Ol' Dirty Basement: True Crime and Vintage Movie Reviews

V.C.R. Presents: Platoon (1986)

Dave, Matt and Zap Season 2 Episode 62

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What happens when a Vietnam veteran sits down with his son and friends to discuss one of the most iconic war films of all time? Steelton George, a Vietnam veteran and father of our co-host Matt, joins us on the Vintage Cinema Review podcast to provide an authentic perspective on Oliver Stone's "Platoon." As we commemorate Veterans Day, George generously shares his firsthand experiences, including the cultural shock of arriving in Vietnam and the solidarity formed among soldiers. His vivid recollections bring an additional layer of depth to our conversation about the film's intense portrayal of the Vietnam War.

Together, we unpack the complexities of jungle warfare and the moral dilemmas faced by soldiers in battle, drawing parallels between the characters in "Platoon" and real-life military experiences. We explore the contrasting leadership styles depicted by Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger, adding nuance to the film's narrative. Our discussion ventures into the guerrilla tactics and psychological strains soldiers faced, all while weaving in light-hearted references to memorable moments and cultural touchstones.

In this episode, we also share fun facts and trivia about "Platoon," from its cultural significance and awards to its authentic production choices guided by Oliver Stone's own war experiences. Our unique movie rating system and a nostalgic look at other war films add to the engaging dialogue, highlighting the film's impact on viewers and veterans alike. We conclude with gratitude to Steelton George for his service and his candid insights, as we humorously ponder the prospect of his presidential run. Join us for a heartfelt and informative tribute to veterans through the lens of a cinematic masterpiece.

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Speaker 1:

Thanks for tuning in to the Vintage Cinema Review On this week's episode. We're covering from 1986, platoon.

Speaker 2:

Indeed in the dense jungles of Vietnam, young and naive, Chris Taylor embarks on a life-changing journey as he steps into the ravaging chaos of war.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, this movie's from 1986, and it's an archive movie that we talked about in the Smithsonian, so this is a period piece that I think will live on. Great movie, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Special guest on this too, man, very important Stilton George. That's Matt's dad. He's a Vietnam vet, so it was cool to have him sit in, so we hope you enjoy the podcast. Speaking of which, if you are, leave us that five-star rating on Spotify, on Apple a written review, and sit back, relax and enjoy. From 1986, platoon. Hey, this is dave, matt and zap, and welcome to the vintage cinema review where every week, we review some of our favorite films from the past.

Speaker 3:

Hey, there ain't no late fees here silence is golden and be kind, rewind Uh-oh. Something special on Veterans Day here.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yes, In fact. Oh, thank you very much. Happy Veterans Day to all of our veterans out there.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely yes. Thank you for your service.

Speaker 2:

In fact, there may or may not be an extra special veteran with us today.

Speaker 4:

Thank you for that. I appreciate that.

Speaker 3:

Who are you? Mystery Voice.

Speaker 4:

Mystery.

Speaker 2:

Voice is George George. That I appreciate that. Who are you Mystery Voice? Mystery Voice is George George. That's Matt's dad. Yeah, everybody, matt was kind enough and George was willing enough to. Matt was kind enough to have his dad join us today and George was happy to do so. George, welcome. You've become somewhat of an underground celebrity here. We talk about you with great fondness and great frequency, thank you.

Speaker 3:

Yes, you're also known as Stilton George, stilton George, stilton George, stilton George.

Speaker 1:

Is that a reel-to-reel over there? I see he rolls with it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3:

Actually, dad tell them the brief story about the reel-to-reel. Where did you get that?

Speaker 4:

I bought my first reel-to-reel when I was in Vietnam and it was a Kaya, very beautiful, and it was a Akia, very beautiful machine. I put it up in my hooch room and two big speakers were Pioneers, probably weighed around 70 pounds apiece, and we used to sit around in the hooch and we started playing music and sometimes it would be, I'd say, soul Nice, sometimes it would be mellow and we had one guy who liked country. We didn't want him there but he came in anyway and we appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Look at that Sounds like a scene in this movie that really does?

Speaker 4:

Yes, A lot of a lot of things like in this movie were were very true.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, life imitates, art imitates life.

Speaker 1:

And what movie is that fellas?

Speaker 2:

Platoon, platoon, pl, platoon, platoon. Indeed, today we're doing platoon, and you know what I'm gonna have, since we're talking about vietnam really quickly. So it's, you know, it's, uh, both serendipitous and you know, coincidental that we have uh, not just on veterans today, but we have a veteran of the vietnam war with us. So I will happily be the first to say george, welcome home thank you, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

It was great to come home yeah, george, we appreciate you coming down here Cause you, you were there. So going through this movie, I'm sure we can bounce a lot of stuff off you and get some info on this.

Speaker 4:

Sounds great. Like I said, I was on the in country, that's for sure, hell yeah.

Speaker 3:

That was um when do we know the year this movie was supposed supposed?

Speaker 1:

to be. What year was that released? No, no, not released. That took place. Yeah, that it took place 69.

Speaker 3:

Is that what it was? 69, okay, dad, you were in nom 68 69 68 and 69, three tet offensives, three yeah, good gracious nice.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, platoon 1986. The release date on this movie let's get into it was december 19th 1986. 1986. It was a running time of 120 minutes, a two-hour movie, and it was rated R. Directed by Oliver Stone, written by Oliver Stone and produced by Arnold Copelson. $6 million budget, box office $138.5.

Speaker 2:

God damn Wait a second $6 million. They spent six and they made how much $138.5.

Speaker 3:

God damn Wait a second Six million.

Speaker 2:

They spent six and they made how much? 138.5.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, wow.

Speaker 2:

That's a good return, bro. The juice was certainly worth the squeeze.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

But that seems cheap. Six million for all that was in this movie.

Speaker 1:

Well, maybe it's because of where they filmed it.

