Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, January 9, 1987
'Platoon' scores a win
Winter Jazz
Lanny Austin (left) and Emil Moro are the co-leaders of the Austin/Moro Big Band, which will be appearing
tomorrow night at the Farmer's Market Building in Ypsilanti's Depot Town. The concert is the first of the 1987
Depot Town Winter Jazz Series, sponsored by WEMU-FM and the Depot Town Association. The Series, which
enters its sixth year, will continue with concerts in February and March. Showtime is set for 8 p.m., vocalist
Harvey Thompson opens at 7. For more information call WEMU at 487-2229.
By Kurt Serbus
The concept of Platoon is
beautiful in its simplicity. Instead
of concentrating on the far-reaching
effects of war on domestic
life-like The Deer Hunter-or
taking a sudden half-gainer into
esoterica-like Apocalypse Now--
Platoon gives an engaging (and
presumably accurate) picture of the
Vietnam conflict by simply
reworking that war movie standard,
the platoon film.
We all know the story-a bunch
of young upstarts come in ready to
kick some butt, we follow them
through the multudinous horrors
and occasional glories of war, some
die, some grow stronger, and we
leave the front only when they do.
What writer-director Oliver Stone
does is take this ancient formula
and shoot about 20,000 volts
through it, and the result is a
grunt's eye-view picture that may
be too good for its own good.
Platoon is no Green Berets, but the
inescapable fact that this movie is
exciting and, yes, even fun, is
bound to offend some.
Personally,what offends me is bad
movies, and, judging from the
recent evidence, Stone doesn't even
know how to make one of those.
Stone, whose equally explosive
Salvador was releasedearlier this
year, has been slammed for being
too preachy and political, and,
indeed, Platoon's characters do
occasionally wax poetic. Stone's
penchant for throwing in the odd
impassioned, theatrical speech never
breaches the film's realism,
however, and Platoon remains both
gripping and-I know I'm going
to get slammed for this
one-basically apolitical. Without
even trying to, it plays both sides
of the fence to perfection: if you
want a movie that exposes the
Vietnam War as the horrible
travesty and waste of life that it
was, Platoon serves as a brutal
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testimonial; if, on the other hand,
you just want something to keep
your adrenaline flowing while you
await the release of Rambo III,
Platoon's got some of the best
edge-of-the-seat action to come out
this year (some of it's even in
slow-motion, which is really, really
cool).f
The excellent, if somewhat
anonymous cast who make up
Platoon''s platoon are led by three
up-and-comers whose careers are
bound to be kicked into overdrive
by their appearances here. Tom
Berenger proves he's not just
another pretty face as the scarred and
thoroughly satanic Sergeant Barnes.
Willem DaFoe, who was so won -
derfully repungnant as the villians
in Streets Of Fire and To Live And
Die In L.A., finally gets to don a:
white hat, and pulls off the most:
intriguing and likable character in,
the film. And Charlie Sheen is,
outstanding as the idealistic young
student who naively volunteers for;
duty hoping to find some;
meaningful rite of passage, and:
finds only a meaningless hell.
Platoon is undoubtedly the best
movie of the year, which, okay,
isn't saying much considering the
year is only about a week old. But;
I've got a feeling it's going to stay.
the best for some time to come, so
you might as well see it
now-when Oscar time rolls around
and everyone is still talking about
it, it may be too late.
Actor Charlie Sheen: a minor flaw in a shining film.
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so is Brenda Lee)" has more of that to carry the record. Most of the
(Continued from Page7) fine, easy roll, sounding something songs are slight, genial but neither
engaging, enough so that undue like the Shadows gone country. clever nor strong enough to get past
attention is not called to the lyrics. Yet, the undeniable virtues of this the band's basically thin sound.
The casual cool of "I'm Sorry (but aggregation are simply not sufficent - Jeff Stanzler
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