Tagged: Platoon
Wall Street (1987)
Not much has changed in the past two decades, except for maybe Charlie Sheen. He’s changed a whole damn lot.
Enterprising stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) falls under the enticing spell of Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), an unabashedly greedy Wall Street arbitrageur who tutors him in the unscrupulous tactics that put the corporate raider on top. But when Gekko embroils his protégé in an insider-trading scheme that may risk the jobs of kith and kin, Fox develops a conscience and decides to turn the tables.
This one was written and directed by a favorite of mine, Oliver Stone. This was around the time he was hot off the huge Oscar winner, Platoon, and although this one isn’t as great as that one, it’s still alright.
As director, Stone knows what he’s doing but it’s all pretty simple with this film despite good camera-work that moved all-over-the-place, to give us the feeling of being busy that these stockbrokers always had. But when it comes to writing, Stone has been better.
The dialogue is alright but there are way too many lines that I felt were just too “movie-made”. All of the dialogue feels like it could have easily been quotable, but I just didn’t think people talked like these guys were with all their macho hammy bullshit sayings. I think it was more the 80′s to blame, rather than Stone himself because I guess what they thought was cool to say back in the 80′s, just seems lame and cheesy now.
The only line from this film that anybody really quotes, hell, even remembers is “Greed is good”, which is no surprise because the whole film practically is about that line and it’s the truth which is why this film still works in today’s world. There is still corporate greed running all over the world and it’s a shame that after almost 23 years later, that this shit is still happening and still around but I guess that’s what really matters about this film. We can still watch it today and have as much of an connection to it today, as anybody would have had then.
Michael Douglas is very good in this role as the evil, Gordon Gekko. Right as soon as you see this dude with the slick hair, the huge white collar, the suspenders, and the cell phone that’s the size of my head, you know he’s a total scumbag, but Douglas does a great job at making a scumbag look good. Douglas knows how to make Gekko seem like a total prick, but just a prick who wants more money, more respect, and more power to basically take over any company just to the point of where he can about be one of the richest men in the world. Gekko is the type of guy, you just hate, but there’s something about him that directs your attention towards him right away. That’s all thanks to Douglas and although I don’t usually like him as an actor, I think he does a very great job as Gekko and makes him the personification for everything that’s wrong with the economy.
The rest of the cast is pretty good too. Charlie Sheen is good with his yuppie schtick as Bud Fox (what a dumb name), but as the film goes on he gets more cocky and angry, and it’s actually kind of hard to take him as seriously as the film wanted us to. Martin Sheen doesn’t have the same problem his son does and actually has a couple of very emotional scenes. Daryl Hannah doesn’t bring anything to this film as Bud’s main squeeze, and could have been left out of the picture completely and it wouldn’t have mattered either way. Terence Stamp, John C. McGinley, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, and Sean Young are all good.
Consensus: Wall Street has a powerful performance from Douglas, and features a timeless look on the Wall Street circuit, but falls for too many 80′s cliches like the lame and cheesy sayings in the script, the annoying synthesizer, and just the feeling that nothing else here is really authentic.
7/10=Rental!!
Platoon (1986)
The Vietnam War really did make people go fucking crazy!
Helmed by Oliver Stone, this searing autobiographical drama chronicles the Vietnam experiences of naïve volunteer soldier Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), whose view of the conflict starts to change after witnessing murder and rape at the hands of his compatriots.
One of the first key claims of this film is that it is one of the first fictionalized story to tell the most true story about the war. Now Stone who dropped out of college to volunteer for the army, puts his own experiences into one hell of a film.
The reason why Platoon is so significant and great is because its one of the first to show the moral ambiguity that the average day soldier faced daily. You see how all these soldiers, full of pride, are trying to overcome the enemy as well as the others in their squad. It was great to see how all these soldiers talked with one another, and it kind of felt like a school in how you got to see all these characters interact with one another in such a small environment. Most of this is due to the great writing as usual from Stone.
Not only does Stone write this film wonderfully but he also does an outstanding job as director, thus proving why he is one of my favorites. The scenes that Stone choreographs are shot with such beauty and unpredictability that we don’t have a clue of who’s going to die, much like war in real life where you don’t know whats going to happen next. There is also one scene where we see a Vietnamese village get tortured and the way it is shown is so nerve-racking and disturbing that you can’t take your eyes off the screen at all. The film also showed a lot of the other stuff that soldiers had along with rapping of women, drug use, and of course fragging of other soldiers.
The one problem I had with this film isn’t such a problem the movie has, as much as its more of my problem. I mean all these things that Platoon has done with its characters and story, is something I’ have seen from plenty of other war films such as Saving Private Ryan, and Full Metal Jacket. Now I liked a lot of the battle scenes and how they were shot, but I still feel like none of them were as quite as match for Saving Private Ryan’s honestly.
Platoon has probably one of the best characters that I have seen in a war film to date. Mostly all of these characters in one way or another are likable, because you can relate to exactly what they do in situations cause you would do the same thing. Sheen probably gives one of his best performances in his career, cause they aren’t really many, and I actually get past his character from Tow and a Half Men and take him for what he is in this movie and not something totally humorous. The best performances from this film probably come from Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger, who both play two different sides of the war, Good & Bad. Berenger plays this hard-ass dick head cop that seems to always get everyone’s side, and Dafoe in his greatest role yet plays the total opposite as a smart, tough, and all around likable guy who you cheer for in every situation, mostly due to the way he handles his character especially when the most powerful scenes come on.
Consensus: Platoon is a powerful and effective film that shows the American Soldier fighting in The Vietnam War for what they are, backed by incredible performances from Berenger, Sheen, and mostly Dafoe, and because Stone has a wondeful knack for writing and directing especially when it comes to creating an emotion.
9.5/10=Full Price!!!