Speaker 4:

So this 1986 classic could very well be there was no budget yeah it so this 1986 classic there was no budget.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, could very well be was filmed in uh rice patties. They weren't paying american wages. Yep, picturesque locations throughout the philippines. You're talking about los banos, puerto azal and uh villamar airbase in manila. So I'm sure it wasn't very expensive to film there. But that's all the fun stuff I have on that.

Speaker 2:

I guess I'll turn it over to zap for the cast yeah, uh, before we go any further, I do want to correct myself. I had mentioned that the question was asked when does this movie take place? I had said 69. I was incorrect. It is september of. It starts in september of 67 okay, same you know we're two years off, but I definitely wanted to add that for clarity.

Speaker 3:

That was when. So when did you leave dad for NAMM 67 or 68?

Speaker 4:

I left in 68.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

And was there in 69 and left in 70. 70., december 3rd, okay.

Speaker 2:

Definitely days you don't forget. Very, very happy day, oh my God. Yeah, yeah, all right. The cast of Platoon includes, but is not limited to, keith David as King Forrest, whitaker as Big Harold, francesco Quinn as Ra, Kevin Dillon as Bunny, john C McGinley as O'Neal. Reggie Johnson as Junior, mark Moses as Lieutenant Wolf, corey Glover as Francis, johnny Depp as Lerner, chris Peterson as Crawford, bob Orwig as Gardner, corky Ford as Manny. David Neidorf as Tex, tom Barringer as Sergeant Barnes, willem Dafoe as Sergeant Elias and Charlie Sheen as Chris Taylor.

Speaker 3:

that's a star studded cast the cast on this was incredible. And looking at this movie for you know the podcast and watching like the people pop up, you're like, oh, I noticed that guy. And like we said earlier the guy oh, that's the Candyman guy you know, wow like, oh, look at, look there. Oh, I remember that King guy, he's from this and I'll give you one.

Speaker 2:

I saw when, um, at the end, when francis really pops in, obviously we'll talk to speak of francis when we get to him. But as soon as I saw cory glover I said oh man, I know that guy. I know the guy. Where do I know him from living color? That's the band. I was gonna to ask you if that's a singer of living color, color personality.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, man yeah so, george, is there anybody in this, in this cast of this movie, that you kind of related to that actually?

Speaker 4:

uh, now that you mentioned that, it's funny. They have these people in there. They're all movie stars and stuff, but when you're overseas you meet people that are actually like that yeah, I was gonna ask you now you'll have this guy or that guy or you'll have a keith davis here turn.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, there you go oh, you'll have a keith davis, you'll have barnes. Uh, you meet so many people and they all have that value of uh staying there and and trying to fight for america. But there's so many that fit this cast, that are real people. Sure that you meet overseas?

Speaker 3:

we mean like, uh, you were telling me today and uh, we did, we saw the colonel today also and you were showing them pictures of, um, yeah, like a guy, a guy from new york that was like had mob ties, and there was like guys from from texas, guys from, like you know, louisiana, florida yes, and a lot of these guys.

Speaker 4:

Uh, it was funny, you would never call them. We actually didn't really know all our real names. We had, uh, nicknames, nicknames like Must Rat. We had a guy named Must Rat. I was Duke. We had a guy we called him Spider Just different names and stuff like that. Just sort of like in this movie too, it is real. I mean, you get to know these guys but sometimes you don't even really know their real name until you're like nine months in country.

Speaker 3:

How did you get the name Duke? How was Duke given to you?

Speaker 4:

Well, Duke was given to me because the guys thought that, because the way that I was and I was from Pennsylvania, and they just thought you fit that point of being a Duke. I don't know why. Like Duke of Earl, or like Duke of Kensington.

Speaker 2:

We're talking about Duke the-.

Speaker 4:

Duke of. Steel man John Wayne.

Speaker 1:

John Wayne, oh the.

Speaker 3:

Duke, oh, okay, I gotcha.

Speaker 4:

So they just gave me that name, and then we had a guy from Missouri.

Speaker 1:

Musrat, I still don't know Zap's real name. I just know he meant Zap, and that's fine.

Speaker 2:

It's safer that way yeah. Like his tests, yeah, zap it's like no, it's not okay. Uh, well, that's that. Um matt, would you like to walk us through a brief?

Speaker 3:

synopsis yes, I do have a synopsis for the movie platoon. Yeah, chris taylor, charlie sheen, leaves his university studies to enlist in combat duty in Vietnam in 1967. Once he's on the ground in the middle of battle, his idealism fades. In fighting in his unit between Staff Sergeant Barnes Tom Barringer, who believes nearby villagers are harboring Viet Cong soldiers, and Sergeant Elias Willem Dafoe, who has more sympathetic views from his locals, he ends up pitting the soldiers against each other as well as against the enemy. That's a decent little synopsis.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is Not bad.

Speaker 3:

We got a little more in-depth, I think on the back of the true DVD.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3:

But yeah, that gives us something to look forward to with the rest of the movie. That was a good synopsis.

Speaker 1:

Can you tell me which one of those guys they're both. One said staff sergeant one, so which one was actually ranked higher or were they equal to my knowledge.

Speaker 2:

Barnes, barnes outranked elias just by a hair, just by a hair. So berenger outranked defoe by just a hair because he was as we'll get to. He was able to push him around and move him into the forest when he didn't want.

Speaker 3:

yeah, berenger was the staff sergeant.

Speaker 1:

elias was just a serge sergeant, okay, so I guess, yeah, the staff would be higher, and then the other guy who was in charge of them all, who didn't really seem to be that was Lieutenant Wolfe, played by Mark.

Speaker 2:

Moses, mark Moses he was pretty much the young kid.

Speaker 3:

Yes, but that's what.

Speaker 4:

I guess, like wasn't the, they come in out of college lieutenants.

Speaker 3:

They don't have much knowledge, so they're always supposed to what?

