At the 1987 Academy Awards, Steven Spielberg was given the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, an honor handed out periodically by the Academy to “creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production.” This is the same Steven Spielberg whom we can partly blame/thank for the current Netflix-and-the-Oscars controversy, which the Department of Justice now feels warrants their attention and possible intervention (what is this world coming to?).
Anyhow, the great Spielberg isn’t the only link between the present time and the year that gave us this week’s Best Picture winner Platoon (1986, Hemdale Film Production; Orion). In fact, Platoon pulls together a whole bunch of issues that frequent current news headlines: U.S. troops fighting in foreign countries for reasons unknown to them, PTSD and other mental illnesses, and racial and social inequalities. Oliver Stone, director of Platoon, is certainly not one to shy away from hot-button topics in his films. Just take a look at some of his notable directorial efforts: Wall Street (1987), Talk Radio (1988), JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), Nixon (1995), and W. (2008).
Interestingly for this week’s focus on Platoon, Stone’s very first film (a short called Last Year in Viet Nam) also chronicles some of his experiences as a U.S. Army soldier in the Vietnam War, for which he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. Stone had written Platoon in the 1970s, fairly soon after his return home from military duty overseas; and he later went on to make two more films about the war: Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven & Earth (1993). All three of Stone’s Vietnam films draw upon the confused and tormented emotions of the people who participated in and/or were affected by the Vietnam conflict and who struggled (and still do) with feelings of disillusionment, abandonment, and loss.
Platoon has often been called one of the most realistic war movies of all time, and it certainly reflects a, for lack of a better word, nausea toward the war, rather than the glorification of battle that is often seen in film. The movie won four Oscars out of eight nominations, taking home statuettes for Film Editing, Sound, Directing for Stone, and Best Picture (it failed to win Cinematography, Writing [Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen], Actor in a Supporting Role for Tom Berenger as the diabolical Sgt. Barnes, and Actor in a Supporting Role for Willem Dafoe as the more honorable Sgt. Elias).
What is also of note regarding Platoon and its 1987 win is the plethora of Vietnam films that were also released around the same time. Although the topic of the war had been included in film earlier, no one had really used Vietnam geographically in a movie or explored the psyches of the men who had been involved in the war there until the mid-to-late 1970s when that trend began to turn. Films such as 1976’s Taxi Driver, 1978’s BP The Deer Hunter, and the critically acclaimed Apocalypse Now (1979) launched a new era of exploration into one of America’s most hated historical events. Platoon was joined by 1987’s Full Metal Jacket; Good Morning, Vietnam; and Hamburger Hill, as well as 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July and Casualties of War, among a few others.
Several experts have explored the portrayal of the Vietnam War in film and have made some very interesting observations and conclusions. First, while there was an enormous amount of World War II movies made immediately after the close of that conflict (and even during the war), this was not the case with the Vietnam War. Vietnam had divided Americans and spawned countless protests across the country involving hundreds of thousands (and probably millions) of people. Returning veterans were not hailed as heroes as were the soldiers of the previous World Wars. Instead, they were often seen as murderers of the innocent. But as the 1970s grew older, films began to look at those who had fought in Vietnam–from the perspective of how those veterans were adjusting to life back at home (this was usually negative). When the 80s arrived and action movies were all the rage, the “tortured Vietnam vet” motif morphed into the conflicted soldier in the midst of graphic violence–thanks to the popularity of and demand for action movies, as well as action heroes like Rambo. With this background of tormented soldiers and high-paced (though brutal) adventure, film slowly began to confront the politics of the Vietnam War until the narrative became one of regret, the “we-shouldn’t-have-gone-there” storyline in which the soldier becomes a tragic hero led to the slaughter by his own disconnected and misguided government.
What Platoon does, then, as one of the most popular films of the 80s, is draw upon the tortured vet and thrilling action ideas–and combine them with an exploration of good and evil within men pushed to their physical, mental, and emotional limits. In the face of constant fear and commonplace death, the film asks what actions are acceptable and what deeds are reprehensible. Though certainly not an enjoyable movie, Platoon does present a glimpse into the minds and hearts of those who were in Vietnam and perhaps even helps those of us who came afterwards to understand them and their experiences a bit more. As Oliver Stone said as he accepted his Oscar for directing Platoon, “I think that through this award you’re really acknowledging the Vietnam veteran. And I think what you’re saying is that for the first time, you really understand what happened over there. And I think what you’re saying is that it should never, ever in our lifetimes happen again. And if it does, then those American boys died over there for nothing, because America learned nothing from the Vietnam War.”
For more thoughts on Platoon and its significance, please check out this weekend’s post!