10 Things You Didn’t Know About Platoon
Watching any film with commentary by master director Oliver Stone is nothing less than impressive. Now imagine watching a film directed by Oliver Stone based on experiences from Stone’s own time in Vietnam. It’s some seriously intense stuff and really a joy to listen to coming from this grunt. I never had to go through the hell that these men did, but a taste of hell still leaves a memory not soon forgotten. Here are 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Platoon…
1. Stone tried to get funding for the film for over 10 years but it was a British company that finally offered up the funds to make it. The film had about a 6 million dollar budget. They were constantly trying to save money. It would go on to gross approx. 138 million.
2. The main characters went through a two week “boot camp” with Dale Dye. Stone made sure they got a minimum amount of sleep during that two weeks. When they started filming he wanted them to be pissed off and burnt out.
3. The characters are a combination of the men that Oliver Stone served with during his time in Vietnam. He served in 4 different combat units so he had plenty of unique individuals to choose from.
4. The scene where Charlie Sheen falls asleep (and the man who was on guard) during an ambush is based on a real life experience of Oliver Stone. He had been blamed for falling asleep during a deadly ambush but he still claims it wasn’t him who was on watch.
5. The killings in the village were a version of the My Lai massacre.
6. Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe were purposefully cast against type. Berenger had been primarily playing good guys while Dafoe was usually cast as an evil dude or thug. Both of them would get Oscar nominations for their performances.
7. There was a “kung fu ninja” movie filming nearby according to Oliver Stone. He said they’d be shooting their jungle scenes and look over and see black-clad Chinese guys on wires.
8. The Doors singer Jim Morrison was who Oliver Stone wanted for the lead role in Platoon. He had sent him the script in 1971 and Morrison reportedly had it on him when he was found dead.
9. The scene where Elias’s men are all smoking weed was done with most of the cast actually smoking marijuana. According to Dafoe, however, by the time the scenes were shot they were all coming down from their highs and felt terrible.
10. Platoon was the third highest grossing movie of 1986 behind Crocodile Dundee and Top Gun.