Speaker 4:

listen to your sergeants, yeah say, if you've been there for, like you know, uh, 10 months and this lieutenant comes in there and he's real green and you know, you kind of kind of try to help to straighten them out. I got you because you know well, we don't do this in the world.

Speaker 3:

You're not in the world now, but right no, yeah, they're like, this is, this is what my this is what my you know line up and my colonel tells me I should do when I'm in class, but like that's not how it works not how it works on there.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I got you learning on the job out there yeah on the job training all right.

Speaker 4:

Well, you're right, correct, sort of like giving him more on a job training right because he needs it yeah, yeah right, all right, zap.

Speaker 1:

So I guess we'll steer through the movie a little bit yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 2:

Uh, all right. Uh, this is actually a great movie to the extent that it's it's a story that tells itself. I think the timeline is great. There's no like flashbacks, flash forwards, any kind of bullshit like that. There's no side stories, it's just a straightforward movie.

Speaker 3:

Love it, love it, love it and uh, yeah, and the um, charlie, the narration too, like just happens at good parts of the movie that really draw you in, indeed, for sure and speaking of charlie sheen and his narration.

Speaker 2:

So with this we got, we start out our movie with chris taylor. He arrives in south vietnam with a group of other recruits, uh, you know, and just as he arrives, right the, the door, the, the gate of that plane opens up, the Bay opens up and he just sees, you know, all of these guys that have already been in theater walking around just dead face, just exhausted, and just oh my God, just totally beat up and we have, essentially, we're left with this guy that you know, showed up with with all of this intent and excitement and happiness to serve his country and do this, that the other thing, and he just hits.

Speaker 2:

He gets hit with the sobering realization of war. I mean, that's god, I mean that's, that's certainly, you know, a mind fucker, right there when you're. I mean, think about that. Right, you have all this idealism and all these thoughts and all these things you want to do, all this great stuff you're going there to make a big difference.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're going there to make hell. This guy, on his own volition, dropped out of college. He chose he wasn't drafted, he chose to go right. And there he is he landed. Holy shit, what did I get myself into?

Speaker 3:

but it was just um. I think the faces that you saw, these guys that he's looking at, you say guys, but these are still kids. So the kids like 20, he's a year older than what he is going in there. Yeah, and he looked like he was 25 years older. It looked like like he just Aged, that much, yes, aged so much just from like stress, worry, just being there away from home in this land. You know nothing about fighting for something that at the time I don't think they know much about.

Speaker 2:

So George, just to give us perspective. In what branch of the United States military were you?

Speaker 4:

Air.

Speaker 2:

Force, air Force, okay, okay, I'd love to know what you know. We see this in this movie. You know we talked we were at least talking earlier about the concept of life, imitating art, imitating life. What did it feel like for you when you first landed at, at, you know, in vietnam, like, and where were you?

Speaker 4:

I'm glad you mentioned that. Uh, when we went over, it's a big place we got in they call it vietnam airspace. It's when you hit that, 20 hours or something until we got there and we're flying over and we just see this red clay, us guys, and we're like, well, it's not a beach. So you know, we're all excited about what's going to go on, but what you had just mentioned about, when you land and you step out of that plane and see chickens and goats and all kinds of stuff running around, yeah, you know, and this, this looks like somebody put Bob Ware up all around it it's like not even you can't even realize that. Why am I here now? I mean, I can understand the thought of what happens to you at 19 years old and you're looking around saying, oh, I don't know about this one.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so you see you guys are coming from, like you know, hanging at the hop with your best gal Town boys. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Where'd you fly out of?

Speaker 1:

Then all of a sudden you're landing.

Speaker 3:

There's chickens and barbed wire. Yeah, I mean, that's some third world All kinds of stuff passing.

Speaker 2:

It's some third world shit for sure.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, I didn't hear. Where did you fly out of Harrisburg? So it was 20 hours from Harrisburg international.

Speaker 3:

We stopped in uh china okay, and uh got off.

Speaker 4:

And then they refueled china. Yeah, china gave us a little break. Nice, and that's the first time I've ever seen a big, huge polar bear.

Speaker 3:

It was in the airport a polar bear walking around I don't know where they got him, but they got like a live one, or like a statue, or a statue okay, it's like lost stuffed a stuff like lost as a young guy you're going okay, this, this is great.

Speaker 4:

Here and now, we're having a lot of fun, not so much fun.

Speaker 2:

So, George, when you flew out of what is now HIA, was it HIA at the time? Had it already converted to Harrisburg International Airport, or at the time was it still Olmsted Air Force Base?

Speaker 4:

I think it was Olmsted.

Speaker 3:

I think Olmsted space. I think it was homestead. I think olmstead om homestead.

Speaker 4:

However, they called it, but it was had pipes. It was nothing compared with that airport is today oh, for sure, for sure old pipes going through that you could see. You know it's one of the old time airports yeah, fun fact harrisburg international airport.

Speaker 2:

So one thinks of harrisburg, right, like who gives a shit about harrisburg, pennsylvania? Like it's not a big city, it's nothing like that. How do they have an international airport answer the length of the runway yes for the air force one right until you hit the water there is a determining factor relative to the length of the one of the runway that will decide whether you can carry the nomenclature international that is to say in other words, the length of that runway can support the biggest goddamn planes out there from all over the world, the biggest planes, I mean.

Speaker 2:

If I'm not mistaken which is rare I think it's happened once, maybe twice hia might have one of, if not the longest runway on the east coast I think it is one of them.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, a lot of c5s came in. Yeah, man. Well, yeah, when I used back in the day when I was at FedEx, when we worked on the ramp there, that's what a lot of they said this is because of the length of the runway you would have that. I forget what it's called. I think it's a Russian the Antonov Sne. The Russians.

Speaker 4:

They landed one of those Antonovs there and they said, there's only like three or four places in the world that they can land that thing.

