Platoon vs. Apocalypse Now
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rascal67 — 12 years ago(July 05, 2013 02:37 AM)
..and we see an America that has no camaraderie.
This was an important and major theme of PLATOON. Since Vietnam was a war being fought by men, who really had no solid compounded reasoning as to why they were fighting and what they were doing over thereunlike WWII.
APOCALYPSE NOW is pure Hollywood, and thus purely topical for the time
APOCALYPSE NOW impresses me more with it's technical qualities, rather than any real profound message that it has to deliver about the Vietnam War..other than that it can make you crazy. Plays out more like an adventure film down a mysterious river. The setting for the story was changed from the Congo, so Vietman was just really a topical backdrop as you have mentioned.
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Untouchable757 — 11 years ago(April 13, 2014 04:39 PM)
Apocalypse Now, hands down.
One of the greatest villains in cinema history (Col. Kurtz) and was really the first Vietnam moviehell, the first war movie period to really portray the extreme psychological horrors of war with such gritty realism.
Platoon is almost cartoonish in comparison. -
Inspector81 — 11 years ago(April 14, 2014 12:19 AM)
One of the greatest villains in cinema history (Col. Kurtz) and was really the first Vietnam moviehell, the first war movie period to really portray the extreme psychological horrors of war with such gritty realism.
"The Green Berets" was the first Vietnam War film and it was made while the war was still going on.
Platoon is almost cartoonish in comparison.
You obviously weren't alive in the 80's if you think that.
Platoon was by far the better film and for once I agreed with the Academy Awards which named Platoon best picture of 1986 and didn't do the same for Apocalypse Now in 1979 which lost to Kramer vs Kramer. -
Neil_Williamson — 11 years ago(February 05, 2015 12:34 PM)
I guess on the Platoon message board most people will favor Platoon over Apocalypse now, but AN wins for me for the sheer experience of watching it, like no other film I know. Platoon is just a very good war movie but AN is a level or two above it.
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Druff — 10 years ago(July 08, 2015 03:54 PM)
I like Platoon, a lot. I must, I've watched it a bunch of times over the last 30 years and enjoyed it every time. But compared to Apocalypse Now, it's simplistic and pedestrian. It's not even a contest, AN destroys Platoon.
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woowoo-6 — 10 years ago(November 22, 2015 09:49 PM)
They are two different movies and both stand on their own merits. Platoon is more of a realistic remembrance of someone who actually served in 'nam as a grunt; while AN is based on Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' and is a little bit on the artistic side. I'm sure most already know the Heart of Darkness connection, but for those that don't - AN makes much more sense, especially regarding imperialism and a defacto enslavement of an entire people. Not that I fully agree with that, but I can see some similarities with the two.
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pronaab — 9 years ago(January 10, 2017 06:21 PM)
Apocalypse Now easily, as said it stands the test of time way better. It's also not a pure war movie but more a movie that happens to be set during the Vietnam war.
Having seen war movies like Black Hawk down Platoon just didn't stand the test of time as well.
I can imagine that at the time it was highly regarded though. -
WarrenPeace — 4 years ago(December 05, 2021 12:46 AM)
AN films a real life slaughter of an animal taking place which is why it is one of the worst movies of all time.
Fact and not opinion.
Fuck Frank.
He is an asshole.
So if I had to choose, Platoon is the better one since there are no scenes of animal cruelty or at least real life ones that I know of or remember.
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