Oliver Stone on the set of SavagesImage via Universal Studios
By
Thomas Butt
Published 8 minutes ago
Thomas Butt is a senior writer. An avid film connoisseur, Thomas actively logs his film consumption on Letterboxd and vows to connect with many more cinephiles through the platform. He is immensely passionate about the work of Martin Scorsese, John Ford, and Albert Brooks. His work can be read on Collider and Taste of Cinema. He also writes for his own blog, The Empty Theater, on Substack. He is also a big fan of courtroom dramas and DVD commentary tracks. For Thomas, movie theaters are a second home. A native of Wakefield, MA, he is often found scrolling through the scheduled programming on Turner Classic Movies and making more room for his physical media collection. Thomas habitually increases his watchlist and jumps down a YouTube rabbit hole of archived interviews with directors and actors. He is inspired to write about film to uphold the medium's artistic value and to express his undying love for the art form. Thomas looks to cinema as an outlet to better understand the world, human emotions, and himself.
Sign in to your Collider account
Add Us On
Summary
Generate a summary of this story
follow
Follow
followed
Followed
Like
Like
Thread
Log in
Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
Try something different:
Show me the facts
Explain it like I’m 5
Give me a lighthearted recap
The Vietnam War and all seismic aftershocks continue to echo throughout all aspects of American life. In some sense, the nation's innocence and wide-eyed patriotism have never fully recovered since the conflict in the 1960s and '70s, a war that also coincided with a radical wave of political and social upheaval. In the world of filmmaking, no director is more defined by the grave letdown and tragedy of Vietnam than Oliver Stone, whose filmography sees him reckoning with how the country forced him to become one of the medium's most vocal commentators and provocateurs.
Platoon, arguably Stone's most iconic movie, which won Best Director and Best Picture at the Academy Awards, channeled both the director's personal experiences as a G.I. in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and the countercultural resistance that dominated the home front. Later in his career, Stone dramatized the trials and tribulations of the short-lived rock star Jim Morrison in The Doors, but as early as the late '60s, he tried to commission Morrison to star in a Vietnam film which would serve as the blueprint for Platoon.
Oliver Stone Reflected on His Combat Experience in Vietnam Throughout His Career
After being honorably discharged from combat service in 1968, a shellshocked Oliver Stone used his Vietnam GI Bill to help pay for his enrollment at New York University, where he studied filmmaking under the guidance of Martin Scorsese. Like most budding filmmakers, Stone began as a screenwriter, making a name for himself by winning an Oscar for his script for Midnight Express and gaining further recognition for penning the eventual cult classic, Scarface.
On the side, Stone was reflecting on his traumatic past in Vietnam and crafting his personal vision. Although he was an accomplished screenwriter, Stone aspired to direct, a dream that required him to accept thankless for-hire gigs in the two B-movies, Seizure and The Hand. Upon returning to civilian life, Stone poured his fresh and raw experiences as a GI into a script titled Break, a project that went unrealized but became the blueprint for Platoon, which depicts Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) as the director's on-screen avatar. Break, which also laid the seeds for the characters of Elias and Barnes, played by Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger, respectively, was a surrealist exercise set to the music of The Doors.
Oliver Stone Offered a Role to Jim Morrison For a Vietnam Movie That Would Become 'Platoon'
Stone was so dialed into the psychedelic wavelength of The Doors that he even tried to cast the band's frontman. When speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Stone described Break as "mythic," revealing that the lead character enters the Underworld. "I couldn’t deal with Vietnam yet in a completely realistic way at that point," the director said. A bold Stone sent the script to Morrison, who died in 1971 at age 27, in the late '60s, intending to cast him as the lead GI combat fighter. Unsurprisingly, Stone never heard back from the enigmatic musician. However, the Break script was found in Morrison's apartment in Paris, where he died. During production of The Doors, which starred Val Kilmer as Morrison, the script was returned to Stone, a moment he described as "very bizarre."
Jim Morrison as the lead in an experimental film about the feverish effects of the Vietnam War would not only be a thrilling test of his artistic versatility, but it would also fit the hypothetical spirit of the unmade Break. In his eventual semi-autobiographical Vietnam story, Platoon, Stone captures the surrealist impact of consuming psychedelic drugs—a feeling that matched the enlisted young men's listlessness about fighting a futile war. They are unpatriotic and cynical in a manner that had rarely been seen on the big screen at the time, and they are certainly a far cry from the blind jingoism conveyed by John Wayne in The Green Berets. Whether Morrison could have held his own as an actor or played ball with the innate demands and restrictions of film production is dubious, but Stone's decision to reach out to such a mythic figure speaks to his eagerness to candidly portray the intensely divisive global conflict.
Unlock richer film context — subscribe to our newsletter
Subscribing to the newsletter gives you curated, in-depth analysis of film history and behind-the-scenes stories—think director motivations, unrealized casting choices, and cultural legacies like Oliver Stone's Platoon—so you can explore cinema with richer context. SubscribeUnlock richer film context — subscribe to our newsletter
Subscribing to the newsletter gives you curated, in-depth analysis of film history and behind-the-scenes stories—think director motivations, unrealized casting choices, and cultural legacies like Oliver Stone's Platoon—so you can explore cinema with richer context. SubscribeBy subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Platoon, which kicked off Oliver Stone's incredible run as a director, which continued with Born on the Fourth of July and JFK, would perhaps lose its diamond-cut precision as a stirring, emotionally sweeping anti-war film with Jim Morrison in a prominent role. Based on his musical proclivities, Morrison would have made some curious rogue decisions as an actor, putting himself in an entirely other movie. Still, the idea would've been fascinating to witness, and it probably would've been a greater tribute to Morrison than Stone's rote biopic released five years later. Either way, Stone carried Morrison's addled and rebellious artistic mindset for the next decade.
Platoon is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.
Platoon
Like Follow Followed R Drama War Action Release Date December 19, 1986 Runtime 120 minutes Director Oliver Stone Writers Oliver Stone Producers Arnold Kopelson, A. Kitman HoCast
See All-
Charlie Sheen
Chris Taylor
-
Willem Dafoe
Sergeant Elias Grodin
Expand
Collapse
-
Platoon
What To Watch
July 20, 2025
The 72 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now
Trending Now
40 Best Murder Mystery Movies to Watch Like 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery'
The War Epic Quentin Tarantino Named the Best Movie of the 21st Century Is Streaming for Free
The 10 Most Perfect War Movies, Ranked