Speaker 2:

That's good.

Speaker 3:

They shouldn't have any Hell, yeah, them Russians.

Speaker 2:

I'm on Team.

Speaker 3:

George for that one Team. George, george with a burner.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so, george, this movie, like how they portray that, then it's pretty much reality from what you saw.

Speaker 2:

They did a good job of showing these soldiers landing. Yeah, first showing up.

Speaker 4:

You see, like the guys that have been there for a while, they're just you can see how they treat you when you really come in, beat and run down, just try to get you to become one of them, sure, so that you can sort of, like you know, help them in any way and they can help you. They don't want you just to be a dummy walking around not knowing what's going on. I think that's why they were so hard on us yeah tough love kind of yeah, kind of like a tough love, but with a hammer yeah, oh

Speaker 2:

speaking of love, how about we move a little further into the movie and we'll get to know the guys, right? Okay so one by one. Uh, taylor meets these battle-hardened men in his platoon, which is commanded by lieutenant wolf, but it's actually led and Lieutenant Wolf is that green officer right out of school, but it's really led by two sergeants who really incorporate two different schools of leadership. You got Sergeant Elias compassionate yet decisive. He believes in preserving humanity despite the circumstances, advocates for respect towards Vietnamese people.

Speaker 3:

I mean, he's a very principled guy, and he was played by Willem Dafoe.

Speaker 2:

Willem Dafoe Right.

Speaker 3:

For people listening out there.

Speaker 2:

Conversely, you have the polar opposite. You have Sergeant Barnes, who is scarred both physically and emotionally. He delivers ruthless efficiency. He's driven by deep-seated belief that only toughness and ruthlessness ensure survival. And what's interesting about this, I found the most, is that the soldiers within the platoon they inevitably fit the mold of either of those corresponding sergeants, except O'Neill. That guy's just a piece of shit. He's going to chameleon into whomever you put him with.

Speaker 3:

O'Neill was Dr.

Speaker 2:

Cox.

Speaker 3:

But you know his John C McGill. You put him with O'Neal was Dr Cox, but you know his John C McGill, john C.

Speaker 2:

McGill. He was one of the bobs from the Office.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's right from the Office. Was he Dr Cox too from Scrubs, correct, yes.

Speaker 3:

Correct, and Tom Barringer was the one that played Sergeant Barnes.

Speaker 4:

Correct this time, if you say you didn't see that great good movie.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I've seen shooter, but not sniper. Shooter is the one with, uh, mark walbert. Mark walbert, yes, he's not in this one. Yeah, so george do barringer, tom barringer, tom tom, yeah, drew barrymore, yep, was in.

Speaker 2:

Hey, it's fine, man, it's fine. So, george, when you were in, yes I mean, we about again. We were talking about this earlier, but just to rehash it and bring it out there. So you show up, you got these, these, these bunch of guys, and now you see that really, the this platoon separated into two camps, for lack of a better word. You have team Sergeant Elias and then you have team Sergeant Barnes.

Speaker 4:

So different people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you got a bunch of you know, you just got a bunch of hard ass, let's say assholes in Sergeant Barnes's. But then you got the pot smokers, free wheelers, you know, party guys that are with Sergeant Elias. So is that what it was? Is that maybe a for example of what you might have experienced over and on?

Speaker 4:

It was somewhat like that, though I mean it wasn't, as I think, as deep, but then it seemed, the longer you stayed there, the deeper it got you had your group.

Speaker 2:

Sure, Thank you. Actually, you finished my thought there. I'm sorry I didn't make it clear like that. So ultimately, yeah, you're going to find your click right. You're absolutely going to find those guys with whom you bond best.

Speaker 4:

Correct, because you think in your mind that these guys here are going to save you if you need it. Sure, and they know that I'm going to be there if they need me damn right kind of a bond that you make and and the other guys might go the other way. You might have one guy that he's very religious and likes to pray all day long and don't want to fight anybody.

Speaker 3:

You know, you have them all, sure so was it like so it was exaggerated, but you guys still had those groups like in this movie they showed, like you know, the stoner crowd, like always listening to you know, like chasing rabbits and shit, yeah, partying, getting high out of like barrels of shotguns and stuff. And then you had the other guys are just like, yeah, let's go kill stuff today. And so like the movie might have exaggerated it, but it was still kind of like you still had the group of like a couple stoner dudes you had some hippie type dudes had surfers, we had them all, but you also had the gie-type dudes.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, we had hippies. You had stoners, you had surfers, we had them all.

Speaker 2:

But you also had the gung-ho. Oh yeah, all Army, I'm sorry, all Air Force All day. That's all I do. It's go, go, go. I'm here to kill, that's what I'm here to do. Yep.

Speaker 4:

Sure, aggravate them because you're overseas.

Speaker 3:

You got enough problems on your own but this was more, um, I think, when you were telling me stories like these guys are more, I think, like the army this is 100, yeah, where you were in the air force, you guys were like supply, but yet you still had a base, the base. You told me stories about a couple bases being being bombed and stuff like that they would attack because that was a supply chain. So you guys like had to be ready, you, but you weren't like out in field.

Speaker 4:

Well, we went in the field with a.

Speaker 3:

Well, when you delivered.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, george, you wanna nail it. Man, you got to come around more often. Man, we're calling you, we're calling you butter.

Speaker 4:

That's your new nickname.

Speaker 2:

Sorry, all right. So these guys are moving, that it's now everybody's together, everybody's moving around. We now get to see the Truly an essence of Vietnam that is is widely known is basically that these guys are all from america. They've now made their way to this jungle and look, don't go churching it up on me and call it a goddamn rainforest. It's a jungle you better. So in this jungle you got ants, bugs, rain all the time, snakes. You got to worry about that. You got to worry about the north vietnam army. Then you also got to worry about the vietcong, which Then you also got to worry about the Viet Cong, which are two separate, distinct groups, that's true. I mean you got to worry about guerrilla warfare tunnels, caves, underground bunkers. I mean this is shit that Americans had no idea existed. I should say they sure it existed but had never fought in this kind of terrain.

