This book is the novelization of Oliver Stone’s Academy Award-winning screenplay. I’ve never actually seen the film, and I really haven’t watched a lot of Vietnam movies As I mentioned, I have seen the television program Tour of Duty and Forrest Gump, which is not really a Vietnam movie. I’ve also seen The Siege of Firebase Gloria (“That’s it, Nardo. The story’s over.”) and Apocalypse Now. But Platoon seemed to kick off a number of Vietnam films in the 1980s like Full Metal Jacket and Hamburger Hill (and including The Siege of Firebase Gloria). But I just never got into it. Kids in the 1980s didn’t get into playing Vietnam soldier like previous generations played World War II soldier.
So as a novelization of the screenplay, the book takes advantage of it and suffers from the disadvantages of the printed word. Let’s go with the disadvantages first: One, it’s an ensemble piece with a lot of different characters who are identified by name and a single distinguishing feature, and it is easy to confuse them (and the author refers to the protagonist both by his first name and his last name in different places, so you have to remember that these names are both one guy). On screen, that’s easy to see.
Another thing is that what must have been the spectacle of the film is lost a little.
But we do get more interior lives of the characters which the film would not convey; on the other hand, that turns a couple of seconds of screen time into a page or more.
So what’s the plot? The usual. A green recruit, a literate and educated young man, joins a platoon in the field where he gets mundane duties, gets into firefights, learns, sees death, and ultimately takes part in a pitched battle with massive casualties on both sides.
Not poorly executed, but mostly noteworthy as a study of turning a screenplay into a novel.
You know, I have a set of Tour of Duty DVDs–did I buy them for my father and then inherit them? Not likely–I think I bought them later. But I don’t know that I’m inspired to dive into Vietnam media based on this book alone. Unless the Marcinko books count.
I enjoyed reading “Chicken Hawk” by Robert Mason (Chickenhawk https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143035711/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ei3vDb753NZ92) many, many years ago. As a combat veteran and helicopter pilot, he has an interesting story and viewpoint, and I am curious how I would interpret it nowadays.
I mostly remember “Platoon” from the Data East game for the PC, C64, and others. I think the link to the movie was tenuous at best.
Looking at the Wikipedia entry for the game, I’d say yes, but the book/movie does have:
* A tunnel crawl.
* Navigation through the jungle.
* Setting up a defensive perimeter and trying to hold out over night.
But no explosives for a train bridge and no holing up in a bunker.
So, yeah, tenuous at best.
Or are you referring to the 2002 strategy game of the same title?
It was the original(?) 1987 version. I’m surprised that there was a second tie-in to the movie, 15 years later.
The rights were certainly less expensive then.