In 1964 Stone enrolled in Yale University, then dropped out only one year later to move to Vietnam where he taught English to children. Another year later he wrote a novel and lived in Mexico for a short while. Then, in 1967, at the age of 21, Stone joined the army and the war in Vietnam when most men his age were doing anything they could to avoid such a fate. Serving fifteen months in the infantry division, Stone was awarded a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster for being shot in the neck and a Bronze Star for single handedly taking out a machine gun nest with a grenade. This period just over a year would prove to change Stone's life and catapult his career as a filmmaker.

Upon returning from the war in 1968 Stone went back to his birthplace and entered New York University's Film School where he studied under the renowned Martin Scorcese.

After graduating, Stone moved to Hollywood in 1976. Here he would begin his career adapting

In Platoon, Stone showed the Vietnam War and its greater meaning just as he had done with his 1991 film The Doors.

Although Stone's own experience aided and inspired Platoon, it could not have been made without additional expertise. The film gave Stone a chance to contact his former platoon buddies to get their account. He spoke to them about the experiences arriving in Vietnam for the first time and what they endured, if different from Stone. According to Beaver, "Stone also hired retired marine captain Daniel Dye, also a Vietnam veteran, and three additional military advisers, who put Platoon's 20 principal actors through two weeks of jungle training in the Philippines - requiring the cast to carry a full complement of military gear, to dig fox holes and to go without bathing" (93).

Oliver Stone's Platoon tells the story of the Vietnam War from the point of view of a young, naive infantry soldier named Chris Taylor, played by Charlie Sheen. Like Stone himself, Taylor dropped out of college to join the army and serve his country in the Vietnam War. His platoon's allegiance is split between two senior officers, Sgt. Barnes (played by Tom Berenger), and Sgt. Elias (played by William Dafoe). Barnes is a war torn soldier who has seen enough of war, and that war has taken its toll. He is a man who only knows to fight and therefore he often steps over the lines of law and human decency. In a riveting scene taking place in a Vietnamese village Barnes murders an innocent woman with no remorse, meanwhile, the entire village and a majority of his own infantry become witness. Sgt. Elias is also a war torn soldier, but an idealistic one. He doesn't believe that America will win the war. Even though his passion has vanished, Elias still represents the good and the light rather than the evil and darkness. Struggles between Elias and Barnes create an inner war within the platoon forcing the rest of the men to choose sides. These men are now not only at war with another country, they are at war with themselves.

We last see Sgt. Elias after having been shot and left for dead by Sgt. Barnes. As the men he is dying for rise above him in a helicopter and a swarm of Viet Cong chase after him, Elias falls to his knees throwing up his arms as if on a cross.

The rights to The Doors story had been sold to the Carolco Company. Since Carolco had a contract with Stone, he

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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)