Speaker 3:

Something you hear about or learn about or like.

Speaker 1:

Let's prepare you for it yeah, so in preparation for that, did you remember like having to get certain shots and different things that you had to go like for different diseases and stuff?

Speaker 4:

that tell me about the shots that you wouldn't tell us about it, tell us it's like before we went overseas, we went like pin cushions oh, they were just hitting you with everything, yeah. Every shot you can imagine Black plague, this, all kinds of different things I didn't even know.

Speaker 2:

No, I'm not talking about the shots at the VFW, george. I'm talking about yeah right, we're talking about the oh I thought you were at the VFW.

Speaker 4:

Oh, yeah, yeah. Never mind, then protect you too, I think I guess yeah, I guess from a bad case of strap shots to protect you, but not for much, yeah, but uh, yeah, they. I mean you were like a pin cushion and and by the time you were done, I have I still have my shot card and I look at two or three pages of it and but uh, they pretty much. Uh, they put much a lot of stuff in your system sure what if, covid, they had covid shots back then?

Speaker 2:

no, no covid they didn't because the Chinese hadn't invented COVID yet.

Speaker 3:

I don't know, they're sneaky too.

Speaker 4:

They should have had a scared shot, but they shouldn't.

Speaker 2:

So what was it? Like you know? So we're talking about the jungle and I'm talking now the wildlife. So there's a scene in this part where Charlie, just Charlie I'm sorry Taylor, his character taylor, just he's sitting leaning up against a tree and he's starting to lose it, like he's starting to get delirious, and he, you see that he's just got ants and all kind of weird ass bugs that are biting him like crazy. So we had mentioned, like again, the ants, the bugs, the rain, the snakes oh yeah, how does that work?

Speaker 4:

that's terrible. It was just weather that it was. The rain came down heavy a lot of times, but especially when you're out there in mud and the jungle. Like you said, you got everything just flying around and going everywhere.

Speaker 3:

Like the mosquitoes, I bet were pretty awful.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so basically we would not leave too much outside of the jungle because you don't want to go out there, sure, was there such a thing as bug repellent? I don't know if I would have done anything there. Well, they had some big bugs.

Speaker 3:

Oh for sure, for sure I think that was agent orange they tried to use.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a fine bug and people repellent these bugs probably carry repellent yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. I look, I see this and I I just couldn't imagine, like I, uh, you again, now we talk about the, the, your enemies, right, that the troops against whom you're actually fighting, that you're lucky to see them before they, you know, you see the whites of their eyes, like these guys are creeping around a jungle, tree hats and stuff, tree hats, creeping around in in tunnels and bunkers.

Speaker 4:

Tunnel guys yeah.

Speaker 2:

I, I just can't believe it, I it, I, I couldn't imagine, I couldn't wrap my head around the idea of just walking by something and all of a sudden, somebody pops out of the ground like there's a trap door and just knifes you or shoots you from behind.

Speaker 4:

it's crazy and it also had the punji sticks. They were the worst, where they put these sticks, wood sticks down. Yeah, put them in the ground, maybe 30 of them. They cover it all up and you're walking through. Next thing. You know, you go through it, through it and when you land down there you're going to be pretty well, yeah.

Speaker 3:

So you have to realize too, this is like um, like where we live, in our neighborhood, Like these people say people just came out of nowhere, started walking through your neighborhood. They don't know, you know where the you know, or trying.

Speaker 2:

I don't think they fight with pungy sticks. Is that a pizza place?

Speaker 3:

But yeah, I'm just saying, is that a pizza place Nepali's? It's the one in Stilton yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, stilton, nepali's. Yeah, yeah, I got a banging cheese steak I'm eating at Nepali's.

Speaker 3:

We're just saying, yeah, you're going through this neighborhood.

Speaker 2:

Curry pizza please. Hold the pond, hold the pond.

Speaker 3:

But no, hold the pond over there. Hold the pond, but no, you're, you're, you're walking through these places in the jungle and these people live there, and so they know exactly where these troops are going. They know the trails they're following, yeah, so it's like you know what you're coming into our neighborhood shit. Yeah, I'm putting this stuff here, I don't want you here, and and it just kept happening and they're just like, oh, I gotta go this way again.

Speaker 2:

I'm a little scared we're gonna find a way to either kill you or get you to hell they had one or the other.

Speaker 3:

They wanted booty traps, booty traps, everywhere booty traps 50 dollar bill. And uh, yeah, had it been. Yeah, you're just not walking there. Like it would suck to just walk through that jungle.

Speaker 2:

I can't even imagine, you don't even know.

Speaker 4:

You don't even know that's probably the sad part yeah you know, sometimes you, if you see something coming at you, you can either try to dodge it or do this or do that, but when you can't see it coming at you and you're just once it happens, you're done, I mean it's like when, when john rambo made those booty traps again.

Speaker 2:

This is this is guerrilla warfare. Yeah, this is little batches of little groups and clusters of dudes that are going out there in the sneakiest, slimiest way to just get you. This isn't you know. Rows and rows and hundreds of thousands of troops just marching. It's nothing like that at all.

Speaker 4:

And Rambo he could go home for dinner.

Speaker 2:

Hell, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

If he wanted, yeah, if he wanted. But they took him. Oh, I don't even talk about that, dang.

Speaker 2:

Another story for another day, another story for another day. Very good. So, after their day in the jungle, we get to their first encounter. All right, so this is basically. Now.

