30 Days of Screenplays, Day 20: “Platoon”
Why 30 screenplays in 30 days?
Why 30 screenplays in 30 days?
Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts.
There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from reading scripts, giving you an innate sense of pace, feel, tone, style, how to approach writing scenes, how create flow, and so forth.
So each day this month, I will provide background on and access to a notable movie script.
Today is Day 20 and the featured screenplay is for the 1986 movie Platoon. You may download a PDF of the script here.
Background: Original screenplay written by Oliver Stone.
Plot summary: A young recruit in Vietnam faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.
Tagline: The first casualty of war is innocence.
Awards: Nominated for WGA Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Trivia: Based on Oliver Stone’s personal experience during the war in Vietnam based on a screenplay he finished around 1976. Numerous studios passed on it until he finally got approval and starting filming in early 1986.
I’ve met many Vietnam vets through the years and I’ll often ask them which movie was the most accurate depiction of what it was like in the war: Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, or Platoon — and the answer is almost invariably Platoon. It stands to reason because writer-director Oliver Stone actually served as a soldier there, after dropping out of Yale to enlist.
This is an interesting script to read on the heels of Broadcast News as both have a similar plot conceit at the core of their respective stories: The Protagonist torn between two other characters. In Platoon, the Protag is Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen). Chris has two commanding officers — the brutish, cocksure Sergeant Robert Barnes (Tom Berenger) and the more humane Sergeant Elias Groden (William Dafoe). Whereas Broadcast News has a romantic triangle, Platoon’s triangular conflict is quite different, the two sergeants, in essence, vying for control over the young private’s soul.
At the moral center of the movie are two related events. The first is the platoon’s encounter with the enemy at the NVA Bunker Complex. At the end of the sequence, the men are searching for one of their comrades Manny. This is what they find:
EXT. NVA BUNKER COMPLEX - MANNY'S POSITION -DAYOut on the flank position, where he once stood, Elias walks
out, looks. The jungle is silent once again. Francis, Tubbs,
King follow. The others - Barnes, Lt.Wolfe, Warren, Chris,
Rhah... FRANCIS AND OTHERS
(whispering loudly)
Manny?... Manny?Their voices trailing off. Bird cries come back.Elias combing the ground for clues... nothing.Chris looking on, can't believe it, none of them can, a
collective chill running through the platoon.EXT. JUNGLE - DAYThe Platoon moving downslope in the Jungle, their faces grim,
quiet, deadly. King is on point. CHRIS (V.O.)
We had to get to the village before
dark so we left Elias with some men
to keep looking and to wait for the
engineers... But it was King who
found him... about 1000 yards
downriver, not far from the village -
It was the end of the mystery.A moving shot approaching Manny. He's trussed with rope,
arms behind his back. Throat cut, eyes startled open, mouth
shaped in a scream of terror.Barnes, the other men looking... Chris. Barnes says it for
everyone, 'The motherfuckers...'
The brutality of Manny’s murder and the cumulative effects of the war on the men sets the stage for what happens next: The platoon’s half-crazed retribution against seemingly innocent villagers including this pivotal moment involving Chris:
INT. HUTCH - VILLAGE - DAYAn Old Woman and her Son, a young man with one leg, throw up
their hands, climbing out of the hole with stupid confused
looks as Chris, shaking with his own sort of confusion and
rage, cuffs them, hustling them out. The Young Man uses a
pair of crutches for his blown-off limb, hobbling like a
mangy three-legged dog. BUNNY
Hey look at this! Ma and Pa Kettle
here. Look at them - greasy gook
motherfuckers! CHRIS
Get up out of there!... You see I
didn't wanna hurt you. Why didn't
you come out, when I said so hunh!
Why? WHY! WHY? DON'T YOU LISTEN...
