Platoon (1986) First Time Watching! Movie Reaction!! 

A disturbing look inside the fight between themselves and the enemy… This was a rough watch yet easy to appreciate for what it made us feel! Thank you for your support!

My grandmother was the only one out of my whole family and friends who wrote to me when I was in Vietnam in 1970. I was stationed at a little rat hole called Phu Bai, about 80 clicks away from the DMZ. Those letters from her helped me get through it all, so I relate to him writing to his grandmother.

Barnes was terrible but I really hated Junior too. Straight up fell asleep and immediately blamed someone else.

My dad was 18 years old and fought as a tunnel rat with the Marines in Vietnam from 1968-1970 and he said when he watched platoon he could feel the heat and the humidity of the jungle again, like he was right back in 130° heat and 100% humidity. He said it was one of the most accurate war movies on Vietnam he'd ever seen. My Dad was killed by Agent Orange 4 years ago, it's a chemical that US Government used in the war to kill large swaths of jungle and destroy Vietnam's crops, and the Marines and soldiers were exposed and are dying 50+ years later from it. I was born with kidney failure from my Dad's exposure to agent orange in Nam. But yeah he said this movie is extremely accurate and it's been one of my favorites since my Dad first let me watch it 15 years ago.

The back story of Barnes is that we was the only survivor of a patrol and was shot in the face by a NVA soldier and left for dead. Once he was put back together we went back into action knowing he was not going to live through the war, and wanted to kill every Vietnamese he could, and anyone that got in his way. Barnes and Elias were both guys that just kept re elisting to stay in the fight for totally opposite reasons. Elias wanted to save his guys. Barnes just couldn't stop killing.

Tom Berenger playing the role of Sgt. Barnes was deservedly nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar. The fact he didn’t win it, is a travesty.

Charlie Sheen (Taylor) and Tom Berenger (Barnes) immediately went from this movie to making the movie Major League. You two should definitely watch that to see how amazing they transitioned to very different roles.

Oliver Stone volunteered to go to Vietnam, and the character of Taylor is basically a representation of himself, while the film is largely an autobiographical depiction of his own experiences during his tour of duty. Pretty much everything depicted here is exactly as Stone himself experienced it, and is widely regarded as THE true, honest screen depiction of what it was REALLY LIKE in the Vietnam War.

Samantha's "hello!'" always makes me feel like I just arrived at a party I'm welcome at. xD

I love Platoon so much because it feels more like a Documentary rather then movie especially with Oliver Stone a Vietnam Veteran directing it.

It's the movie Frank Drebin and girlfriend were leaving from and laughing about in Naked Gun.

"Make it outta here, it's all gravy, every day of the rest of your life - gravy."

In the Naked Gun movie, there was a brief bit where Leslie Nielson and Priscilla Presley leave a theater, laughing...and on the marquee is Platoon. A visual joke that probably makes sense after seeing this film.

Fun fact: The final battle is based off the New Years Eve Battle which Oliver Stone fought in and earned a Bronze Star. For years he thought he imagined that battle until he ran into a fellow veteran who explained it all to him.

Winner of 4 Oscars including Best Picture. Based Loosely on the life of Oliver Stone whom was in the Army during the Vietnam War. Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, and Keith David star in this epic war film.

The characters of Barnes and Ellias are depictions of the inner conflict in every soldier. Whether they act like Ellias or Barnes during conflict. There is a conflict between good and evil in everyone. But it's up to us to decide which one wins.

When my father first landed in Nam, the first thing he saw was the body bags being loading in a transport heading back to the states. This movie brought a lot of memories back for my father. He was in the Air Force, he did see some combat even though he was an aircraft mechanic.

You should look at the "making-of" documentary about this movie. Oliver Stone took the actors out into the actual jungle out there and had spec-ops veterans train them, run night drills, and treat them like grunts in the field. They fed them MREs, made them deal with the bugs and leeches, and ended up breaking more than one of them. A lot of what you see in the film isn't acting, it's what these guys were seeing and feeling at the time. When Charlie Sheen wept on the chopper at the end, it was because he was actually leaving and Oliver Stone told him he was done and could go home.

One of my grandfather's friends was a tunnel rat in Vietnam. When they found tunnels, he was sent in to scout them out with a light and a pistol. Those guys had to do a lot of close-quarters killing. He was a really nice guy, but a little strange, unsurprisingly.

Made on a $6 million dollar budget, it made $140 million dollars at the box office.

