The Impossibility of Camera Angles

“Somebody once wrote, ‘Hell is the impossibility of reason.’ That’s what this place feels like. Hell”

Taylor says this in his opening monologue of the movie Platoon directed by Oliver Stone. The scene begins with two fellow black infantrymen instructing Taylor to get back to digging the foxhole; “Hey white boy! What you waitin’ for? That hole ain’t gonna dig itself.” The decision to cast black actors was intentional. Stone uses the stereotypes of race here to show the hierarchy in the Vietnam War did not translate as one might think. Race, class, and education had no bearing on your value and status in the platoon. What mattered was how long you had been there and how much combat you had seen.

The camera then pans to a dirt tanned, sweating Taylor in a fox hole. The viewer then hears Taylor reading his letter to his Grandmother aloud. He begins he letter with the quote above. The significance of this statement in conjunction with the camera angle is very important. Taylor says this while digging a hole, which is symbolic of his own personal Hell. Then the camera moves into a position above Taylor. This shows that Taylor has no hope of getting out of the Hell that is Vietnam. He is digging deeper down and the camera is moving up…the odds are stacked against him.

Taylor continues with his letter that tells of the struggles and discomforts he is facing. Stone then cuts to views of everyday troop life, such as brushing your teeth, marching, eating, smoking, and sleeping. He does this to show that everyday life moves on. The men are living and fighting through this Hell and life continues. That’s pivotal to many emotions felt by the men after and during the War.

During this Stone also does a close up on one man’s Bugs Bunny tattoo. The tattoo is not a minor detail either. The average age of men fighting in the Vietnam War was 19. These men were not men…they were still young, fresh out of high school. The Bugs Bunny tattoo represents the lost childhood of many of the enlisted men.

One final close up to take note of is when Stone cuts to the marching feet of troops. The final destination of the feet is unknown, so essentially the feet march to nowhere. This symbolizes the final outcome of the war. All the marching, killing, village raids, and bombing led to nowhere. The final outcome of the War was nothing- nothing but killing with no reason. Vietnam was Hell.