Platoon

The first and best of Stone's Vietnam trilogy, it's also one of his finest pieces of work.

He avoids his trademark conspiracy theories, the editing and fancy camerawork are virtually mainstream and, instead of concentrating on a showy script, he builds an increasingly intense story of a young volunteer being broken down and remade in the dehumanizing conditions of war.

Sheen is the college drop-out volunteer whose first experience of Vietnam is a fierce battle, the cursory concern of one sergeant, Elias (Dafoe), and the disdain of another, Barnes (Berenger). The film uses Sheen as the central observer of the increasing antagonism between the sergeants as more and more recruits are killed and Barnes (Berenger) is involved in a massacre.