Psychological Turmoil in "Platoon"

While walking through the low currents of the river, the soldiers come across Manny’s limp body pinned to a tree trunk. His eyes are wide opened and blood has soaked through his t-shirt. After seeing Manny’s body, the director shows a slow panoramic view of the soldiers’ faces enabling us to see the expression of each soldier. I see injustice in Junior’s face, the rage in Chris’ eyes, and the pity in Big Harold’s expression. In this scene, I believe the director is showing the different emotions within each soldier, but also showing that they are shared among the platoon. I see the emotions of injustice, pity, anger being unified among the troops. Not only Chris was angry, but it was brewing within each soldier. Just a few hours earlier, they lost two fellow soldiers from a booby trap, now; they faced another murdered soldier, disgracefully plastered to a tree trunk. The unification of these emotions was beautifully shown by ending the panoramic view on Sergeant Barnes. As the leader of this platoon, his solemn face showed his understanding of their pain, conflict, and rage. Somehow he was going to redeem them and platoon knew it. It was important for the director to project each emotion and unify them among the troops because the next scene, in which they attack the village, shows the response of their pent up emotions. I saw these two scenes to be extremely vital in showing the psychological effects of war on these men. I couldn’t fathom seeing a fellow warrior dishonored in such a way and not being able to truly deal with my emotions. Surely these men were overwhelmed with emotional trauma from the day’s events and time spent in war. Without an opportunity to release it, they funnel it through the only emotion allowed to be expressed in this setting, anger. I found it hard to fully hold these men accountable for wrongfully attacking innocent villagers. Yet, surely that was not justice. Justice could not be killing an innocent, disabled man. I believe these two scenes show the complexities that occur in war. I feel conflicted and believe there was not a true resolution for the soldiers. I believe, they still carried the baggage of their emotions when they left the village.