Each of these films is brilliant. Each one tells a story of the Vietnam War from a different angle. The first is an autobiographical account of Stone's experience of the War. The second is about another military man, only this time he becomes a disabled veteran. It is a film that is often overlooked, as is the third installment which I rarely hear mentioned when people talk about Oliver Stone's films.
Tom Cruise puts in one of his best performances in Born on the Fourth of July. And Willem Dafoe is great as the other drunk in a wheelchair stranded somewhere in Mexico. That scene might have been the best in the film. The Republican National convention scene was great too. Cruise's character takes to the floor and is escorted out of the building by security. Outside the building he is rescued by other veterans. After that he goes to visit a fellow soldier whom he killed with friendly fire.
Heaven and Earth takes a radically different view of the Vietnam War. A Vietnamese woman is the protagonist in the film. She is raised during the crucial years of the end of French rule and the beginning of the American presence. She works on a small rice farm and earns a meager living. By the end of the film she is a prosperous woman who has three sons and lives in California.
Yet, the man who loved her, who brought her to America as a refugee, ends up committing suicide. It is a very emotional scene when Tommy Lee Jones puts a rifle in his mouth. It is a sad affair when a serviceman can't seem to cope with life as it is. It seemed he was always wanting something more, always believed so much in the American dream which he was fighting to protect. I guess he just couldn't accept the fact that his dreams didn't work out like he wanted. It was a very sad end, indeed.
Platoon is a great first film. It was Stone's directorial debut. And he knocked it out of the park. For all the battle scenes and rivalries I found that Berenger's monologue about killing and death was so dark and brooding. The platoon had just got back from the jungle where Berenger had left Dafoe's character behind to be killed by the NVA. Berenger appears in the bunker where all the pot heads hang out. And where Elias partied too. He shows up with a bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand. The light was silouetted on his face to reveal his battle scars. He ruminates about death, killing, and dying. He challenges anyone in the room to a fight, Yet they are all hesitant to stand up to Berenger. Charlie Sheen finally mounts the courage, but is quickly put down.
The conflicts in Platoon seem to mirror the conflict over the war at home. One faction for the war and willing to commit atrocities to win. The other questioning why the country was in Vietnam and the methods soldiers were using to fight the war. Clearly the American conscience was not made up about Vietnam. For a conflict that ripped so many lives asunder, the 1980's was a time when many Americans came to terms with Vietnam. There were many films, these three being some of the best, that depicted the Vietnam War in American film. And with time came perspective.
Many changes were made and war came back to America. Instead of Tricky Dick we got the Bushes. I don't think there was a member of Congress who wasn't for the first or second Iraq War. On the contrary there were probably a couple. A sad few. Like the Spanish-American War many people have heard the drum beat to aggression. And again the country finds itself in peril. What are we doing in Iraq? Afghanistan? Are we building countries? How can we stop fundamentalism from reaking havoc the World over? It seems the threat of Communism has abated and in it's place is radical Islam. What should be done? War in Syria? Boots on the ground? Who knows?
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