Doin' The Whole Village

In Platoon, Oliver Stone presents a strong illustration of both the exasperation of the American soldiers and the misery of the Vietnamese villagers in the scene where the army men are sent to take the suspected Viet Cong and burn the village. As the soldiers advance upon the village, their anger and content for the innocent villagers is immediately apparent as they shoot the livestock and violently gather the women and children together, telling each other to just "put them in the pig pen," a dehumanizing statement. The men are all automatic VC suspects, and as much as the villagers are afraid, many of the Americans are scared as well. Chris Taylor, particularly, collapses under the pressure while rounding up two of the Vietnamese, yelling angrily and shooting at the foot of the one-legged man. Taylor begins to cry with frustration and anger, unhappy with the job he is ordered to do. One of the other men, Bunny, finds amusement in the distress of the Vietnamese though. Desensitized by all the death and killing of the Vietnam War, he takes pleasure in beating the one-legged man, smirking at the amount of blood shed when he kills the man. Throughout this scene, there are close ups on the faces of Taylor, Bunny, and the two villagers so that the viewer is able to see and experience the emotions that each character is feeling. Taylor's eyes are filled with tears, giving off a strong sense of distress, while Bunny's eyes are sharp and seemingly emotionless, showing his indifference to the anguish that the Vietnamese are feeling.

In the following scene, the suspected VC is dragged to the center and fiercely questioned about the weapons and excessive amount of rice in the village. Even though the man insists that there are no VC, Barnes is unconvinced. The man's wife comes into the scene, yelling at the soldiers about how they have destroyed everything in the village, ruining their lives. Barnes, immensely annoyed at her shouting, shoots and kills her. When he does that, the camera is looking into Barnes' eyes from the barrel of the gun; the fierceness and anger is apparent in his eyes as he kills this innocent woman. Unconcerned with the death of the woman, he proceeds to take the man's young daughter, holding the gun up to her head, yelling at the man to consent to his orders. In this scene, the camera shifts to Taylor's face every once in a while, and the grief so clearly displayed in his eyes seems to penetrate the screen; the cries of the children can be heard in the background. Soon, Elias comes and is furious at what is happening in the village. The two sergeants fight each other, bringing an immediate division in the army. After the fight is broken up, the soldiers proceed to burn down the village as the captain had initially instructed them to do so. During the burning, music plays in the background and the dead are shown, lying in the flaming huts.

At the end of this whole scene, Taylor angrily stops the other army men from raping the young, probably about 10 year old girl. He yells, "She's a f***ing human being." The others tell Taylor he doesn't belong in this world, but he retaliates by stating, "You just don't get it." The other soldiers fail to take in the fact that the just because the Vietnamese are the ones America is fighting and may not be highly esteemed as America is, they aren't any less human than Americans. The soldiers treat the Vietnamese either as animals or simply objects of pleasure. The American soldiers don't feel the pain and suffering of the Vietnamese as Taylor does. This whole scene effectively portrays all the conflicting emotions felt by the individuals, whether it be desolation or complete indifference to the War.