The actor that played Francis was Corey Glover, singer for the band Living Colour.

19:31 Not sure if you can really see it, but I 'love' the fact that they have this scene in here where Chris is holding a grenade in his hands (thinking about blowing himself up) then tries to nonchalantly drop it before any of his approaching fellow soldiers notice. Just another element that really speaks to the nightmarish reality they were experiencing. Charlie Sheen actually came up with the idea for doing that on the spot the day of filming and Oliver Stone thought it was perfect.

“Born on the 4th of July” is also a good movie.

Also, this film was based on director Oliver Stone's enlistment in 1968 and during the Tet Offensive.

It was based on the directors Oliver Stone's experiences in Vietnam. A brilliant movie. A soldier you should look up is Roy Benevedas as his story of his time in Vietnam are just insane. Such an amazing story and man. Total respect for him. In his first tour he was injured so badly he was told he would never walk again yet so he was told he would be discharged but he begged to do office work instead. He never stopped his training and went on to walk again then he became a navy seal but its what he did next was even more unbelievable. A hero.

Casualties of War by Brian De Palma and The Deer Hunter by Michael Cimino are the last two war films based on Vietnam you guys should see. I know it's a difficult subject matter but a lot of the things depicted in these movies happened. That's why so many veterans came back home broken and our society spat in their faces and called them baby killers. A lot of the people who were homeless in the 80s and 90s were Vietnam vets and it's heart breaking. But these movies need to be seen and talked about or else we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. Great video and I do hope you guys mix it up a bit with comedies. Those are also good videos.

20:15, Vietnam Vets saw the film and they applauded it, even though some of the stuff they saw was inaccurate, it is exactly how they experienced it

You've watched three of the big four Vietnam flicks. "The Deer Hunter" (1978), was nominated for nine Oscars and took home five including: Best Picture, Best Director and Supporting Actor for Christopher Walken.

This movie perfectly illustrates war crimes. Most people follow the rules, but you will always have a couple of rotten apples in the basket. Also i really like how you feel the jungle as a really bad place to fight. This is my favorite Nam movie by far

Another extremely perceptive reaction/review, guys! Platoon is about as authentic as a Vietnam movie can be, but it still presents a somewhat "heightened" version of events in order to highlight the psychological trauma that the combatants suffered. Some veterans did not think it represented their experiences at all, while others couldn't sit through it all because it was way too close to reality for them. Whatever the "truth," the movie served as a way for Americans to begin to understand what veterans had gone through, and gave veterans some way of beginning to articulate their experiences. With regards to the village scene, these raids were pretty common and known colloquially as "Zippo Raids," because - as you see in the film - the soldiers generally started the fires with cigarette lighters. Because the villages were prime recruitment targets for the Viet Cong, the official US policy was to make the villagers relocate to new areas that had better defences, so the VC couldn't infiltrate them, use them as storage caches or force the inhabitants to fight for them (though many villagers were sympathetic to the VC and willingly helped). The emptied villages were then burned down. The raid in the film was a typically confusing affair for the US soldiers, because the VC were clearly active in the area and they found munitions in the village. However, there was no way to tell if the villagers were willingly helping or if they had been coerced, so you ended up with what happened.

Oliver Stone made the actors dig their own foxholes for this, and do other work, so they wouldn't just act "tired, hot and dirty", they'd know exactly what if felt like, because that's how'd they'd be feeling. The entire film was also shot in chronoligical order, so each each time somebody died in the film, they left the set, were flown home, and the other actors didn't see them again.

It's a really well done film, it also shows, amercians were not angels neither in a war. It's also a Biographie, Oliver Stone went to war and he described in the film what he saw in Vietnam.

Really impressed that you guys would do this movie. It doesn't get nearly enough attention on these types of channels.

I was a kid when this movie came out. I remember there being a wave of Vietnam War media, from movies like Casualties of War, to songs like Paul Hardcastle's "19."

After seeing this movie, and witnessing the fracturing of the troops, and the ensuing chaos, is it any wonder why so many Vietnam vets suffered for decades with PTSD? Bless their souls. I hope they've finally found the peace they deserve.

We Were Soldiers is a good veitnam war film. It gives another view of veitnam all be it early in the war.

Just as Col. Walter Kurtz said in Apocalypse Now, an effective soldier has to make friends with horror and moral terror but can also fight with their hearts and still be a father and a good husband. You effectively become 2 personalities, a killer and a lover.

