The Big Picture · Discussion
August 21, 2023/ 48 min/ Brian Raftery
The Vietnam-on-film series reaches Platoon: how Oliver Stone survived Salvador, ran his cast through Dale Dye's jungle boot camp, and turned his own infantry tour into the 1986 Best Picture winner.
17 films across 1 segment.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
How Hollywood Made the Vietnam WarOliver Stone and the making of Platoon
Stone's alter-ego Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen, cast after brother Emilio Estevez aged out) between Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Elias (Willem Dafoe). Shot in 54 days in the Philippines for $6.5M; eight Oscar nominations, wins for Best Picture and Best Director. Keith David plays King.
Took over the summer-1985 box office; its 'we get to win this time' jingoism was exactly what Stone set out to rebut.
Grouped with Rambo as the POW-rescue films selling US troops re-fighting and winning Vietnam.
The prison thriller that won Stone a screenwriting Oscar, though it never made him feel accepted in Hollywood.
Stone's script for Al Pacino's remake, cited as proof of his A-list screenwriting resume.
Stone's early horror film, with Herve Villechaize as a figure named Spider; part of the thin directing resume he had before Salvador.
Stone's other early horror film, Michael Caine as an illustrator whose severed hand takes on a life of its own.
The James Woods El Salvador thriller Stone directed first, financed by John Daly's Hemdale; pulling it off cheap is what got Platoon greenlit.
Michael Cimino briefly wanted to produce Platoon; cited as the earlier Vietnam film that fixed war in a game of Russian roulette.
Martin Sheen starred; Charlie Sheen visited the set as a kid. Coppola's rainy-season Philippines ordeal was the cautionary tale Stone raced to avoid.
Tom Berenger came off it as a nice-guy TV star before Stone turned him into the fatalistic Sergeant Barnes.
Dafoe had just played its sinister counterfeiter, against type from the paternal Elias.
John Wayne WWII film, a favorite of technical advisor Dale Dye growing up in Missouri.
Later film Dye ran military prep on, after his Platoon boot camp made the practice standard.
Another Dye military-advising credit named alongside his later work.
Named with Saving Private Ryan and Forrest Gump as films Dye prepared with military training.
The year's biggest hit, a flag-wrapped ode to US might; Platoon's muddy counterweight.
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