So, what is everyone's thoughts here on the characters of Bunny and Junior? I certainly have some thoughts but wouldn't mind if someone else would like to jump in and get the discussion started. I'll check in a day or so to see what is up.
shareBunny is psychopath. there is not much to say about this man. we have known these types in our lifes. they are bad seed. bad home, bad parent. expel from school/in reform school. this man should be in stockade for killing disabled villager. but he seem to be good warrior - fearless in end battle.
junior is interesting character. oliver stone show all the black men in platoon to be warm and friendly soul and they all on elias side of platoon.. all except junior and warren, but warren is shown as barnes nut hugger and not so much bad. but junior seem to be kind of loner.
but i think junior is meant to represent 'angry black man' stereotype. he have big chip on his shoulders. he have victim complex and complain all time about conspiracy and white man. he sound just like the peoples who whine all day on social medias and message boards hahahahahah
i read book on oliver stone's tour in vietnam and it shows pictures of him in nam and most of his friend were black. when he return from vietnam his rich banker father say to him "omg you sound like black man now!" so oliver was close to these men, just like taylor is close to king and harold and francis in this.
and i think stone write character of junior to show other side of black man, junior based on man who blamed stone for sleeping on ambush. so maybe with junior character, he show that not all black man are stereotypes and they not all funny and have good times?
it is funny to see junior and bunny paired together both in there barracks and in fox hole before end ambush. both of these men are too anti-social to be part of main group. they are odd couple who are paired against will but they have no option -
no one else like them hahahahha. they seem destined to die together. two lost miserable soul who are finally set free at end hahah
Thank you BO for getting this started as I have been rather busy to have the time to formulate my thoughts. And WOW you put some good stuff down here. I think you really nailed it with these two. Better than I could have.
When I first saw Platoon I really really hated Bunny. As you say he is a complete nutjob all around. He shoots the innocent poor pig coming into the village and then what he did to the disabled villager was just evil. I remember being glad when he got killed. But as you say he was a decent soldier. He was portrayed very well by Kevin Dillon. I think we all knew people like Bunny. Stupid rednecks.
Junior was also portrayed very well by Reggie Johnson. He is a curious study as he has moments where he is totally despicable (blaming Taylor and the village rape) and then moments where we do see his humanity come through. Like King and Big Harold and some other black soldiers he expresses his dismay at what happened at the village and says how crazy that Bunny is. We also see him reach his breaking point before the final battle. I did feel bad for him as he was a man who had reached his limit with things. i could not blame him.
And the scene we see with Bunny and Junior in the barracks is rather funny. Junior probably tells the funniest joke of the movie about Bunny's prospects of getting laid. I always laugh. Maybe if Junior had a better chance at life he could have been better. I would not say that about Bunny perhaps. He was nuts. They were an odd couple indeed.
thank you for your kind words, pitt. i enjoy reading your post here, great points!
yes kevin dillon is fantastic actor. it is not easy to portray psycho and make him interesting & he made bunny memorable character. kevin finally got recognition for being in shit tv show entourage but he has done so many great film. i think he is more talent than brother matt.
i understand what you say about junior, but i never felt much decent in junior as he was part of gang rapes. i mean, this wasnt woman. when taylor wades in you see they are kid and this man junior along with psycho bunny look like they are having great time. he as bad as him imo.
i think when junior complain to other brothers about what happen in village, he is just trying to make it seem like he is somehow above what just happen, like he has honor... like he respectful like king and harold, but gang rape of kids is just as bad as bunny and barnes killing villagers. i laugh at this scene! he is hypocrite. cannot take him serious. you are right, he is funny!
i think juniors best skill in life is deception. he can weasal out of ambush and taking blame for gang rape, but this deception is why he find himself in bad situation all his life...
...his antisocial mind means he is forced to hang with bunny in barracks, and taking part in gang rape, and spraying mosquito repellent on his feets (an act which mean he has to die with bunny - if he find better excuse that doesn't anger barnes then maybe he get reassigned by barnes to different fox hole and he survive end battle). maybe if he make better choices he survive.
reggie jacksin seem to disappear while keith davids, forest whitaker and candyman all have steller career in film. i enjoyed these character along with francis but junior remind me of many whiner i know irl and cannot stand these people. junior was coward - get gardner kill by sleeping on ambush. then he die a cowards death - running away from fox hole and knocking himself out in panic.