In the british army we use a pen to indicate who is on watch, that way everyone knows who should be sleeping or not

Casualties of War ('89) with Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn is one of the hardest Vietnam Movies I've ever seen. You must see!

I got another military movie for you guys: Hacksaw Ridge.

I recommend that you add to the list: "Born on The Fourth of July" with Tom Cruise, the next film by this same director Oliver Stone, after "Platoon", which narrates the post-war for a soldier and all the physical and psychological consequences. That's probably Tom Cruise's best performance of his entire career. This movie is highly recommended. Also performing in this: Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger (Barnes) and other supporting Platoon actors. And if we talk about more good Oliver Stone movies, add to the list: JFK that narrates the theory about who murdered the president and the controversial Natural Born Killers, other good Oliver movies.

I remember watching this movie in a theater during the Christmas season of 1986 with my brother. One of the few times the whole crowd walked out of the theater almost 100 percent quietly. That has only happened a few times in my lifetime. Very powerful movie.

This was the first realistic Viet Nam War movie made. Before this movie came out there was stuff like Rambo, Missing in Action, Uncommon Valor, but this movie really showed us many aspects that many people didn't know about. After this movie came out, Hollywood started making more realistic Viet Nam movies like Hamburger Hill, Born on the 4th of July, Casualties of War, etc. It really was a game changer in 80's cinema. Great reaction video. Love your channel.

Oliver Stone who directed this went to Vietnam and said this movie was based on his own personal experiences. He purposefully picked very young actors mostly between 18 and 21 to make it as real as Vietnam was with so many young soldiers drafted right after high school

My father was in Vietnam and the stories that he told me are true just like in this movie 100% true it’s all about politics

Hamburger Hill is a forgotten war movie that a vet I met who was there said the movie is pretty accurate.

For years I only knew the iconic opening classical music as 'The Platoon music' before I learned it was Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings'.

One of the greatest movies ever made a true classic Platoon written and directed by Oliver Stone starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen. This film won 4 Oscars including best picture and best director for Oliver Stone, thank you so much TBR for reacting this masterpiece👍👍

Vietnam War movies timeline( more movies to add to your lists ) Pre-War: Go Tell The Spartans - 1978( Story inspired by failed special forces operation at Tan Hoa based on novel Incident at Muc Wa by Daniel Ford - 1964 ) The War: We Were Soldiers - 2002( Battle of Ia Drang - 1965 ) Good Morning Vietnam - 1987 ( Saigon AFRS radio DJ Adrian Cronauer's experiences - 1965 ) Casualties of War - 1989( Incident on Hill 192 - 1966 ) Platoon - 1986( takes place near the Cambodian border - 1967 ) Full Metal Jacket -1987( Basic training & The Tet Offensive - 1968 ) Hamburger Hill - 1987( Battle of Hill 937 - 1969 ) Apocalypse Now - 1979( covert Nung River mission into Cambodia - 1970 ) Bat*21 - 1988( Rescue of Airman Iceal Gene Hambleton "Bat 21 Bravo" behind North Vietnamese lines - 1972 ) The Killing Fields - 1984( Fall of Saigon immediate aftermath - 1973 ) Green Eyes - 1977( A soldier's return to Vietnam to find his family left behind -1977 )

As disturbing as the events that take place in the village are in the movie, the reality of some of the things that happened in Vietnam is far worse. I suggest you research the massacre at Mỹ Lai, probably the worst atrocity of the Vietnam war.

I love watching these reaction videos because they function as best-of hit reels for the movie and your reactions clue me in to things that I missed or didn’t string together. The real villain of this movie is Lt. Wolfe, who absolutely fails to maintain discipline within his unit, allows soldiers to become drunks and druggies (destroying cohesion, reducing fighting effectiveness, they make bad decisions), fails to reprimand soldiers for atrocities and oh yeah, gives bad coordinates for artillery.

The Platoon's translator (Lerner) was played by a *very* young Johnny Depp.

Thank you for your movie reaction choices, you pick a lot of movies that I care about.

The village scene, I believe, is based upon the My Lai Massacre. Look into it if you’re interested.

The Capt in the movie is Capt Dale Dye..He was an officer in Vietnam and has been the military advisor to almost every realistic war film since platoon.

The Captain who called in the airstrike is played by Dale Dye. He is an actual Viet Nam veteran and a very prolific military advisor in Hollywood, especially for Viet Nam films. He often appears in movies he consults on.

War movie recommendation, Paths of Glory - one of Kubrick's early films and one of his best. Keep up the good work!

