project_3-2 - Gardner Michele Gardner Tina Irvine English...

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Michele Gardner
Tina Irvine
English 101, Section 104
21 April 2011
A Soldier’s Mind:
Platoon Through a Psychological Scope
The movie Platoon was written by Oliver Stone as a depiction of the Vietnam War. The
movie demonstrates the psychological effect that war can have on a soldier. Everyone has
observed post traumatic stress disorder, and this movie shows how this comes about. Paul
Attanasio and Sydelle Kramar have both written their responses to the movie and how the
characters have to go through psychological changes to be able to deal with and handle fighting a
war. Three key scenes especially show the struggle the soldiers face and how some are able to
keep morals while others become summoned to actions not considered just.
Platoon starts off by having the main character arrive at the base while body bags are
being loaded. This is the first evidence given for how the life of a soldier differs from the life of
a civilian. The main character, Chris, is using war as a right of passage and this first step gives
him a hint of what he signed up for since he volunteered to fight in the war (Attanasio 1987). It
is up to the soldier as to how he will emotionally react to cope with a surrounding of violence
and death. Kramar describes this scene as showing those of us who have never experienced war
the nobility and heroism that a soldier demonstrates when they are put amongst the violence and
eye opening picture of numerous body bags.
The stacks of body bags being loaded was a very memorable picture for me as a viewer.
It was a grave reminder of the amount of death that occurs while a war is going on. It also set

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the stage for the trials the characters in the movie were going to face.