The politics of the 1980s were dominated by Ronald Reagan’s serene, amiable personal style and right-wing politics. Reagan’s political “philosophy” was built around aggressive anticommunism and an antagonism to big government and the welfare state. These commitments, ironically, made this enemy of state intervention the best friend in government that the American military-corporate power structure ever had…
Films of Interest:
E.T., Close Encounters, Ragtime, Silkwood and Missing
… Platoon, however, lacked a genuine political perspective. It neither dealt with the mixture of nationalism and Marxist-Leninism that underlay the North Vietnamese military effort nor explored the political culture and specific policies involved in American intervention. When Stone ventures to make a political point, as he does in the film’s final moments, it’s as vaporous as the physical world he conjures up is grittily alive…
The politics of the 1980s were dominated by Ronald Reagan’s serene, amiable personal style and right-wing politics. Reagan’s political “philosophy” was built around aggressive anticommunism and an antagonism to big government and the welfare state. These commitments, ironically, made this enemy of state intervention the best friend in government that the American military-corporate power structure ever had…
Films of Interest:
E.T., Close Encounters, Ragtime, Silkwood and Missing
… Platoon, however, lacked a genuine political perspective. It neither dealt with the mixture of nationalism and Marxist-Leninism that underlay the North Vietnamese military effort nor explored the political culture and specific policies involved in American intervention. When Stone ventures to make a political point, as he does in the film’s final moments, it’s as vaporous as the physical world he conjures up is grittily alive…