Speaker 2:

They're on night watch. Their mission is a night ambush on a segment of the NBA. As his watch ends, taylor passes his duty on to Junior, the one guy, and he ends up falling asleep. Junior does, yeah, I know, in the rain. And while they're asleep, and they know, in the rain, and while they're sleeping there in the rain, you got an nva patrol gets the drop on the platoon, poor gardner is killed and taylor charlie sheen is wounded. Now, that night, uh, taylor finds, uh, finds a home. He finds a good, you know, solid place to be with sergeant elias and and those uh that are prone to him. Again, this is the more hippie, free-spirited group under that sergeant, uh, while we see, you know, while he's hanging out with elias, we now see the contrast and what's going on at night with the sergeant barnes, gung-ho circle, uh, and then, of course, next morning, shockingly, taylor's put on latrine duty yeah, cleaning out for I mean.

Speaker 2:

So he gets wounded and he gets put on latrine duty. That reminds me like I break my rib in football and and I got to run 90-some laps around the goddamn field.

Speaker 3:

But what he—.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that sucked.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, man, it's true.

Speaker 2:

So, george, curious, did you ever have to sit up for night duty?

Speaker 4:

night watch. One night we had to go out and help the Army guys. They were coming at the camera on base. They let us go out and help them, you know, and stuff like that. So, yeah, yeah, Everyone helped everybody because it was your life, Sure.

Speaker 1:

You know sure.

Speaker 4:

And everyone was the same as you're with these guys. We're all the same men. That day, None of us were different from anybody. Yeah, and you said okay, you. You said okay, you know, we're going out with you and that's what we used to do.

Speaker 3:

So you used to have used to have a watch also on your base, right yeah, Because you guys were, you were stationed at Cameron Bay. Well, cameron was my base, which is the Air Force, yes, the Air Force base there. Srf and you guys were up against the. What was that? The ocean there Was that like the.

Speaker 2:

I had to guess.

Speaker 3:

No, but I'm saying I don't know, was it like?

Speaker 4:

a Bay.

Speaker 3:

Area Like what was it.

Speaker 4:

Well, yeah, we were against the ocean, Okay, but they could still well, they still sent bombs in at night and stuff. You know that's just how they worked.

Speaker 2:

In Soviet Russia. Ocean against you, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so in this too, they show them, like you know, landing some beer and drinking and smoking pot and doing all that stuff, so you're able to land that stuff over there. When you were there they had beer, they'd come across. Let's call it contraband, contraband.

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah, you should have brought your pictures, dad, you could have showed them guys. But he has like where those guys with the sandbags, like those hoochies, they used to stay in and they had pictures of girls on the wall. My dad has pictures like that.

Speaker 4:

Yeah well.

Speaker 1:

So what was the beer of choice over there then? Do you remember Pabst Blue Ribbon? Yeah, oh, okay.

Speaker 2:

Now, by beer of choice I mean whatever you would get, whatever you get, then most of the Pabst Okay. A lot of. Pabst Now that's the second or third time I've heard that term. What is a hooch? I know that I that I call like I I will call booze hooch, like give me some of that hooch or pass that hooch, I think they called it like what they're your bunker they're like bunkers.

Speaker 4:

Okay, they're like you saw in the movie. They're probably half the size here with your guys in it okay and with sandbags around it okay we call them pooches.

Speaker 3:

Okay, do you have like your beds in here, like?

Speaker 2:

yeah, that's not to be confused with a hoochie mama no, ain't nothing but a hoochie.

Speaker 4:

I wish it would have been, but no, no, but yeah, right, but uh, yeah, that's your hooch so there was a.

Speaker 2:

There was a poignant scene in this segment we just talked about, and it's where taylor passes the the watch off to to junior and you know, he's done. This is charlie sheen's character. He's like hey, man, look, I'm done, I did my watch, it's your turn, you're up, you're up. And junior basically says in so many words, you know, forget you. And he just falls asleep. Now I had read at some point or had heard at some point, and maybe it has to do with uh, oh, it's the america song, something about the sandman, mr sandman. No, is it, mr sandman? Yes, not bring me a dream, okay enter light exit sandman.

Speaker 2:

There's a song by american it's.

Speaker 3:

It's about the sandman and oh, odds would never give nothing to the tin man. That's tin man, oh anyway in this song.

Speaker 2:

that song was written specifically about the guys in vietnam, these guys that are, you know, on the front lines trying to you, you know, get a better hold. They would not sleep and they would take drugs to stay up at night because these sneaky, you know, Vietnams and Vietcongs were out there. They would knife them in their sleep, They'd kill them in their sleep. These guys were afraid to go to sleep. So again that America song is about these guys again taking drugs, avoiding the Sandman, trying to avoid falling asleep. So did you encounter that at all over there?

Speaker 4:

The thing with us. Well, we worked a lot of night shifts and stuff on the aircraft and stuff like that. The Commodores you were always vigilant what was going on around you. Yeah, you always looked around. Head on a swivel yeah, you're sort of like on a swivel chair.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Sounds like Matt's job.

Speaker 3:

You wouldn't even have to move your head.

Speaker 4:

No, Just spin around. But yeah, you had a lot of guys that didn't want to get much sleep. You know you get it.

Speaker 3:

I guess you get into that rhythm when you're there that it's not like going home You're not going to sleep comfortably, like where you know like you could be attacked or yeah, stressed, where you know like you could be attacked, or yeah they're stressed the whole time.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, well, speaking of being your, brain, your brain controls that part of you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure look, there's good, there's something to be said if you don't get. Look, there's something to be said for sleep. If you don't get the right sleep, you're gonna go fucking bananas. Your brain is gonna go nuts. Yeah, you gotta have it, gotta have it. Speaking of going nuts in their next encounter, this is the next morning. You know they're.

