"Rejoice O young man in thy youth..."
GUYS I HAVE MISSED YOU ;___;
I am exhausted by working. I want a real job ):
Anyway.
Finally finished Platoon a couple days ago. It was difficult for me to keep track of everything that was happening. The film was dark, both literally and figuratively, and I could not, for the life of me, keep actors separate from each other except for Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, and Tom Berenger. I know that Oliver Stone and everyone felt like each member of the platoon was unique, but to me they all blurred together in a horrifying mess.
Which is, perhaps, the most fitting way to watch the film, as order descends into chaos and darkness and anger and grays. Keeping everything straight is not what happened in the film; to ask the audience to do so would be to defeat part of the experience of the film.
I think that Platoon is experiential. Yes, Stone had a pretty clear and strong message, but at the same time it wasn't about telling a story or plot or character development or any of the pretty things we teach high school students to watch films for or read novels. Platoon spent a lot of time and money to get the actors to experience war, so that they in turn could convince us to experience it too. There is surprisingly little sensical dialogue in the film. At the beginning Sheen's character narrates letters to his grandmother, giving the film structure and something for viewers to hold onto. By the last forty minutes or so, there is no narration - just the stunted dialogue between soldiers and the sounds of battle.
Unfortunately, much of the film is lost on anyone my age or younger. The cultural significance of the film is undeniable, but time has covered the wounds of the war, even if it hasn't healed them. Our generation has our own wars to fear and our own films to force us to face them, that's all.
After the second Sherlock Holmes movie comes it'll be on to happier things with A Night at the Opera!
WHAT IS EVERYONE ELSE DOING. I LOVE YOU PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME.
I am exhausted by working. I want a real job ):
Anyway.
Finally finished Platoon a couple days ago. It was difficult for me to keep track of everything that was happening. The film was dark, both literally and figuratively, and I could not, for the life of me, keep actors separate from each other except for Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, and Tom Berenger. I know that Oliver Stone and everyone felt like each member of the platoon was unique, but to me they all blurred together in a horrifying mess.
Which is, perhaps, the most fitting way to watch the film, as order descends into chaos and darkness and anger and grays. Keeping everything straight is not what happened in the film; to ask the audience to do so would be to defeat part of the experience of the film.
I think that Platoon is experiential. Yes, Stone had a pretty clear and strong message, but at the same time it wasn't about telling a story or plot or character development or any of the pretty things we teach high school students to watch films for or read novels. Platoon spent a lot of time and money to get the actors to experience war, so that they in turn could convince us to experience it too. There is surprisingly little sensical dialogue in the film. At the beginning Sheen's character narrates letters to his grandmother, giving the film structure and something for viewers to hold onto. By the last forty minutes or so, there is no narration - just the stunted dialogue between soldiers and the sounds of battle.
Unfortunately, much of the film is lost on anyone my age or younger. The cultural significance of the film is undeniable, but time has covered the wounds of the war, even if it hasn't healed them. Our generation has our own wars to fear and our own films to force us to face them, that's all.
After the second Sherlock Holmes movie comes it'll be on to happier things with A Night at the Opera!
WHAT IS EVERYONE ELSE DOING. I LOVE YOU PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME.