Platoon

When I first watched Platoon, I watched it purely for entertainment. I watched it analyzing exactly how I do for any movie that I would watch when I am bored, and I was thoroughly entertained. I watched it for the action in the battlefield, the hazing of a rookie, a sense of justice and belief in the equality of men such that all people of economic status must serve, and the betrayal of a unit. I watched it and, at the end of the movie, realized my emotions and how they were swayed by such rhetoric in the film.

From an empathetic view, I watched as I was sucked in to the fear of constant hunting and preying. I saw men and how they coped with boredom, stress, and fear and questioned myself as to whether I would be different - whether I would be like Elias and Taylor believing in a sense of justice or fall victim to self-pleasure and adrenaline-filled emotions. I was sucked into the film to such an extent, until the attempted rape.

At such realities, I stepped back, forcefully or not, and again viewed in judgment as to the actions of men and the cruelties they could play. I was stepped back into reality, and away from a world where the constant threat of gunfire and the reek of death no longer played any controlling motion. I watched a woman get killed simply for speaking out, and I saw a mentally handicapped child get beaten to death. I was as part spectator as I was soldier during the entire film.

At the end of the film, I realized I had watched and experienced a war that knew no purpose- a war which drove people insane and bored into a negative light. I realized I had watched a film and seen cruelties but never really knew how true these events could be. I watched people die in cold blood or even hide under a dead body in fear or mutilate oneself to avoid more battles. I never knew how much of it was true, but my emotions were sucked in and, for the life of me, could not stop watching this film. In the end, I was never really in battle and I will never be weighed down with the feelings of anger, revenge, remorse, or regret as these soldiers were, but the film brought into light exactly what I feel the writer wanted: war is hell.