Platoon... Reality or Stonism?

Philistone | 05/10/2007 | Philistone

[Philistone]

So I'm watching Platoon on demand for about the 15th time.

I saw it the first time in a theater when it first came out with a former army grunt. The fact that I was a snot nosed, 24 year-old white boy who'd never been in the service and he was a 50 year-old black engineer had nothing to do with it. He told me he used to go out on patrol with no food or water so he could carry more guns and ammo. He wasn't going down without a fight.

Walking out, he told me "that's EXACTLY what it was like."

All I could think about was how HOLLYWOOD the whole film was (the guy who reads the letter from his mom only to get blown up in the next scene, The good vs evil Sargeants, etc.)

I'd be interested in hearing from some other vets as to their reaction to this film.

[Borges]

FMJ was based on auto-biographical novel by Vietnam Vet Gustav Hasford called ‘The Short Timers’. So there was clearly something there that wasn’t just a wet dream. You can’t deny how effective the BAsic Traning scenes were.

[durasell]

Didn’t he also write Steal This Book?

[Borges]

The script of ‘Platoon’ was written by Oliver Stone in the 1970s. Dale Dye was in charge of acclimating the actors to war conditions.

[Borges]

That was Abbie Hoffman.

[Bender2]

Re: Captain Dale Dye wrote the script for Platoon, therefore I tend to believe it’s pretty much the way it was.

You must be smoking the same stuff as they did in Platoon to come up with Dale Dye writing the script. No where do I find anyone but Oliver Stone as having the writing credit...

Where in the world did you get this?

I'd like to know your source. And why you accept it as every other Platoon source that says Stoney wrote that POS all by himself!

Awaiting you reply...

[durasell]

I was making a (poor) joke. Hasford was arrested for stealing books...

[dfwgator]

[Nailbiter]

.

[PJ-Comix]

I'm STILL waiting for a WWII film that shows it as it REALLY was early in the Pacific Theatre:

READ The Thin Red Line by James Jones. (Forget the movie versions, they were all crap.) Considered the most accurate WWII war novel ever. Most frightening was the way Jones, early in the novel, described the aerial dogfights above as mere statistics. You have to read it to understand what I mean.

[blackie]

I agree; Oliver Stone created it out his fertile, left-wing, anti-war brain.

Platoon is/was a POS!!!

Here is a quote from imdb.com about Stony:

Is a friend and admirer of Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, and shot a documentary about the world’s longest reigning Communist leader, titled Comandante (2003). It was to air on HBO in May 2003, but due to protests by anti-Castro Cuban-American activists, it was shelved until 2003.

That should clue everyone about this loony-tune jerk!!

Stony also directed Platoon.

Time to go grocery shopping. >:-}

[dfwgator]

Dye also was a technical advisor for the movie, and played a bit part in the movie, he was the one who said, “It’s a Lovely F’ing War” before ordering the napalm strike near the end of the movie.

[durasell]

Stone actually served in Vietnam after leaving Yale.

[dfwgator]

Everything you said about Stone is true, but that does not take away the fact that Platoon was a damn fine war movie, and if anything is an indictment of LBJ’s conduct of the war than anything.

[durasell]

I wouldn’t call Stone a left wing wacko. He’s one of those guys who lives to be provocative and stir things up.

[Bender2]

Re: A cover scan of Platoon novel that says "A novel by Dale A. Dye based on a screenplay by Oliver Stone."

Too bad you did not read and comprehend that before your Captain Dale Dye wrote the script for Platoon... wrong comment.

Learn the definitions of script, novel and screenplay so that you may use them correctly in the future.

Always consider that what you write defines a lot about your character, integrity and your worth as a source of correct information...

Otherwise, you may end up writing and directing new POS like those written and directed by Oliver Stone...

[blackie]

I didn’t say he didn’t serve in Nam ~ that doesn’t make him a patriotic American ~ he’s still a commie loving cretin!

[blackie]

I didn’t and still don’t like the movie, or Stony!

[blackie]

I say he’s a left-wing wacko ~ he’s part of the hate America crowd that permeates Holly-weird!

[gondramB]

In evaluating Platoon, its probably fair to consider how less realistic movies were before that.

I’ve never served but I worked for the police and what cop shows fail to capture is how endlessly boring the work is but yet you can never relax on the street in uniform. I can only imagine that military service in a combat zone is much worse and yet hard to represent properly on film.

[Beckwith]

No — Abbie Hoffman did.