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In America, the 1980s was a decade still reeling from the political turmoil of the prior two decades, and no single event better captured the distrust and ire of the average American, the stratified violence of the Cold War era, or the ideological confusion of the time than the Vietnam War. As such, the ’80s gave birth to a bevy of Vietnam films looking at America’s invasion from a variety of angles. If we count 1979, “Apocalypse Now” kicked things off with a brutal look at the corrupted morality of the warfighter, and later films like “First Blood” and “Full Metal Jacket” explored both the cruelty of the war itself and the extended global aftermath.<\/p>\n
If you’d asked the late film critic Roger Ebert<\/a> which ’80s film best captured the essence of war in the second half of the 20th century, he’d have told you it was 1986’s “Platoon,” starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Willem Dafoe. The film was directed by Oliver Stone, who was known more as a writer at the time, having penned hits like “Scarface” and “Conan the Barbarian.” Stone also wrote “Platoon,” which set itself apart from similar fare in the eyes of Ebert by focusing on the abject chaos and lineless warfare of Vietnam.<\/p>\n “He abandoned the choreography that is standard in almost all war movies,” Ebert wrote<\/a> of Stone in his ranking of the top 10 films of the decade. “His combat scenes involve 360 degrees: Any shot might be aimed at friend or enemy, and in the desperate rush of combat, many of his soldiers never have a clear idea of exactly who they are shooting at, or why.”<\/p>\n