thank you pitt. i must say you write very well about this film and make me think of thing i never see before and raise my appreciation. this film is remarkable. a masterpeace that will be studied 100 year from now. every scene is full of magic and intriguing hahahah.
Maybe he sees himself in Taylor from when his tour began a year ago. Maybe he sees his lost innocence and forever gone humanity residing in Taylor. He looks at him not tauntingly or disrespectfully at all but just perhaps to see what and who he once was.
yes pitt i can see this as well. i do not think you can say more than this. both men look at each other briefly but that look is like this mans entire tour in 5 seconds. he look at taylor and taylor straight away know what will come to him and this man see himself in this FNG. the look on this man face say it all - he is like "that was once me" and taylor is like "that will be me".
Maybe he sees himself in Taylor from when his tour began a year ago. Maybe he sees his lost innocence and forever gone humanity residing in Taylor. He looks at him not tauntingly or disrespectfully at all but just perhaps to see what and who he once was.
i hear life was not good for many nam vets. the good news is that if this man was strong enough to survive his tour of duty then that would give him chance back in 'the world'.
the guy look to me like lifer. i think he would actually go back to nam. like what o'neill say about elias in beginning "guys in 3 year and thinks he jesus f-ing christ". elias went back for many tours. this is what this man probably do if he find himself not adapting to life and being too scar by war. he have 1000 yard stare and he go back to enviornment he belong in which is war.
audie murphy came back from ww2 a hero but he sleep with a .45 under his pillow for rest of life. war does not ever leave veteran. this man who look at taylor is taking war with him wherever he go that is for sure.
reply
share
PittPanthers47 (237)
a year ago
Those are some great thoughts as always, BO. Yes, it is a true masterpiece. It seems to age better and better. If you want to take a look at an infantry unit in Vietnam then go watch Platoon. It hits the mark in a big time way. And as you say---it is one great scene after another. there is NO lull in the film or action. The only other film that I can compare it to in that manner is Jaws, which was the same way. Just superb movie making.
Like you say---Taylor and the vet exchange looks and one sees who he was and the other what he is to become. Amazing job of Stone to offer something like this in just a quick and seemingly meaningless scene. It was great.
Yeah, you almost want some backstory on who the vet was and what he had been through. What happened to him later on? Probably a broken life marred by PTSD. But who knows? A lifer? Hard to say. One odd thing about the guy is to wonder how old he is? Probably not very old but goodness does he ever look very old. He hardly even looks human to be honest.
I wonder who played him and how they got the guy to look like that? He looked like he had not slept in a very long time. Amazing that they could get a look like that. And his eyes said so much with their hollowed out look. He was also quite thin compared to the new arriving and fresh troops. I guess if you watch the movie you know what kind of a living hell he had been through.
reply
share
BOandBarbecue (2264)
a year ago
yes you are right pitt it does hit the mark in every scene. platoon earned its 4 oscar and 128 million gross. that is why i did not connect to saving private ryan - it did not have the same depth to character as platoon have. a film with great battle scenes mean nothing without heart and soul like platoon.
i agree i'd like a backstory on this apparation-like man. if i ever meet oliver stone i would ask him about this man hahah
it is good question as to who this man is. i check cast credits and there is no one in main cast that contain this man, but about 4 people listed as 'soldier' in uncredited section and he must be one of them but they are unknowns.
this means it is most likely man who oliver stone choose just for his look. if he only have to look at camera and not say a line then it is maybe just non-actor/extra, and stone just like his face. like the man they choose to play the adult john connor at start of T2 - he dont say a word but he is memorable because his face convey many different thing without saying a word. like this mysterious man at start of platoon.
reply
share
PittPanthers47 (237)
a year ago
Yeah, in having watched that scene with the vet with the thousand yard stare several times since I started this thread I have to say that I am a bit haunted by his stare and appearance. Good God! What has he been through?
If you saw him at the airfield PX and tried starting a conversation with him like "Hey, man, how about those Green Bay Packers or Hey, that is some album the Doors put out this year." What would his reaction be? He very well may have absolutely NO idea what you are even talking about. He looks like he lived like an animal in the jungle for a year with no normal human interactions. He may just look right through you like you were not even there really. Sad!
He seems to be walking in a group of soldiers but he seems apart from them somewhat. I wonder if he has any sort of relationship with them or is just merely going where he is supposed to go? Maybe he has zero connection with anyone or anything after everything he has experienced. Yeah, it would be really interesting to know what his story is.
How old would you say he is? He must be young but he looks rather old or just very un-humanlike.
reply
share
BOandBarbecue (2264)
a year ago
yes i too went back and watched that scene to remind myself and it is unnerving to see. i dont think you could start conversation with this man and ask him about football or musics. he look like he would just ignore you and stare into space. too much shell shock and ptsd to communicate!
He seems to be walking in a group of soldiers but he seems apart from them somewhat. I wonder if he has any sort of relationship with them or is just merely going where he is supposed to go?
this is why i think this man could be ghost. he is like lost soul who thinks he is returning to states with rest of short timers and he does not realise he is ghost wandering around this airfield. like you say there is something different about the way he look. he does not feel like he is part of that crowd. taylor can not take his eyes off this man, hypnotize.
how old? probably similar age to barnes/hill. but he look like old man. combat age him!
reply
share
PittPanthers47 (237)
a year ago
BO---that is indeed an interesting theory about the vet. Could Stone have intended him to be exactly what you say here----a ghost, a lost soul that for whatever reason only Taylor could see. It is interesting how the vet stares only at Taylor. Like he recognizes that he can see him. I never really thought of that. Yeah, the guy looks totally different from the black guy short timers he is walking behind. Like a non-human zombie or something. Maybe it is his spirit and he does not fully realize he is dead.
