Platoon vs. Apocalypse Now
Which do you think is the better movie?
sharePlatoon is much more powerful. Apocalypse Now I think is a bit muddled and not up to Coppola's previous work.
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MovieChat Forums > Platoon (1987) Discussion > Platoon vs. Apocalypse Now
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I notice the people that prefer AN and FMJ seem to be cult fanboys who's reasoning are that they're "deeper" films, while actually failing to elaborate on these supposed themes. I'm not saying that they're empty films, but it just seems like the fans are quick to jump on the Coppola and Kubrick bandwagons because it's cool to do so.
Greatest Films Not in the IMDB Top 250http://www.imdb.com/list/bc9x1QAFat0/
This is the case, no question. I like both FMJ and AN, but they don't portray war as thoroughly as Platoon. This is also the opinion of any war veteran I've talked about these movies with. FMJ focuses on the training and part in Vietnam is too weird. AN is a story of one guy traveling down a river with not much actual war action. The villain is a ex-soldier who now think he's god, what the *beep*? The only battle scene is when a comical cavalry(I'm figuring from the stupid hat) is leading soldiers to fight on a beach because it's good to surf there. What the *beep*, seriously? AN narrating, music and visuals are awesome but the main plot is pretty stupid and has nothing to do with real war. My list is: P>FMJ>AN. It's very hard to convince Coppola fanboys who won't accept that newer movies are sometimes better than old ones...
shareI'd rank AN ahead of FMJ, but otherwise I'd agree with you.
But to me, Kubrick and Coppola are making these sort of surreal, grander, theological statements with their films. Whereas platoon is a very heartfelt drama. Different kinds of war films really.
Greatest Films Not in the IMDB Top 250http://www.imdb.com/list/bc9x1QAFat0/
It is very tough to compare. Platoon is more based on the experience of Vietnam. Apocalypse Now Is almost like a bad dream meets Alice in Wonderland. They are both excellent movies.
sharePLATOON in a landslide.
It is basically a modern version of the timeless classic ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. The chief difference is that they battle more among themselves, and we see an America that has no camaraderie.
This is not the fault of the Peace lovers, but of the Barnes and his ilk. Their insistence on spreading terror for which they could see coming, having been in one part of it, enabled them to always stay safe, while their comrades were massacred. There were enemy troopers of the same ilk, who engaged in the same circle, always knowing when "not to be in the village".
APOCALYPSE NOW is pure Hollywood, and thus purely topical for the time. It has no chance of passing the test of time. Once its fans hit old age, it will wear away like a bad stench everyone shoos away.
I fart in your general direction
.....and we see an America that has no camaraderie.
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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 there—unlike WWII.
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APOCALYPSE NOW is pure Hollywood, and thus purely topical for the time
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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.
why don't YOU tell us what YOU think? huh?
suzycreamcheese RIP Heath Ledger 1979-2008
Apocalypse Now, hands down.
One of the greatest villains in cinema history (Col. Kurtz) and was really the first Vietnam movie...hell, the first war movie period to really portray the extreme psychological horrors of war with such gritty realism.
Platoon is almost cartoonish in comparison.
One of the greatest villains in cinema history (Col. Kurtz) and was really the first Vietnam movie...hell, 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.
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