Yes, I think you are right here, BO. I gave Junior way too much credit to be honest. While I guess he did show some moments of humanity and vulnerability---he was simply not that great a person at all. I think I got it wrong. Junior was no good. Pure and simple.
And like I said below somewhere---had he survived the war he likely would have met a very bad end rather quickly back home. Killed by violence or by the police or simply put into the prison system for a long time.
And yes, I think that many Platoon fans have wondered over the years what has happened to Reggie Johnson? He sure did give a very good performance with this role.
i can see why you think junior has good in him, pitt
when you see junior crying at end when barnes basically seal his fate by ordering him to stay with bunny, it is easy to feel sorry this kind of soldier
i do not think in real life junior would take part in gang rapes of this kind. maybe he be robber or gang member, but not a nonce. but like the poster below is saying, weak minded soldiers are affected by war in different ways. the soldiers with stronger minds like king and elias can handle pressure of war...
... but peoples like junior, when faced with day to day threat of booby traps that maim, abduction by charlie (like manny who get throat slit), snipers, and ambushes - it must be too much pressure for weak minded to take. so to relieve this pressure, they take part in things like gang rape, as to escape. but under less extreme circumstances of war, they would not do this.
the film casualties of war try to make this point - sean penns character was good man but the pressures of war turn him evil
I think they were both very scared and who could blame them given the situation. The average age of a drafted soldier in Vietnam was about 22, and neither of them seemed particularly worldly or very bright. I doubt either really understood where they were or very much about what was going on Politically.
That war was confusing to seemingly everyone, President Johnson and Secretary Of Defense Robert McNamara, two notably accomplished men, seemed to be at a loss half the time.
Like a lot of young men under extreme stress Junior and Bunny expressed their macho ideas about dominance, manhood and bravery in some very cruel ways. They did bad things. There was at least one rape and an illegal killing during a Mai Li type event. It all seems like a hellish nightmare, it’s no wonder that some small percentage of the men reverted to savagery.
Those were two very good performances btw, cheers to both actors for totally mastering difficult roles and becoming two of the most compelling, if entirely unpleasant characters in a truly great movie.
Those are some great thoughts there, Shogun! Indeed, for secondary characters Bunny and Junior really did resonate with people and most likely for all the wrong reasons. They were as you say not particularly worldly or bright. Probably both a product of their youth and particularly a result of their upbringing and lot in life. Taylor is probably not much older than them but he is bright and has the capacity to learn from his mistakes and shortcomings.
I also think as BO alluded to----Bunny and Junior really didn't fit too well into the two sides of the Platoon. They were misfits who did not really belong to either group that much.
Does anyone have any thoughts on where these guys came from back in the US? I would say that Junior was likely a product of the inner city ghettos. Bunny maybe from a more rural area i would guess.
I agree about their backgrounds, I just always figured Junior was likely an inner city gang kid from maybe Detroit or Chicago and Bunny was a hillbilly from deep inside Appalachia.
I always wondered why Junior seemed to lean more towards Barnes as Platoon leader, junior didn’t seem to have much regard for white hillbilly guys, maybe he just felt Barnes’ crew was a bit tougher..? A bit more macho and violent than Elias’ gang?
Bunny joining up with Barnes’ beer swilling, country music playing crew wasn’t surprising, he seemed from that background and he sure wasn’t shy about killing so he had some value.
I’m not being judgmental , but Bunny was a vicious killer and Junior was a passably
good troop if a bit of an awful young man otherwise and you’d likely want such men on your team if the shit hit the fan.
Yeah, I think you nailed it---Bunny poor white hillbilly from Appalachia sounds perfect to me. That was probably about what Barnes was as well as we learned from Lerner in the one deleted scene that needed to stay in the film that Barnes came from Tennessee.
I grew up and live in Pennsylvania and I could see Bunny living in or around this region. He seemed so typical of the morons that seemed to be everywhere. He seemed to think well of Barnes as we see in several scenes. He no doubt looked up to him. Poor choice of role model even if Barnes was a superb soldier.
Like Junior said in the one scene when they were discussing the gooks putting chemicals in the grass so the Americans would not want to fight anymore----he tells Bunny that he was a killer anyway. He was a total nut job.
