Line #16 YMMV/Platoon


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: It can be argued that Barnes did care for the men in his command, but used extreme tactics to do so. All he wanted was for them all to survive, and to hell with anybody else. Dale Dye, who both portrayed Captain Harris in the movie and served as Oliver Stone's military advisor, offered another take on Barnes' character on the DVD commentary: that he was a man so broken by war that he ''became'' war, but understood that his war crimes were unforgivable and became a DeathSeeker for it, hence his (ultimately successful) attempts to goad Chris and his allies into killing him.
2	** Elias states that Barnes truly believes in the righteousness of America's cause in Vietnam, so [[WellIntentionedExtremist his cruelty and violence serves a purpose]], at least in his own mind. This makes him morally different from mindless psychopaths like Bunny who just like to kill and cause mayhem for its own sake.
3	* {{Anvilicious}}: Just in case we didn't get the subtle subtext involved in Creator/OliverStone placing an evil sergeant and a good sergeant in charge of Taylor as the devil and angel on his shoulder, Stone has him provide a wildly anvilicious voiceover monologue at the end of the movie. "I felt like a child born of these two fathers fighting over my soul."
4	* AwardSnub: While walking away with Best Picture and Best Director is no small accomplishment, the film was completely snubbed in the acting awards category. With Creator/TomBerenger and Creator/WillemDafoe (Who were the only actors nominated for the movie) both losing Best Supporting Actor to Creator/MichaelCaine for ''Film/HannahAndHerSisters''.
5	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
6	** ''Adagio for Strings'', used during and after the more intense moments in the film.
7	** The unused Georges Delerue-composed soundtrack, which gets replaced by ''Adagio for Strings''.
8	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The fat, heavily sunburnt American soldier in the FinalBattle who appears for a few seconds before dying.
9	* CatharsisFactor: Taylor executing Barnes without hesitation.
10	* CompleteMonster: There are two {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s:
11	** [[ColonelKilgore Staff Sergeant Robert "Bob" Barnes]] is a sociopathic brute who believes himself to be the ideal that all American soldiers should strive to be. Already showing himself to be an unforgiving fanatic by [[DrillSergeantNasty regularly degrading his own troops]], even as they die all around him, Barnes shows his truly vicious personality when, while leading a raid onto a small Vietnamese village, he kills numerous villagers who are too slow in complying with his orders, before shooting an innocent woman in the head for irritating him. Holding an [[WouldHurtAChild innocent child at gunpoint]] in an attempt to force her father to answer his questions, Barnes develops a seething hatred toward [[OpposingCombatPhilosophies Sergeant Elias]] for halting his crimes, and later guns him down to eliminate the only one who would incriminate him for his murders. In the end, Barnes ruthlessly attempts to murder the only other man willing to stand up to him, Chris Taylor, and goads Taylor into killing him to prove his point that war and conflict is the true state of humankind.
12	** [[AxCrazy Bunny]] is a psychopathic scumbag who quickly graduates from a particularly nasty {{jerkass}} to a full-blown monster. When he and his squad invade a Vietnamese village, Bunny happily beats a disabled teenage boy to death, before doing the same to the boy's mother. Following this, Bunny leads the gang-rape of two [[WouldHurtAChild young girls]], mocking Taylor for not joining in. By the end of the film, Bunny giddily mows down enemy soldiers with a smile on his face, proclaiming that he feels as if he's done nothing wrong and that war is true freedom, [[ForTheEvulz enabling people like him in to indulge in whatever wicked acts their hearts desire]].
13	* EpilepticTrees: Some have interpreted the Elias-like guy who asks Taylor for a light from a DeletedScene as Death himself.
14	* FauxSymbolism:
15	** The snakes Chris keeps seeing.
16	** '''Chris T'''aylor. One of the soldiers even makes a joke about him dying and being resurrected.
17	* HilariousInHindsight:
18	** [[spoiler:Elias' CrucifiedHeroShot during his death scene. Creator/WillemDafoe would later star as Jesus in ''Film/TheLastTemptationOfChrist'']].
19	** As stated in other entries the film was most definitely not backed by the Pentagon and was an anvilicious anti-war movie. Then years later Creator/KeithDavid would provide the voice over for Navy recruitment commercials for about a decade.
20	** Creator/JohnCMcGinley later played a character who had a far more acrimonious relationship with a superior named Bob
21	** [[Film/WallStreet This wouldn't be the last time Charlie Sheen and John C. McGinley starred in a movie together]].
22	* HoYay: It's only ever implied, but Taylor and Elias seem to have the potential to make quite a couple. This particularly comes out in the stoned scene, when Elias [[IndirectKiss blows smoke into Taylor's mouth]] through the [[PhallicWeapon barrel of a gun.]]
23	* MemeticMutation: The CrucifiedHeroShot is parodied to [[{{Pun}} death]] in Website/{{Pixiv}}.
24	* MoralEventHorizon: The village scene, to the point of NightmareFuel. The only ones who come out of this scene with audience sympathies entirely intact are Chris, Elias, and the few men the latter took offscreen with him, including King.
25	** Barnes crosses it firmly by [[spoiler: shooting the village chief's unarmed wife and taking their child hostage]]. If that's still rather iffy for you, then Barnes ''definitely'' crosses it one more time by [[spoiler:shooting Elias to save his own ass from court-martial.]]
26	** Bunny sails right over the line by [[spoiler: beating a mentally handicapped boy to death, despite orders to leave, and then doing the same to the boy's mother]]. He, and the group of soldiers he takes with him to do the deed, promptly rockets magnitudes further by [[spoiler: gang-raping a teenage village girl]].
27	** The rest of the platoon are also left in murky territory after they [[spoiler: shoot the village animals for fun]].
28	* {{Narm}}:
29	** Even though the film's usage of Adagio for Strings is effective, it was used rather inappropriately just before [[spoiler:Lerner]] gets wounded, where it is abruptly cut by gunfire.
30	** The face [[spoiler:Junior]] makes when he gets [[spoiler:bayoneted to death]].
31	* NightmareFuel:
32	** The village scene. Also the deleted scene where Taylor has a dream where the platoon stands in front of a Buddha statue. One by one the soldiers disappear until there's only Barnes.
33	** Barnes' overall appearance is unnerving and those facial scars are the stuff of nightmares. His actions in the film make him more terrifying than the Vietcong.
34	** When he attempts to kill Chris, there's a closeup of his eyes with [[RedEyesTakeWarning his pupils taking a dull glowing red]], showing the madness that had consumed him just before a bomb explodes behind him before he could complete the job.
35	* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: For some incomprehensible reason, this film got an NES adaptation. It's most famous for the first stage being an impossibly complex maze that has to be solved ''three separate ways'' in order to complete it.

Context YMMV / Platoon