The movie Platoon, directed by Oliver Stone, gives a graphic portrait of what the Vietnam War was like for the young men who experienced it. It follows Chris, a young man who dropped out of college and volunteered to fight for his country. Through Chris, Oliver Stone reveals the fear and frustration of fighting against an unseen enemy, the heat, the rain, and the emotions and reactions that the soldiers had to the combination of elements that they faced on a daily basis. In the beginning, Chris is inexperienced in fighting the enemy and nave to the fighting going on between the men in his unit, namely, Barnes and Elias. Barnes was an angry boozer who believed in the war's causes and represented the evil side of war. Elias, on the other hand, was a sensitive pot-head who no longer believed in the cause of the war and represented the good in a man even when confronted with war. Conflict emerges between the two over what should be done to a village that was thought to be supporting the Vietcong. In the following nights attack by the enemy, Barnes sets out to kill Elias. Chris, in attempting to find Elias, finds Barnes, who tells him that Elias is dead and "sees in his eyes- that Barnes killed Elias. In a subsequent battle, Chris, thought to be "good- like Elias, turns around and kills Barnes. As the movie progressed, Chris became a trained killer, taught to be ruthless. He is an innocent young man made corrupt by the circumstances of war. In the end, Chris is said to be "a child of both fathers-, meaning he was part Barnes and part Elias, the bad and the good. The real fight in this film however, was one within each individual soldier. Each individual had to choose the way in which they dealt with the conditions that they faced. They could choose to accept it the way it is, like Barnes did, or the way it ought to be, like Elias chose. Neither choice was victorious.
