Development The seeds of what would become
Platoon began as early as 1968, months after
Oliver Stone had completed his own tour of duty fighting in the
Vietnam War. Stone first wrote a screenplay called
Break, a semi-autobiographical account detailing his experiences with his parents and his time in Vietnam. Stone's active duty service resulted in a "big change" in how he viewed life and the war. Although
Break was never produced, he later used it as the basis for
Platoon. But, based on the strength of his writing in
Platoon, Stone was hired to write the screenplay for
Midnight Express (1978). The film was a critical and commercial success, as were some other Stone films at the time, but most studios were still reluctant to finance
Platoon, because it was about the unpopular Vietnam War. After the release of
The Deer Hunter and
Apocalypse Now, the studios then cited the perception that these films were considered the pinnacle of the Vietnam War film genre as reasons not to make
Platoon. De Laurentiis secured financing for
Platoon, but he struggled to find a distributor. Because De Laurentiis had already spent money sending Stone to the Philippines to scout for locations, he decided to keep control of the film's script until he was repaid.
Denzel Washington expressed interest in playing the role of Elias, a character Stone said was based on a soldier he knew in Vietnam. Stone confirmed in a 2011 interview with
Entertainment Weekly that
Mickey Rourke,
Emilio Estevez and
Kevin Costner were all considered for the part of Barnes. He believes Costner turned down the role "because his brother had been in Vietnam." Stone also verified in the interview that
Keanu Reeves turned down the role of Taylor because of the violence. Sheen said that he got the part of Taylor, because of Dafoe's nod of approval.
Jon Cryer auditioned for the role of Bunny, which eventually went to Kevin Dillon. Many
Vietnamese refugees living in the Philippines at the time were recruited to act in different Vietnamese roles in the film. Stone makes a
cameo appearance as the commander of the
3d Battalion, 22d Infantry in the final battle, which was based on the historic
New Year's Day Battle of 1968 in which he had taken part while on duty in South Vietnam.
Dale Dye, who played Captain Harris, the commander of Company B, is a
U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran who also served as the film's technical advisor. The third US Army veteran who appears in the film is a member of the crew who was briefly seen shirtless in the climactic battle.
Filming Exterior shooting began on the island of
Luzon in the
Philippines in February 1986, although the production was almost canceled because of the
political upheaval in the country, due to then-president
Ferdinand Marcos. With the help of well-known Asian producer Mark Hill, the shoot commenced, as scheduled, two days after Marcos fled the country. Shooting lasted 54 days and cost $6.5 million. The production made a deal with the Philippine military for the use of military equipment. Filming was done chronologically. As a result of the Department of Defense refusing to supply historically-accurate equipment and uniforms, the film instead used equipment belonging to the
Armed Forces of the Philippines. Dye also had a small role as Captain Harris. Stone said that he was trying to break them down, "to mess with their heads so we could get that dog-tired, don't give a damn attitude, the anger, the irritation ... the casual approach to death". Scenes were shot in
Mount Makiling,
Laguna (for the forest scenes),
Cavite (for the river and village scenes), and
Villamor Air Base near
Manila. In 1986, a novelization of the film script, written by Dale Dye, was published. In 2018 actor Paul Sanchez, who played Doc in the movie, made a documentary about the making of the film, entitled
Platoon: Brothers in Arms. ==Soundtrack==