Speaker 2:

They're back in the jungle, making their way through the jungle, uh, they come upon a tunnel shocking. Uh, sergeant elias, this is willem defoe he investigates, he, he actually just dives in. He's like, hey, I'll see you on the other side dives in, crawls through the tunnel, finds the finds this one vietcong or nva at the end in a bunker, kills him. And then they come upon after that. They're still going through the jungle. They come upon basically what looks like an abandoned enemy camp, just recently freshly abandoned. And as they're going through this camp, two members of the platoon are actually killed by a booby-trapped ammo canister that was filled with documents, right, so they're fighting. Oh, look what we found. This is a great, great find. We got to take this back to HQ. And as soon as they pick it up, boom, something goes off. Was that commonplace? Booby traps?

Speaker 4:

All that stuff, oh yeah, even, uh, wherever, like Saigon or any place like that. They always had booby traps for people you know, especially GIs you know, say, maybe in a barbershop or getting your shoes shined and the shoe shine boy would blow you up, oh wow.

Speaker 2:

It was just that.

Speaker 4:

I don't think it had any value on life? I don't know.

Speaker 1:

To me it seemed that way. Yeah, but they use the uh just get rid of us. Yeah, yeah, you see, in some of those movies with the prostitutes and all that, the girls you know love you long time and all that. Would they use that as a draw to get GIs in there and then off them and stuff?

Speaker 4:

like that? Some GIs probably yeah, but yeah, it was not like that. They never had booby traps, of course they did. They did everything they could possibly do to ruin GIs.

Speaker 3:

And Saigon was like a place you guys would go for like R&R. It was like a city.

Speaker 4:

Well, it was like an R&R, but basically I went there for schooling but it was like an an R and R place, but not really it was. They didn't bomb it as much because our embassy was there.

Speaker 1:

So it was more of a safe space but not so much, I mean stuff could go down there too, I got you.

Speaker 3:

Well, you said, kids like running into restaurants with bombs.

Speaker 4:

Oh, yeah, anything like that.

Speaker 2:

It's like that, it's crazy. I I think of like kamikazes, obviously different nationality, japanese yeah, but yeah it's.

Speaker 4:

I don't see the difference really. But people don't realize that back here in the states. I mean, you don't like? You were just mentioning a while ago which I thought was a great statement that, uh, they didn't have any idea because they wrote in the papers, or whatever we're doing real well, the americans are winning a war. It was not that way not even close.

Speaker 2:

No, it was propaganda, it was just a good story sure that's right.

Speaker 3:

That's right. Wait what we didn't win that war I don't know what they said yeah, uh, no, no, no, uh, let's see.

Speaker 2:

Oh so, all right, so they're moving along after they get the after, sadly, they lose two soldiers at that. Uh, booby-trapped ammo canister. The next encounter, this one was this was stirring to, to say the least this is now this is at the village.

Speaker 2:

So these guys are. This platoon walks in and this is this simple third world village. You got chickens running around, like you would said, george. You got chickens, pigs, whatever the hell. Uh, but they walk in there, I guess on the suggestion or somebody had told them that this village might have been helping the enemy.

Speaker 2:

They're supporting the enemy hiding guns hiding guns and, as chance would have it, they find a weapons cache. They find a shit ton of rice, which I guess you know. They're feeding them, they're feeding them, but I mean they found enough rice to last. You know the country for years. Um, I've remembered seeing the, the retarded, varded Vietnamese dude that he's just what. He had one leg and he's just hopping around hopping around. So when it gets really real, when Sergeant Barnes Corbin, not Corbin, jesus Corbin.

Speaker 3:

Burns Tom.

Speaker 2:

Berendrup, sorry, I was thinking.

Speaker 3:

I see it too.

Speaker 2:

Barnes shoots the village elder's wife and then he holds his daughter hostage in hopes of getting answers. Fortunately, of course, Willem Dafoe's character, Elias, comes in, saves the day, attacks Barnes, Lieutenant Wolf, that guy, fresh out of college Lieutenant, he just plays dumb. Oh, I don't know. I didn't see what happened. It's beyond my control. But as long as it's all cleaned up, everything's fine. And then, of course, at the end you've got near the end of this scene you've got a couple of these guys gang raping a couple of the locals and when they're done with that, after Elias breaks that up, they burn the village down, but burn it to the ground, raise it down to the ground yeah I mean wow I think there was.

Speaker 3:

There was a movie out not too long ago about like a lot of these casualties of war type things where there was like, uh, rape or like illegal killings, like things that they were doing, like somebody was finding out about it and years later going like showing up at these people's houses. Like you know, you're charged with a war crime from you know 1969 sure people come in and turn them in.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, people turning them in later in life and they're like you know and and, but yeah, there was a lot of this stuff going on, I think well, in a war you don't have many morals sure yeah and, like you said a while back when we started, when you get there and you start to learn the program, it's hard for you to turn back on that program.

Speaker 4:

Sure. Unless you're really a good person in your heart, but you're really rough on the outside.

Speaker 3:

So it's like a Lord of the Flies mentality, where you do what you need to do to survive there. Something you would do, there would be nothing you would even think about doing back in the States.

Speaker 2:

That is correct and it does beg the question be nothing you would even think about doing back in the states. That is correct and it does beg the question. So this is that, this, is that that, that turning point, or that decision point, I should say where well these are, these people aren't fighting right, they're not soldiers, they're just the villagers, you know, they're just civilians.

Speaker 4:

But they got in between they're helping the goddamned enemy.

Speaker 2:

So what do we do here? What's the right thing and the right thing? You got to burn that place down.

Speaker 3:

I don't know if you go Can't be giving them food and weapons.

Speaker 2:

I don't know about raping the women. I don't know if that was necessary, but for sure you got to burn that place down and kill the chickens and the pigs.

Speaker 4:

I would have took some chickens. Yeah, because way would say, you know, wow, this is, this isn't right. I mean, you're the enemy's trying to kill us and you're feeding them food and you got more weapons here.

Speaker 3:

But there there was no North Vietnam, south Vietnam, you were just. I think the Americans were in Vietnam.

Speaker 4:

Well, Cambodia, Cambodia.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, Cambodia, but nobody wanted people there.

