"Platoon,” which was “released in 1986, that was written and directed by Oliver Stone” shows the many experiences of a young soldier, Chris Taylor, during his term of duty in Vietnam (Bauer 1). This movie portrays the harsh realities that the Vietnam War bestowed on young soldiers, along with its psychological effects on the soldiers. “The film presents the war through the eyes of new recruit Chris Taylor (played by Charlie Sheen). Taylor is a naïve middle-class young man who dropped out of college to volunteer for Vietnam for idealistic reasons,” but he underestimated the amount of stress the war would have on him physically and mentally (Bauer 2). 

 

All the soldiers in his platoon were shocked to hear he volunteered to go to Vietnam because they were drafted based on their economic status. This symbolized how there was and still is a great divide between the classes of American society, and it seems never to favor the lower class. "Platoon" shows Vietnam's tremendous toll on American soldiers' lives and how it could make them go completely insane. Cathal Gunning explains "Platoon" by saying, "Platoon portrays war as psychological and physical hell from which no one can escape unscathed" (Gunning 1). While the Vietnam War had extreme effects on the psychological mindset of soldiers, this symbolism is seen across almost every war because war is hell.

 

After realizing that Chris volunteered for the draft one soldier told him “what we got here is a crusader,” because Chris believes that volunteering for the war was the right thing to do because it allows him to experience what poor men have to go through even though he is a wealthy and well-educated man. Chris believes that the college he was at before coming to Vietnam was not teaching him anything, so he believed that going to war would teach him a thing or two about the real world. The reason his friend called him a “crusader” was because Chris was fighting for a cause that not a lot of rich men would fight for, it was extremely uncommon for rich men to do what he was doing. While he seems crazy for volunteering to the other soldiers, he still believes strongly in his moral virtues.