I saw this movie theatrically 2 days before I shipped off to boot camp. Check out The Boys in Company C if you can, it’s a awesome underrated Vietnam movie similar in structure to Full Metal Jacket.

The smile Elias gives Barnes isnt about finding an ally. It's more him saying after all I've been through, I knew it would be you who would kill me. That shot of Elias death is iconic.

Yes! 🙌 Thank you so much, and I appreciate the reaction. After a long hard week of working, and stressing. I finally get to watch my favorite youtubers react to a favorite movie of mine. You guys made my week. 🤩

Adagio for Strings is wonderfully beautiful yet haunting and really made an impact when I watched this film. Then to hear it again in the game Homeworld...

You should watch the movie "Hamburger Hill" it's based off real events during the Vietnam War and is considered one of the most realistic depictions of the war

Tom Berenger played the 'bad sergeant', Willem Dafoe played the 'good sergeant', both received Oscar nominations for their performances.

Don’t know if anybody mentioned it already but, at the end after he kills Barnes, Chris was about to kill himSELF with a grenade. He’s sitting there about to pull the pin when the commando reinforcements arrive on the swastika APC. Chris quickly drops the grenade to the side, maybe ‘cause there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for him now... but I’ve always thought it’s just because in the moment he didn’t want to take any innocent bystanders with him. It happens so quick that most people miss it. I only caught it 20 years later.

Although the film's a fictional story the village scene is based loosely on the Mỹ Lai massacre.

Tony Todd "candyman" in one of his earliest movie appearances.

so proud of this movie for showing the realities of war. its unreal what our soldiers went through in that conflict.

Speaking Father/Son in war movies, both Sheen's are in Hot Shots 2 for a brief cameo moment.

Howdy from north Texas once again! Another great reaction y’all! I’d like to throw in my vote for The Unforgiven with the great Clint Eastwood and the equally great Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman... keep up the great work!!!

My favorite Oliver Stone movie, and one of my favorite movies period. Stone served two tours in Vietnam and based the characters off people he knew; the inspirations for Barnes & Elias didn't serve together, and Stone was curious about what might have happened if they had, since they were such opposites. I'm particularly glad that Stone & Berenger didn't make Barnes into a purely evil villain, but allowed you to see how/why he does what he does; when Stone showed this film to some of his old Vietnam colleagues, he noted how many of them sided with Barnes rather than Elias or Taylor.

My grandpa was in the Vietnam war, he got blown up trying to carry a fallen brother lost a testicle, took shrapnel in his legs along with a gunshot wound that he already had. The explosion messed up his hands to the point where he can’t open them all the way. But happy to say that tough bastard is still alive an kickin til this day. Even with messed up hands he can still drive to, he even got him a Purple Heart marines license plate lol love that man.

I hope you try to watch "Midnight Run" with Charles Grodin and Robert Deniro. Such a funny and well done buddy movie. You guys will love it!

This is the first of Oliver Stone’s Vietnam Trilogy. The next 2 are “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Heaven and Earth”

I've visited the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam and, even though they've been widened for tourists, they're one of the most claustrophobic experiences I've had. I can't even start to imagine what it must've been like for the (mostly Australian) soldiers who had to clear them, knowing that enemies, booby traps and poisonous animals (snakes, centipedes) could be around any corner. For a really good documentary on the war as a whole, the Ken Burns documentary 'The Vietnam War' is excellent.

Honestly impressed by how well you guys predicted what was about to happen, I’ve seen other reactions to platoon and no one saw anything coming, you two were really paying attention to the little details like the forest ambush

The average age for the combat soldier in WW2 was 26. In Vietnam it was 19.

This and Wallstreet (both by Oliver Stone) were the pinnacle of Charlie Sheen’s career IMO. But I liked the Hot Shots movies too. 😂

Another suggestion on another Oliver Stone film... JFK starring Kevin Costner...the story of the only trial ever brought for the assasination of JFK. SOOOO many stars.... Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Kevin Bacon, John Candy, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemon, Ed Asner , Donald Sutherland and more. HIGHLY recommended.

Hi guys. I saw this in the theater when it came out. I had just joined the Navy the previous august. A very impactful movie. I'm glad I was to young for that war. My war was Desert Storm. I was in a cargo handling battalion 40 miles behind the line. As the one officer said in Full Metal Jacket, in the rear with the gear. Luckily all I had to worry about were scud missiles and terrorist attacks. Glad you both like the movie. Great reaction. Keep up the good work. Steve

These guys were the last of our brave souls who were drafted and not looking to be heroes. That to me is a true hero.

