I really loved Platoon as a kid and reading back the old posts and seeing Platoon in bold, I voted for it. If I had to choose now it would be Apocalypse Now though.
I still like Platoon, but not because it seems to be a realistic portrayal of the war. Because it is most certainly NOT. If you would serieusly consider this ’ realistic’ you should ask yourself how war should be portrayed. In this manner Apocalypse Now comes in so much closer. Platoon is just a fun guy on a mission movie. With heroes and baddies that turn out to be heroes in their own way. With all the cliche notions of intented ‘realism’ it takes away from the realism and makes the medium film that much more apparent in it’s language. Realistic portrayal of something so bizarre as war is impossible in a movie. Case in point would be ‘Hiroshima mon amour’. Survivors of the war can’ t even express what happened to them. Through trauma or just because they aren’t the whole war, but just an individual put into a specific situation.
Apocalypse Now doesn’ t have those intentions. Just the insanity of war portrayed and what it does to man. With great literary back-up. Standing in a tradition of warreflection and intellectual thought. It’s truly a masterpiece.
