Platoon

For me 1986 will always be remembered for a specific sports moment and not for movies.  I remember watching on that fateful October when Bill Buckner let that ball roll through his legs and the Red Sox lost the World Series.  But 1986 also saw one of the best movies of the 80's released. 

Platoon is about a young soldiers experience in Vietnam.  He starts of as an idealistic recruit and that learns that war is hell.  The two sergeant's that are over represent the good and bad of men.  Chris Taylor(Charlie Sheen) is caught between Sergeant Barnes(Tom Beringer) and Sergeant Elias(Willem Defoe) in a battle of morality.  Elias is the caring Sergeant who takes Taylor under his wing and Barnes is the tough as nails Sergeant who will do anything to get what he wants.  The tension comes to a head after Barnes orders the killing of civilians and Elias threatens to report him. 

The movie is dark and gritty and really shows the horrors of war.  Oliver Stone wrote the movie based on his own experience in Vietnam.  The movie is controversial due to the portrayal of American Troops killing of civilians.  But it really shows how in war there are both good and evil people and war is never pretty.  The tagline for the movie says it all "The first casualty of war is innocence". Also,  the last lines of the movie where Taylor is talking about being born of both Elias and Barnes and how each one fights for control of his soul shows how we take what we need from both the good and bad to make us whole 

The movie won 4  awards besides Best Picture it Won Best Director for Oliver Stone, and Best Editing and Best Sound.  It's actually the ones it lost that are surprising.  It lost best screenplay to Woody Allen who won for Hannah and Her Sisters.  And both Willem Defoe and Tom Beringer lost the Best Supporting Actor to Michael Caine for Hannah and Her Sisters.  It would have been tough to choose between Defoe and Beringer but either one would have been better then Michael Caine. 

Other Oscar Notables:
Marlee Matlin was a suprise win for Children of a Lesser God and at the age of 21 is the youngest person ever to win Best Actress and the only deaf person to win. 
William Hurt was nominated the second of three times in a row for Children of a Lesser God
Probably the oddest nomination was the nomination of Crocodile Dundee for Best Screenplay.
And one my favorite movies of my childhood  Stand By Me was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay based on Stephen Kings novella The Body.