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Film Analysis: Platoon

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Platoon tells the story of Vietnam from the point of view of a young soldier, Chris Taylor. The film showed its viewers about war, and how bad the war really was. Sergeant Elias is a caring leader who likes to use drugs to get away from the war. His enemy in the platoon, Sergeant Barnes, is a fighting machine that will stop at nothing to get the job done. Barnes will do everything and anything to survive.
The story is narrated by Chris Taylor and begins with his arrival in Vietnam. Chris is a white male who dropped out of collage to support his country. Upon arriving in Vietnam, he sees rows of bodies being shipped back to the U.S. He sees soldiers giving him a look and thinking that Chris has no idea what he's up against in Vietnam. He finds …show more content…

Chris finished his shift and handed the controls of the traps and claymores off to Junior whom was another soldier on the watch. Then an hour later the NVA ambushes and their position and that wakes Chris so he grabs the controls away from the sleeping Junior and sets them off. The Sargent blames Chris for the ambush happing and killing one of the soldiers on the patrol even though it was Juniors shift and he had fallen asleep. Sarge dealt with it by punishing him by making him clean out the toilets. After the ambush, a competition develops between Sargent Barnes and Sargent Elias which splits the platoon in half. The two halves of the platoon argue about everything. They were ignoring the fact that being in two different parts will not help them win the war. This leads to the final confrontation which causes barns to shoot Elias multiple times trying to kill him. The platoon is sent out on a mission to search and destroy any enemy they find. During the patrol, they come up against heavy enemy forces. They are shot at in the forests and four men were wounded. Chris ran into the fire and brought back the men. Then Elias took four men for an ambush they were successful. Elias went to the river to protect the flank and he did. Barns went looking for him to retreat back but instead Barns shoots Elias and he thinks that ends it. After they retreat to the helicopters, they see Elias running away from many NVA and VC soldiers. Chris knows what Barns did but Barns won't land the chopper to pick of

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