Platoon
There’s one scene in here that means I can never watch this affecting piece of filmmaking again.
And if you’ve seen this movie, you know exactly which one I’m talking about: the platoon pulls a woman and a mentally retarded youth from a hiding spot in a hut in a village suspected to harbour Vietcong.
American soldier Chris (Charlie Sheen) starts yelling at the smiling youth and firing his rifle at his feet. “You want something to smile about? Dance, one-legger! Dance!,” he screams as the mother pleads for her child. That absolute cruelty is enough to make me shy away from the screen, but then Kevin Dillon’s character Bunny steps in and beats the poor boy’s head into a pulp with his rifle.
The world can be a senseless, dreadful place and this scene drives that home.
The film was up for eight Oscars, and took home four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Oliver Stone, who was on a tear at the time. Consider this: the writer/director released Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors and JFK in a five-year period from 1986 to 1991.