Vicious, exciting and lyrical, Oliver Stone's most personal film (he was a foot-soldier in Vietnam) is still his best. Following young recruit Charlie Sheen on his first tour of duty, it's a harsh account of lost innocence with Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe never better than as the two very different sergeants who shape him. There are rough spots, but only Apocalypse Now pips Platoon to the title of best 'Nam movie ever.

DVD Extras:

Commentary by Oliver Stone, commentary by military advisor Captain Dale Dye, A Tour Of The Inferno documentary, theatrical trailer, Salvador DVD trailer, TV spots, picture gallery.The two commentaries are magnificent, with Dye's practical accounts of how they made the film so accurate perfectly complementing Stone's mix of on-set tales and pained remembrances of his own time in the war. But it's the documentary that hits home hardest. Stone and Dye took a bunch of actors out to the Phillipines and, through boot-camp harshness, turned them into a fair xerox of a war-weary Vietnam platoon. You think Sheen's acting when he breaks down in tears as he flies off in a helicopter at the end? Nope. He's just relieved to have survived.