Writer Screenwriter Gary Kencey Releases PLATOON (1986) Movie Review

Added: (Thu Oct 27 2005)

Pressbox (Press Release) - Writer Screenwriter Gary Kencey Releases PLATOON (1986) Movie Review

When the two top dogs of the platoon clash heads, the end result is not pretty

by Gary Kencey
writer111@gmail.com
http://writer111.blogspot.com


Los Angeles, CA – Writer and screenwriter Gary Kencey has just released the review of the Vietnam War classic, PLATOON (1986), nominated for 8 and garnered 4 Oscars in 1987 (Best Director for Oliver Stone, Best Picture for Arnold Kopelson, Best Sound, and Best Editing for Claire Simpson).

Platoon is a Vietnam War movie about the “evils of war,” a staple approach to any such movie. However, it is also a courageous and in-your-face look at the chaotic nature of warfare and the taboo of “friendly fire.”

Here are some excerpts from this review, the full version of which is available for publication and syndication purposes.

“The film, shot in the forbidding jungles of Philippines, boasts a high-powered cast including Tom Berenger (as SSgt. Bob Barnes), Willem Dafoe (Sgt. Elias Grodin), an 18 year old Charlie Sheen (Pvt. Chris Taylor), Johnny Depp (Pvt. Gator Lerner), Forest Whitaker (Big Harold), Francisco Quinn (son of the great Anthony Quinn, as Rhah), to name a few.

Writing by Oliver Stone (who won the screenwriting Oscar in 1978 for his monstrous Midnight Express as well as another Best Director Oscar in 1989 for Born on the Fourth of July) is well paced, preserving a good rhythm between scenes of carnage and reflection. The dialogs are crisp and realistic.

The voiceover provided by the main character Chris Taylor is without an equal because it addresses Taylor’s grandmother. I thought that was such a poignant touch for a young private lost in the world, who does not even have a girlfriend yet, to take refuge in the wisdom of his grandmother while all hell is breaking loose around him.

The plot, unfolding from the view-point of Pvt. Taylor, actually does not have too much meat in it. This movie shines on character and setting, on predicament and context, rather than on clever plot twists and turns. It can be summarized as one long story of a platoon either engaging the Viet Cong in the slug and snake infected jungle swamps, often under tropic rain, or getting stoned out of their minds to suspend the harrowing reality for an hour or two.”

For the full review please visit htpp://writer111.blogspot.com

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Gary Kencey ( http://writer111.blogspot.com ) is a freelance text perpetrator who has finished his first feature script AFFORDING MIRACLES, a big-budget mystical-thriller story of murdered Catholic priests, Virgin Mary and human cloning. Having failed to draw the necessary lessons from this masochistic ordeal, he is currently busy banging his head against a second script, the twisting story of an immigrant who is trying to find the "American dream" in America. He can be reached at writer111@gmail.com
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