Realism In War Films

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In the 1980s, Platoon was thought to have been the definitive Vietnam War movie with its striking realism. There were also other attempts to recreate the reality from the Vietnam War into films around the same time with, The Deer Hunter, Michael Cimino (1978) and Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola (1979). Both movies are strong films but I don’t believe either of these are as effective as Platoon. Platoon is seen through the eyes of one of the soldiers, Chris Taylor, (Charlie Sheen), As he is dropped into the middle of the Vietnam war, we are introduced to Vietnam by bodies being lined up on the run way to go home, straight away we see the reality of the war and the fear begins. Throughout the film we see him struggle to survive as he is forced to become a liar, a coward and a murderer. Platoon, which was also written by Oliver Stone, is thought to be semi-autobiographical because stone served in the Vietnam War as an infantryman. A lot of his experiences are supposed to be stitched into the film and the main characters are based on individuals he served with. Charlie Sheens character is suppose to represent Oliver Stone himself. This is one of the reasons people believe the film is so good, because it has such a deep personal input from Stones memories and it just came natural while directing it because he has already seen it happen. While watching this film you get a sense of what it is really like in the jungle non stop in fear for your life. We don’t see at any time anything outside the jungle or back home, we just see each soldier trying to survive to see another fight and counting down the days until the fight is over. In this film it brings us through the intense combat with the characters in a way that does not hold back on the details of the corporeal effects of war on the soldiers fighting. The film also showed us parts of the war that other films
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