Interesting to think about. I wonder if that was Stone's intention. It would be neat to ask that question. You have to admit that the vet looked like absolutely no one else in the movie. Maybe a lost soul still moving with his comrades he served with. That makes it even eerier! You could be right. Man, the guy does not look of this world.
Great observation here! I just wish we had Stone's answer to this.
reply
share
BOandBarbecue (2264)
a year ago
yes it is just theory i have because of how unearthly this man is. but i doubt stone intend for this man to be ghost. im sure he is just there to spook new arrival taylor, someone who just looks really like he's been in hell 24/7 for one year, and will really shake taylor. it is one of the first thing he see when he arrive - it must be someone who really unnerve taylor.
platoon was filmed in philipines. iirc, the production was based in manila. they probably find this guy living in manila. a similar thing happen with actor r. lee ermey (drill sergeant from full metal jackets) who was living in philipines when he got a part in apocalypse now (and that was start of his acting career).
but i would like to find out more about this fascinating man. who he is, where he come from. but i bet if you ask stone, he probably say he does not remember haha.
one thing is for sure, this one man, and the few second he is onscreen, have big impact. like every scene in this movie, it all contributes to legendary war film of the ages
reply
share
PittPanthers47 (237)
a year ago
If you have the time to do it maybe you could do a net search to see if you can find out who played this guy. I've been pretty busy and now I have lungs full of smoke and eyes that burn due to all the wildfires up in Canada and they are blowing down upon the eastern US. I feel really lousy. Everyone I see is really coughing.
Yeah, Stone may not even remember who the guy was. Good point. That was like 37 years ago this movie was made. Hard to believe. But like you say it is a legendary war film of the ages. Probably the best that I would say. My dad still thinks it was The Longest Day. He still talks about how he and some buddies drove into New York City to see it back in 1962 while they were working in New Jersey. They were probably all newly minted vets just out of the service.
But yeah, the vet with that crazy look really provided a good stern warning to Taylor and what he was in for. To be honest, I was a bit unnerved myself looking at him several times while watching the clip for this thread. Scary stuff.
reply
share
BOandBarbecue (2264)
a year ago
yes i would say it is best war film. i did not manage to watch longest day - it is too slow for my tastes. i think our father/grandfather generations prefer older style film while younger people born after 60s like faster film.
funny canada give you artic snow in winter and now firestorm in summer. dam canadians hahaha
yes pitt i did a net search when you first start this thread but i find zippo. i usually go to avelyman to find cast of any film as they have picture from film of each character - https://www.aveleyman.com/FilmCredit.aspx?FilmID=14977
if you go to main cast on imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091763/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm.
there is a few peoples who are uncredited. they are all simply listed as 'soldier'. there is not name like 'man at air base' or 'scary looking soldier' or 'man who stare at chris'. if this man is on this list, then he must one of these:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13468471/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t40
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0714061/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t42
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5237024/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t43
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0353896/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t47
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0819416/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t48
the mostly likely one is this man call John Denny - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5237024/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t43. there is not picture of this man. i guess this because his other credit say he play POW in return from bridge on river kwai. if he is playing POW from ww2, he must look emaciated/unhuman from starvation - which is kinda what this man look like in platoon.
either way this man is simply unknown actor chosen by stone to play a haunted soldier by the way he look.
reply
share
PittPanthers47 (237)
a year ago
LOL about Canada. Yeah, things were better today thank goodness. But I was burning some brush and leaves so I still got my quota of smoke. And did some swearing under my breath about it. That was pretty awful that fallout from Canada.
Actually a lot of times actors may go completely uncredited. The vet did not speak so maybe he did not even get listed. Some of those guys you had up there may have been the black guys vets walking in front of him who did speak some lines. Hard to say. I would not think anyone from the Bridge on the River Kwai would be younger looking in Platoon. Course the vet did look quite old I guess.
But that guy did make an impact for being on screen for only a few seconds and saying not a word. Unforgetable scene. Truly.
reply
share
BOandBarbecue (2264)
a year ago
that is good to hear things are better now pitt. i think you americans need to invade canada as punishments for this. like what denis leary say they are nothing but trouble: https://youtu.be/inLRcdZbO1g?t=2213
nah pitt that movie is not original river kwai movie, it is 'return to bridge on river kwai' which is shit sequel to original movie and come out in 1989. i cannot imagine what this movie might be.
i am not sure i am dedicated enough to platoon to sit through this shit B movie to find out if ghost GI is really in it haha. especially as he is uncredited in that movie too and so will be on screen for maybe a few second so his part could be easily missed.
you are correct he may be completely uncredited. this is a shame as it is a memorable scene. in acting school, they tell actors there are no such thing as small parts and this is true. i remember this man well.
reply
share
PittPanthers47 (237)
a year ago
Okay, I did see later that it was a sequel to the original River Kwai. Thing is even IF you spotted this guy in another film he is likely not to look the same as he did in Platoon. Goodness, we would certainly hope not anyway.
Yeah, he nailed that part. Maybe they should have just gotten Keith Richards of the Stones to play the part after a bender. Might have been the same look. I heard someone joke about that one time. LOL.
reply
share
BOandBarbecue (2264)
a year ago
there is chance this man look the same in every movie. or at least he look more or less same?
maybe this man is just on permanent bender all his life and he just look this way naturally? hahahahah. who knows.
reply
share
PittPanthers47 (237)
a year ago
I may have been able to play the vet's role a time or two in my younger days. Though I don't think I nor anyone else could have looked quite like that.
BO---check out my new thread I started on Bunny and Junior. Feel free to get the ball rolling here if you like.
reply
share