Great choice; great reactions!!! Love the discussion at the end of your videos. BTW, what you did with "The Pacific" series is AMAZING! I couldn't stop watching your videos back to back! TBR I'm your fan forever!!!!! "Peace" to you too :)

My father (rest his soul), a Vietnam veteran, said that he'd seen many Vietnam War movies---but this one----this one made the hairs in the back of his head stand up. The body bags at the airport, the midday hump thru the jungle on patrol. Some of this movie took him back there. Oliver Stone and his advisor Captain Dye really brought their horrific war experience to the screen.

The one thing I love about the first scene. The night ambush, is how expertly the NVA soldiers just blended into their surroundings. And then all at once, they just seem to appear from the jungle. They were expert jungle fighters. And i loved the way that scene was shot, just to showcase this.

OMG, I just watched your Full Metal Jacket vid yesterday, suggested Platoon (not on Patreon) as being right up there as one of the best war movies, and this was posted just a few hours later!! Nice!!

You guys should check out "To Live and Die in LA" To Live and Die in L.A. is a 1985 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by William Friedkin and based on the novel by former U.S. Secret Service agent Gerald Petievich, who co-wrote the screenplay with Friedkin. The film features William Petersen, Willem Dafoe and John Pankow among others. Wang Chung composed and performed the original music soundtrack. The film tells the story of the lengths to which two Secret Service agents go to arrest a counterfeiter.

You need to do the other great anti war movie The Killing Fields. It is not as well known but its better than platoon.

The Thin Red Line is an amazing war film too, very dreamlike and almost poetic.

What a bloody good movie.

Definitely need to check out Natural Born Killers also made by Oliver Stone!

A big part of O'Neill's reaction to getting Second Platoon was not only that he was gonna stay, but also *Barnes been wounded 7 times. The only thing that can kill Barnes, is Barnes* He just couldn't believe Barnes was gone.

Another Vietnam War film you need to see that's based on a true story, is BAT-21: it was also the most expensive rescue operation ever made. And yes, you MUST see "We Were Soldiers"! Another one based on a true story.

Now you gotta watch Oliver Stone's other Vietnam movie, Born on the Fourth of July -- one of Tom Cruise's very best performances, maybe THE best. Platoon is the Iliad (combat), Born on the Fourth of July is the Odyssey (homecoming). Must see.

I'd like to recommend "The Departed". Very suspenseful mob movie by Martin Scorsese.

This was accurate in that half the guys were "peace-ers who smoked pot" and the other half were country dudes who drank beer. By '71 when I got drafted, I was a medic and did not go through what these guys did - but the personalities were very similar. That made this movie very realistic. Most guys knew this war was stupid. However, there were very brave men who never came home during that period and as in all wars there were heroes.

"Hamburger Hill" and "The Siege of Firbase Gloria" are other "realistic" depictions of the Vietnam war. And, "The Deer Hunter" which won the Oscar for best picture in 1978 is another must see.

Nice reaction and conversation that really got me thinking! These movies really complement each other. The dehumanization in full metal jacket and it’s results, show in that, Apocalypse Now, and Platoon. While symbolic, this has the most realistic portrayal of war in Vietnam from an Americans perspective, and it’s completely chaotic. Which hopefully helps illuminate Apocalypse now’s portrayal as almost a phantasmagoria, full of destructive characters. I assume Kurtz would approve of Barnes, though I’m not sure what he’d think of his love for the “machine.” But he decided that one couldn’t win the war with one hand tied behind ones back. He admired cold-blooded decision making and murder to “get the job done.” Barnes was ruthless, but he had the fighting prowess to back up his ego. He probably would have lived after everything if he hadn’t been executed. Obviously, Dafoe’s character was also a super soldier, and he *didn’t* lose his humanity.

Loosely based on Oliver Stone's Vietnam experience. This was one of the first Vietnam flicks that wasn't patriotic propaganda.

Good review guys. You just witnessed in my opinion the best war movie of them all. I still can’t ever forget the first time I saw that village scene. Always ended up staying with me

"Come and See" - is a great movie that should be watched!! This movie you will most likely remember for the rest of your life, but you'll NEVER want to watch it again

"Why do they call them grunts? because a grunt can take it. a grunt can take anything." this line resonated with me since i was a grunt for 10 years.