Captain Harris is on the radio with a soldier whose platoon has been overrun by NVA. We then get a shot of a soldier standing on a hill as a plane passes over and then Lt. Wolfe walks into the shot and the soldier smiles at Lt. Wolfe.
Who was that soldier? As I look closer it looks like Barnes but smiling seems a bit out of Barnes’s character?
yes it is barnes being a troll because he know the shit is coming bigtime and that wolfe is a wuss who is afraid of major battle on horizon so he smile at him and troll him and wolfe look away in disgust at barnes top tier trolling.
tom berenger just looks different here because he is in different light maybe stone not light scene correct because he looks like different person but yes he is barnes 100 percent.
Interesting, that might be the only time in the whole film we see him smile.
shareyes i think so. he is also wearing army helmet when he smile iirc which make him look ever more different.
shareThis is a really great question here and one that I had always wondered about since first seeing the film over 35 years ago. Yeah, Okay, after rewatching the clip several times it does appear that Barnes was the smiling soldier. We can see his red and white Marlboro cigs in his helmet band.
I always wondered who would be crazy enough to smile at a time like that when you knew that something really bad like a full NVA regiment was coming straight at you? Gallows humor perhaps. But Barnes was nuts enough to do it. I could really relate to the look of dread on lt. Wolfe's face. I felt bad for him as he was an otherwise decent enough of a guy but just someone who was hopelessly in over his head. Both men would be dead soon.
But a great question and follow up answer here, guys!
I always wondered who would be crazy enough to smile at a time like that when you knew that something really bad like a full NVA regiment was coming straight at you?
I could really relate to the look of dread on lt. Wolfe's face. I felt bad for him as he was an otherwise decent enough of a guy but just someone who was hopelessly in over his head.
Interesting thoughts, BO. Yeah, I agree that the characters were probably among the very best and real of all the war movies I have seen. We had good guys and some real bad dudes and some were complicated to figure out at best.
Yeah, Wolfe was just completely out of his element. He was likely only what, maybe 22-24 years old and was not suited for running a rifle platoon. You can contrast him to the Lt. that we see in the film DEAD PRESIDENTS who seemed to be good and competent at what he did.
My father served in the US Army and he said that Wolfe was pretty typical of young Lt.s who knew nothing at all compared to the NCOs who had many years of service and knowledge pertaining to their job.
Did they ever say what Lt. Wolfe's first name was in the film? I also never fully understood if Elias was a first or last name from what I have read. I heard Gordon Elias and Elias Gordon.
"Yeah, Wolfe was just completely out of his element. He was likely only what, maybe 22-24 years old and was not suited for running a rifle platoon."
yes i agrees, pitt.
in scene when platoon are in barracks at base they show lt. wolfe wearing ohio college t-shirt. this is deliberate message by stone because taylor says earlyer in movie that most of platoon are poor and did not finish high schools. i think (among other problem) there is class/social disconnects with wolfe - he is educated and probably rich boy so wolfe does not mesh well with pleb.
they also show wolfe speaking to individual members of platoon in barracks and there is more disonnects - he sound like politician not platoon leader. you are either leader or not. he did not have rights trait to lead men.
very interesting what your father say about incompetant lt's. i would guess oliver stone base wolfe on bad lt's he have in nam. us military had to change requirement after lt. calley lead massacre of 500 civilian at my lai. that is what massacre in this film is base on. it is what happen with bad leaderships.
i can not find name for lt wolfe. i did find elias gordon like you. i think barnes' name is bob and o'neill's name is red as this is what they say in film.
That is a good point in bringing up the barracks scene where Wolfe comes off as a genuine nice guy but so very awkward that it is so obvious that the does not fit in with the men under his charge, especially the NCOs engrossed in the card game. I suppose he banters easy enough with the younger privates who seem to show him some respect or at least time of day.
Correct, Wolfe wears the Ohio wrestling shirt. One interesting thing I just picked up by watching the scenes of who was smiling back at him before the final battle is that he has the word Indiana written on his flak jacket. I guess we are to assume that he was from Ohio or Indiana and perhaps went to college in one of them. He probably grew up in LEAVE IT TO BEAVER land in a very comfortable middle class setting. He may have enlisted via OCS or ROTC to be like his father who no doubt fought in WW 2.
