courage to fight alongside Taylor in comparison to when Junior abandons Bunny and the pair get slaughtered.
• Lt Wolfe – A completely inept leader with no courage, no sense and no useful skills. He’s almost comparable to Aliens’ Gorman which came out in the same year. However, Gorman redeems himself at the end by returning to aid Vasquez and sacrificing himself to allow Ripley, Newt and Hicks safe passage. Lt Wolfe has no redeeming qualities and there isn’t a single instant where one can praise Lt Wolfe (except possibly for trying to get the chopper to return for Elias). I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Wolfe is blinded by shrapnel and shot to death thereafter.

While it’s hard to say just how accurate this movie is (I’ve read that actual veterans had flashbacks watching this movie and others said this was realistic), I did read some criticisms on how certain things were dramatized like fragging or the violence against the Vietnamese (whereas the opposite probably was truer or on equally violent footing). However, I think the real issue is seeing what war does to people and what the Vietnam War meant to Americans.

With Taylor, part of his motive for volunteering was that his family were involved in both WWI and WWII. Up until the Vietnam War, America had great success on the world stage. The Vietnam War was a horrible embarrassment from a variety of angles. Yet there was this perception up until the Vietnam War that being part of the military was glorious. WWII veterans were proud of their victory whereas Vietnam War veterans were made to feel ashamed upon returning.

However, on an individual level it’s interesting to see how certain characters responded positively. Barnes and Bunny in particular were made for this where Bunny was a natural killer (Junior mentions this). In the case of Barnes, we get little of his actual background besides how he’s been shot 7 times and obviously survived. But you can see that there’s been a hidden turmoil brewing inside of him where the war is more within him. So he has lost most of his humanism over time especially after seeing the atrocities directly done to his own men. By the end, he becomes raw rage which is why he loses control against Taylor.

But abstracting Barnes further, the senseless crimes he performs against the village is meant to highlight how far a human might forget what they once were. Compare him to Elias who sees something else and somehow still preserves with his humanity. It’s that fine line that Stone is trying to get people to see about how this level of violence turns people back into animals or has the potential to as in the case of Barnes and Bunny as well as Taylor who sways both ways. That’s why Taylor only recognizes what’s going on once he’s in the chopper, surveying the damage and death because he realizes the true cost.

The village part is particularly powerful as a scene because any sane person should be able to extrapolate that the people there are mostly farmers. There is an elderly person who barely can do much but the troops treat him like a prisoner. And Bunny, who has little to no intelligence, blames the elderly woman whose son Bunny brutally murders that she might be the one responsible for Manny’s murder. I read some reviewers on imdb rejecting the movie for having liberal motives. But the point of a scene like that is to force one to question their own inner demons rather than praise the idea of violence and war itself by creating a ridiculous scene and humanize what looks through one lens as the enemy.

Then when you pull out of the lens of the movie and look at the Vietnam War as a whole, one has to think what real benefit occurred. I did some reading on the history and it’s quite obvious that the original purpose for instigating the war ended up being futile (where America wanted to fight the Red Tide) Instead, America was forced to pull out and the country gradually was overrun. Americans only celebrate WW1 and 2 because we won on the surface. But who really wins in these situations is the core question to ask?

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