I don't think that Junior really liked or had much use for anyone to be honest. Even if he had survived the war he likely had a bad end waiting for him when he got back home to the city ala like the black vets in the movie Dead Presidents.
I know that if I were in this Platoon I would probably keep my considerable distance from these two jokers. Not my type of people at all. I would probably hang out with Elias, Taylor, Francis, King, Lerner, Rhah, Crawford, and Big Harold.
Bunny was from Indiana.
shareHa, you’ve got a good memory, I haven’t seen it in quite some time.
shareThat is interesting that he was from Indiana. Did they say that in the movie? I know that he makes mention of liking the Indy 500 when he is talking to Junior in the barracks scene.
I was just thinking of Bunny today as he headed for the final battle. We see him on the chopper next to Taylor with his sunglasses on and he looks to be enjoying himself or at least in a happy mood. He looked like a rock star on tour or perhaps a student on spring break with his shades on. A bit odd to have that look considering he was jutting out to a place where a huge enemy force would be meeting them come nightfall.
But he seemed to be a bit of a war lover. I keep thinking of his conversation with Junior just after he was reprimanded by Barnes. "I don't know, man, some of the things we done. I don't feel like we did anything wrong but sometimes I just get this feeling. I told the Padre the truth. I like it here. Nobody beeps with you and you get to do what you want. The only thing you got to worry about is dying, and if that happens you ain't gonna know about it anyhow."
This is a very interesting character reveal and moment of introspection by Bunny. He doesn't sound like someone who has much at all in life. He seems like he is fine to be there on the precipice of a major NVA firefight. He shows no fear and demonstrates his bravado with telling Junior that he is hanging with Audie Murphy, here. Junior probably had no idea who that even was. And he could have cared even less.
We see Bunny fighting bravely and skillfully during the night attack. Again, he seemed to relish war. He admired Barnes but I don't think Barnes loved it like Bunny. It was just a job for him. A job Barnes took serious. Bunny was killed in the fight. I wonder how old he was? Seemed rather young. Still a teenager no doubt. Probably joined the army at 17 as he likely had nothing else whatsoever.
Bunny being from Indiana, might have been mentioned in the novelization. It's been so long I forget.
Oliver Stone and his crew did a great job with casting. I remember Ed O'Neill of Married with Children fame, mentioned he read a line for a part(It was in Stone's mother's house in New York) but told Stone he thought he was better for the Barnes role instead. Uh, NO..and O'Neill was sent on his way.
So, with the great casting they gave each actor a well thought out character arc. Rhah is yelling Rhah in the final scene. Red get's his comeuppance. Junior meets his fate for being a coward. The huge force of VC kill many American's but lose the battle. Elias pays the price for being generous. Taylor goes crazy in combat, proves his worth and survives to avenge Elias. King finally gets a break. Bunny goes out guns ablazin'. Barnes gets his wish to escape..himself.
Platoon is simply one of those movies that hit every nerve with all our human emotions.
That is very well said, ebhaynz! Yeah, I think Barnes may have wanted out. And yes, Platoon really did touch on all of our buttons of humanity and emotions. Better than just about all movies. Great thoughts!
I nearly fell out of my chair----Ed O'Neill! That would be crazy there. I guess that was just before he was forever typecast as Al Bundy. Maybe he could have played Al over in Nam in Platoon. Bragging about scoring three touchdowns for Polk High and putting his hand into his fatigue trousers.
One odd case of a comic actor who actually was in a Vietnam movie and did a good job of it was John Ritter aka Jack Tripper from Three's Company. I think it was early 1987 he was in a decent tv movie whose title escapes me at the moment. I think he played a vet named Coleman who was dying of Agent Orange exposure.
It's funny, Stone did tell O'Neil he wouldn't cast him as Barnes, he did say he looked enough like a soldier that he'd "get him in the movie". Stone said he was moving his office to L.A. the next day and told O'Neill to "send me your stuff".
However, O'Neill had a really crummy agent at the time, Paul Martino. Martino did very little work for O'Neill as he felt he had much bigger stars to take care of, like Maureen Stapleton lol. Anyway, Martino obviously did not send O'Neill's "stuff" to Stone. Oh, what could have been!
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