In America, the 1980s was a decade still reeling from the political turmoil of the prior two decades, and no single event better captured the distrust and ire of the average American, the stratified violence of the Cold War era, or the ideological confusion of the time than the Vietnam War. If we count 1979, "Apocalypse Now" kicked things off with a brutal look at the corrupted morality of the warfighter, and later films like "First Blood" and "Full Metal Jacket" explored both the cruelty of the war itself and the extended global aftermath. If you'd asked the late film critic Roger Ebert which '80s film best captured the essence of war in the second half of the 20th century, he'd have told you it was 1986's "Platoon," starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Willem Dafoe.
Author: staff@slashfilm.com (Rick Stevenson)
Published at: 2025-10-04 20:00:00
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