My analysis of the quote at the end of Platoon is they both
have different sides and are pulling Chris to think and do things their way. I think
that Elias would be considered an angel like figure. He is not an angle, but
Elias was a lot more humane than the other people in the platoon. He seemed to
care about the people more than the other high-ranking personnel. I also think
that Barnes is a devil like figure. He seemed to be trying to get Chris to
harden his heart and do anything to win the war. I think that because Barnes
seemed to have no sympathy when he killed Elias. Barnes seems to think that if
anyone wants to get out of this war they have to do it his way, and never to
question him. I think that the part about him being “born of those two fathers”
like the made him a new person and both of their influences are inside of him. He
is more compassionate like when he helps the guy in the foxhole or when he
saves the woman from getting raped. He is also harsher like when he screams at
the people to get at of the hole, making the one legged guy “dance” by shooting
at his foot, and killing Barns. He isn’t who he was before he entered the war,
and I think that he was changed partly because of both Elias and Barnes. I know
that going to war, especially one in a jungle like that, would change anyone,
and I sure that him being in the war changed him a lot to. Another thing to change
him was they were fighting themselves as much as they were fighting the enemy. They
would kill, mistreat, and fight with their fellow soldiers. I think they all
knew that neither side was going to win this war. How the U.S. could be
expected to win a war that was in an unfamiliar and hostile territory. The Vietnamese
people knew that jungle a lot better that any of our soldiers ever would, the Vietnamese
lived in this habitat so they had a big advantage. Along with this all of the disagreements
in the camps also lead to fighting and even killing of our soldiers by our own
people. This war that caused death and
unhealable pain to many soldiers and their families, and now the war are stuck with
them, to live on forever. I think that the “possession of my soul” part shows that
he will always be thinking about Barnes and Elias, and that they will always be
a part of him. Whenever Chris will have a tough question his heart will get
pulled in two directions: a direction of morality, the side of Elias, and the
side of harshness, Barnes. This movie was pretty good. A bit too much blood and
violence for me, but it was still bearable. The movie showed how harsh the Vietnam
war was, and how much it changed the people that were a part of it.