WHAT ARE YOU SMILING AT HUNH! FUCKING
ASSHOLES!The couple, hands raised, muttering things in Vietnamese, don't understand a word, shaking their heads stupidly and
smiling that impassive Oriental smile which sends Chris into
a rage only he can understand.His finger closes on the trigger of his 16.Francis, the baby-faced black, looks nervously, sensing the
danger... Bunny amused, drawn in by Chris. O'Neill watches
passively from the lip of the hutch.The Young Man continues to grin, not seeming to realize the
degree of danger he's in, which is what Chris wants - a token
sign of acquiescence. There is also the added element of
showing off his manhood in front of an audience now. BUNNY
Do 'em man, do 'em.Chris. The trigger. He pulls. But he can't quite bring himself
to kill. The bullets exploding in the dirt at the edges of
the young man's foot. CHRIS
(demonic)
DANCE YOU ONE-LEGGED MOTHERFUCKER,
DANCE!!!The Young Man hops up and down in a reflex fear of the sounds
of the bullets as they thud into the dirt. Yet his eyes remain
fixed on Chris in wonderment.Chris, firing out the magazine, seems to expend his bloodlust.
He ceases, noticing - for the first time - the eyes of the
Young Man. They aren't stupid - nor fearful - but filled
with resignation and despair - a despair that Chris, in
disgust of himself, recognizes.Chris lowers the rifle, silent.The Young Man's impassive face shines now with tears. That
sad young look - as if death itself would've been a release.
Chris turns his eyes away, an awkward sense of shame. FRANCIS
(leaves)
Let's get out of here man.But Bunny takes up the slack, moves forward on the young
man. BUNNY
(to Chris)
You chickenshit man, they're laughing
at you, look at them faces. That's
the way a gook laughs.The Young Man nodding affable to Bunny and mumbling
ingratiating words in Vietnamese. BUNNY
Yeah sure you are, you're real sorry
ain't you. You're just crying out
your hearts about Sandy and Sal and
Manny - they're laughing at us! Their
family is out there in the fucking
bush blowing us away and they're
laughing at us! O'NEILL
(checking out the
hutch)
Forget it will ya, let's go...Chris standing there, watching, sensing something awful is
going to come and unable to do anything about it. It comes -
suddenly and without warning. Bunny is looking at O'Neill,
the Vietnamese couple are muttering something. In one fluid
move, Bunny swivels and with unbelievable savagery clubs the
young one-legged man in the side of the head with the butt
of his 16. O'NEILL
(stunned)
Hey, what are you doing! BUNNY
Fucker!The young man is groaning on the floor of the hutch. Bunny
smashes him - again and again. BUNNY
That's for Sandy! And this is for
Sal! And this is for fucking Manny!
This is for me!Chris watches, horrified. Never in his life has he seen
something so horrifying as this. And yet he does nothing.
He is part of it. BUNNY
(stepping back,
examines what's left
of the head, amazed)
Wow! You see his fucking head come
apart? Look at that... I never seen
brains like dat before. Jesus fucking
Christ...The Old Lady is shrieking, hovering over the body of her
son. Bunny studying her. BUNNY
Betcha the old bitch runs the whole
show. Probably helped cut Manny's
throat. Probably cut my balls off if
she could.
(to Chris)
Come on, man, let's do her.She cowers from him. Chris steps back, horrified. As is
O'Neill, more puzzled than horrified. BUNNY
(hitting her again)
Let's zap all these motherfuckers!
Let's do the whole village!He backs out of the hutch, scared. Evidently Bunny is
temporarily insane. But he spots O'Neill, yells at him. BUNNY
GET BACK HERE YOU FUCKING COWARD
O'NEILL. THIS IS FOR SANDY... THIS
IS FOR SANDY MAN! AND SAL! AND MANNY!As he clubs her to death.On Chris' face, blood and brain tissue flying up into it.
Platoon is a grunt’s-eye view of the Vietnam War immersing the reader into the External World of military combat and the Internal World of each soldier’s personal conflict.
What’s your take on Platoon? Stop by comments and post your thoughts.
To see all of the posts in the 30 Days of Screenplays series, go here.
This series and use of screenplays is for educational purposes only!