Yeah, Barnes name was Bob. He was from Tennessee. I believe it made mention of Elias as from maybe Oklahoma or at least worked the oil fields there. He was part Native American according to the one deleted scene that should have stayed in the film as Chris, Rhah, and Lerner discuss the platoon. I believe that I read somewhere that Lerner's first name was Gator or at least what they called him.
yes wolfe is nice man he at least make effort to talk to subordinate at base. he not evil like barnes. just incompetant and a ball washer - not what you need when you go into mortal kombat.
yes i agree with you pitt about wolfe's location and backgrounds. he was probably given lt. role because he seen as being educate (i assume that is what ocs/rotc mean i am not sure) or maybe have father who is well known and he get his leg up that way. either way if he have no respect of men then he have nothing.
yes elias was base on two people that stone know in vietnam and was good friend with. one of them was native american extract, and one other i can not remember. the soldier that elias was base on was KIA in mysterious circumstance while in the boonies and stone believed he was 'fragged' by rival soldier who not like him - no proof but gut feeling (so he put this scene in movie). i was big fan of stone and platoon as teenager and i remember read this in stone book.
gator might have been lerner's surfing nicknames unless his parents are retard. he was cool man. lots of great character in this movie. good sign of movie is characters you always remember and who have depth/personalitys.
Agree all the way about the characters in Platoon. They were very very memorable. Even the ones you did not like. I am not sure if I can honestly think of any war or military movie that had more memorable characters. Take SAVING PRIVATE RYAN---a few of them were but most were bland enough to just fade into the non descript background of just being other guys wearing olive green.
Maybe Lerner was from Florida and hence got tabbed with the gator name. Hard to know.
Regarding Wolfe---my guess is he did college and graduated and spent four years in ROTC and was commissioned immediatedly after graduation or maybe was not in ROTC and just became a candidate for OCS since he was a college grad or had numerous credits and/or tested out very well on the military aptitude test. Yeah, we can tell that the experienced Barnes and O'Neil did not think very much of him.
It also seemed like Wolfe sort of threw in the towel a bit with things as we see in the scene with Rhah before the final battle when he doesn't want to hear his problems because he just doesn't give a beep anymore. Shortly thereafter we see the look of absolute dread on his face when he hears the jets flying over and sees Barnes smiling down on him. While Barnes had certainly lost all of his humanity we can clearly see that Wolfe has not. He is fed up with everything and is scared to death to be in his situation. I personally do not blame him. Mark Moses did a very fine job in portraying the hapless and overmatched Wolfe.
The incompetent Lieutenant is tired movie trope. Hollywood thinks the USMC / Army are out there putting bars on collars with no qualifications or months of infantry officers’ training post-commissioning (not to mention advanced courses). Meanwhile over 30 Lieutenant platoon leaders won the CMH in Viet Nam alone.
shareThat is a fair point. It's not like all of them were bad or incompetent. But let's be honest---it is a very tall order for someone who is 22 years of age to be thrust into a leadership role like this when they have been in the army only several months of training or so. The knowledge and experience of the NCOs would dwarf that of the Lts. The smart ones keep their mouths shut and learn from the experienced sergeants. Eventually they will learn something if they are bright enough.
And who knows someone like Wolfe may have won the CMH if the right circumstances would have prevailed. Though I would not count on it.
Good points. Hey, welcome to moviechat by the way. I already appreciate your contributions in raising some interesting points. I hope you will stay for the long haul. It’s very good to see a new poster start with movie comments and not the politics board
shareAgree all the way about the characters in Platoon. They were very very memorable. Even the ones you did not like. I am not sure if I can honestly think of any war or military movie that had more memorable characters. Take SAVING PRIVATE RYAN---a few of them were but most were bland enough to just fade into the non descript background of just being other guys wearing olive green.
You sound like someone’s who’s been in the Army. C’mon BO&B, let’s have the truth. 11B?
shareno bea but it was always my dreams to be in army as kid but i am legally blind after looking directly at keelai.
shareI understand. Completely.
shareBeaSouth---thank you very much for your most welcoming and kind words. I used to be on IMDB years ago but have been absent from these types of forums for over a decade. It is great to be back talking with you guys about a fantastic film.
I also want to thank you for your posts BO!
I have some ideas for some threads for our roundtable here but would first love to see the film once more before I proceed.