Platoon

Key Battles of American History

History

4.7 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, James and Sean review the classic, multiple Oscar-winning 1986 film Platoon, directed by Oliver Stone and based on Stone’s own experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding
0:10.7	right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its
0:16.4	size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.
0:23.9	Welcome to Key Battles of American History,
0:26.7	a podcast in which we discuss American history
0:28.9	through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.
0:32.7	Here is your host, James Early.
0:43.4	Music host, James Early. Hello and welcome to key films of the Vietnam War.
0:46.4	This is your host, James Early.
0:48.1	As always, and as always, I'm joined by my good buddy, Sean McIra.
0:53.6	This week, we're going to discuss the
0:55.5	1986 film Platoon, a classic Vietnam War movie, one of many that we're going to be talking
1:02.2	about over the next few weeks. Before we jump into the actual movie, as we always do, let's talk
1:07.9	about some of the basic facts about the film. First of all, the
1:11.2	length, it is exactly two hours, two hours and zero minutes. It's very highly rated on Rotten
1:18.1	tomatoes. 89% of critics gave it a positive review, and of the fans, 93% did. It's rating on IMDB, the average is 8.1, and you know, as I've said many
1:31.2	times, if you're over 8, that's really impressive. The director is Oliver Stone, a highly
1:38.6	prolific and often highly controversial director, and Sean's going to talk a little bit more about
1:43.0	him in a few minutes.
1:45.2	The screenplay story is also written by Oliver Stone. It's an original screenplay based on his
1:50.3	own experiences as a U.S. infantryman in the Vietnam War. And the cast is an all-star cast.
1:56.7	I'm just going to list a few people. Sean may bring in a few others that he knows later,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Key Battles of American History, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Key Battles of American History and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.