Platoon is one the great American anti-war films, beloved by many veterans for its realistic combat sequences and its full-blooded depiction of the Vietnam War. In this episode I talk with Chris ‘Henri’ Henrikson, a US Army veteran of the Iraq war and host of the anti-war podcast Fortress on a Hill. We discuss Platoon from psychological, dramatic and political perspectives with Henri providing input on the realism (or otherwise) of various scenes and plot elements in the film based on his own time in the Army, as well as his research and reflections on the shift from the draft to the all-volunteer force. We also talk about some military documents on why the film was rejected by the Pentagon, and why a documentary for the DVD version was rejected by the Marine Corps two decades later.
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