War films are often built around spectacle or honorability. But Oliver Stone’s Platoon rejects both. Released nearly four decades ago, the film still stands as one of the most disturbing and personal depictions of war ever put to screen. Based on his own experiences in the Vietnam War, Stone shows what happens when people are placed in extreme conditions and left to figure it out for themselves.

There’s no hero’s journey here, just a young soldier trying to survive an environment designed to break him down. Platoon doesn’t ask what war means but shows what it does. How it divides, dehumanizes and reshapes those caught inside it. And how, for some, the greatest threat isn’t the enemy, but the people standing beside them.

Platoon Offers a Brutal Look at the Vietnam War

Platoon follows Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), a young American who volunteers to fight in the Vietnam War,...