Platoon

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Platoon is a 1986 film about a young recruit in Vietnam who faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.

Written and directed by Oliver Stone.
The first casualty of war is innocence.

Contents

[edit] Chris Taylor

  • Somebody once wrote: 'Hell is the impossibility of reason.' That's what this place feels like. Hell.
  • Well, here I am, anonymous all right. With guys nobody really cares about. They come from the end of the line, most of 'em. Small towns you never heard of: Pulaski, Tennessee; Brandon, Mississippi; Pork Van, Utah; Wampum, Pennsylvania. Two years' high school's about it, maybe if they're lucky a job waiting for them back at a factory, but most of 'em got nothing. They're poor, they're the unwanted, yet they're fighting for our society and our freedom. It's weird, isn't it? They're the bottom of the barrel and they know it. Maybe that's why they call themselves grunts, cause a grunt can take it, can take anything. They're the best I've ever seen, Grandma. The heart & soul.
  • Maybe I finally found it, way down here in the mud. Maybe from down here I can start up again, be something I can be proud of, without having to fake it, be a fake human being.
  • Day by day I struggle to maintain not only my strength but also my sanity. It's all a blur. I have no energy to write. I don't know what's right or wrong anymore. The morale of the men is low, a civil war in the platoon. Half the men with Elias, half with Barnes. There's a lot of suspicion and hate. I can't believe we're fighting each other, when we should be fighting them.
  • I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves, and the enemy was in us. The war is over for me now, but it will always be there, the rest of my days. As I'm sure Elias will be, fighting with Barnes for what Rhah calls "possesion of my soul." There are times since, I've felt like a child, born of those two fathers. But be that as it may, those who did make it have an obligation to build again. To teach to others what we know, and to try with whats left of our lives to find a goodness and a meaning to this life.

[edit] Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes

  • You talking about killing? Hmm? Y'all experts? Y'all know about killing? I'd like to hear about it, potheads. [takes pipe and sniffs] Are you smoking this shit so's to escape from reality? Me, I don't need this shit. I am reality. There's the way it ought to be, and there's the way it is. Elias was full of shit. Elias was a crusader. Now, I got no fight... with any man who does what he's told. But when he don't, the machine breaks down. And when the machine breaks down, we break down. And I ain't gonna allow that... in any of you. Not one. [hands pipe back and spits] Y'all love Elias. Oh, you wanna kick ass. Yeah. Well, here I am, all by my lonesome. And there ain't nobody gonna know. Six of you boys against me. Kill me. [pause] Huh. I shit on all of you.

[edit] Dialogue

King: Hey, Taylor, how in the fuck you get here anyway? You look educated.
Chris Taylor: I volunteered for it.
King: You did what?
Chris: I volunteered. I dropped out of college, told 'em I wanted the infantry, combat, Vietnam.
Crawford: You volunteered for this shit, man?
Chris: Believe that?
King: You's a crazy fucker, giving up college?
Chris: Didn't make much sense, I wasn't learning anything. I figured why should just the poor kids go off to war and the rich kids always get away with it.
King: Oh, I see, what we got here is a crusader.
Crawford: Sounds like it.
King: Shiiit, you gotta be rich in the first place to think like that. Ever'body know, the poor are always being fucked over by the rich. Always have, always will.
[Chris takes his first hit of marijuana]
Elias: First time?
Chris: Yeah.
Elias: Then the worm has definitely turned for you, man. Feel good?
Chris: Yeah, it feels good. I got no pain in my neck now.
Elias: Feelin' good's good enough.
Junior: Simple, free your mind and the ass will follow.
Bunny: Hey, I can dig it, man. When you smoke that shit everything kind of gets weird, you know what I mean? You heard that story about the gooks putting chemicals in the grass so we don't fight and become pacifists?
Junior: Yeah, but don't you worry Bunny, 'cos you's a killer anyway, man.
Bunny: Yeah, but I still like a piece of pussy once in a while. Ain't nothing like a piece of pussy, except maybe the Indy 500.
Junior: The only way you get some pussy man, is if a bitch dies and wills it to you. And then, maybe!
Chris: It's the way the whole thing works, people like Elias get wasted, people like Barnes just go on making up the rules any way they want. So what do we do? Sit in the middle and suck on it. We just don't add up to dry shit, King.
King: Whoever said we did, man? All you got to do is make it out of here. It's all gravy, everyday the rest of your life, gravy.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

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