Speaker 2:

It was a holiday there, yeah that's all, yeah, tet Offensives. Holiday in Cambodia.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Dead Kennedys.

Speaker 3:

Dead. Kennedys song yeah, but no, I think that they didn't want people there, so they were helping each other, no matter what it's like. Whatever we can do to get these people out 100%. The Americans out yeah, we don't want you here, so they were civilians and but they weren't really it's.

Speaker 4:

It's their home yeah, these, these vietnamese. Uh, they were tough on them too sure oh my gosh, if they didn't do what they wanted, they'd kill their, their family that's communism or children.

Speaker 3:

I mean, that's, that's the way it had to work that's communism yeah, movie wise, I think, with charlie sheen, with his dad, you know, being such a big actor and uh with um willem dafoe, I think, like I got all kinds of like you know he was critically acclaimed for this accolade so martin was in?

Speaker 1:

what apocalypse now? And all that right yeah, martin sheen yeah, that was his dad.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, martin yeah, he was in that with uh, with the godfather brando yeah which has a crazy movie. I don't know if you guys ever seen that I have.

Speaker 4:

That was a little out there, but yeah, that was very.

Speaker 3:

They were on like an acid trip when they made that. Yeah, that was uh nothing like the smell. That was who was that actor too? He was awesome marlon brando no, no, no, no. The guy that says I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's cool, he's from god. He was in the godfather robert, uh, james con no no, it's, it's not it's another.

Speaker 3:

It's another bobby. Uh, it's bobby d bobby duvall.

Speaker 1:

Bobby duvall, thank you yeah, robert duvall was.

Speaker 3:

He was pretty kick-ass in that movie there it is.

Speaker 4:

Those guys were great and the surfer guy that was uh, remember, he had him surfing, yeah. So it's funny when I have a picture of me and another guy and another guy sitting on my bunk, and here I had Maz over here, jazz, who was from New York, and I had a surfer in the middle of me. He was a surfer from California and it was me on the end. Oh wow.

Speaker 2:

Kind of freaks you out.

Speaker 4:

When I look at that picture, I look at him. He was a surfer from California.

Speaker 3:

You got your whole melting pot over there. Yeah, that's how it was. You guys got sent from everywhere. You did you absolutely did.

Speaker 4:

Cool guys though.

Speaker 2:

For sure. Well, apparently, or not even apparently clearly, I should say Barnes is not cool. Sergeant Barnes is not cool for shooting that wife and threatening to kill that kid. So with all that done and the gang rape all done, so now we have to talk about the aftermath and that next mission. So, captain Harris this is above and beyond lieutenant that doesn't know his asshole from his ear hole. Captain Harris catches wind that something bad went down at that village and threatens a court martial if anything illegal did happen. Barnes, you know, tom Berenger is obviously afraid that Elias Willemem Dafoe is going to rat him out. So with that worry on them, they still got a job to do.

Speaker 2:

They go back to the jungle and lo and behold, of course the platoon is ambushed and pinned down. Lieutenant Wolf, again, this is the kid out of college. He gives bad coordinates for an artillery strike and ends up directing it onto the platoon, onto the platoon. Elias breaks off with Taylor I'm sorry, elias breaks off with Taylor, ron Crawford, to go after a group of enemy troops. Barnes directs the rest of the platoon to the retreat and then goes back alone to find to look for Elias in his group. Well, while he's out there looking for these guys. As it would happen, barnes comes upon elias alone and shoots him, kill, thinks he kills him. On his way out, barnes runs into taylor charlie sheen and tells him he found elias dead in the jungle. Now I'm curious as to why taylor didn't go and look for him, because I mean, I think of any of the scenes in this movie, let alone real life. The best they can try to do is get the body out.

Speaker 3:

Taylor calls bullshit kind of right away. He was, he was concerned at the time. He's like well, it's like he's only 100 meters away.

Speaker 2:

Why don't you just go?

Speaker 3:

yeah, yeah and and plus, like I just seen him, like I just seen him here, like I don't understand what you're talking about well, it gets the.

Speaker 2:

The shit hits the fan where everything is revealed. When the helicopters arrive to extract the platoon and just as they're flying away, they see Elias down there emerging from the jungle, being chased by the NBA, and they eventually kill him. Um and look, you got to believe that that Barnes. Sergeant Barnes is fucked. He's gotta be like he's he's, he knows it's, it's over, or or is he, yeah, and that's that iconic scene with his arms on the front cover.

Speaker 2:

I mean, Tom Barringer's got to know that his goose is cooked at this point, because he just lied to Taylor and he's like oh no, no, no man, Elias back there, he's dead. He's dead, Don't go looking for him.

Speaker 3:

Once we said he's like we're being overrun. But I think when he just was running back they could have been, oh, like maybe maybe he got away or maybe he wasn't, I don't know, I don't. I don't think that. I think barringer was surprised, but I think he was. Like you know, I've got away with so much oh, for sure, he was already like he's.

Speaker 1:

Like he could have said I thought he was dead yeah, I thought he was dead.

Speaker 4:

Like I saw him back there, he wasn't moving, like I don't know what happened that's true, that is true, but is it true that that actually I mean in the movie? They put it in the movie, of course did that actually really happen? Could that I couldn't say that that ever did. But you know not that part of it.

Speaker 3:

Right, right right but I mean, there probably has been people killed with friendly fire and stuff like that, where they're like oh shit, like I don't know where I was shooting at the time, but he he was. It was a direct action to kill another, another soldier.

Speaker 2:

Certainly, certainly there was infighting amongst any kind of platoon or squad or anything like that. But I can't, I just can't believe that an American soldier is going to willfully kill, on purpose, another American soldier. I just can't believe it.

Speaker 4:

No, you wouldn't believe that. You look at circumstances and some things and it's fair.

Speaker 2:

It's like anything in the world you have a circumstance where you might not want to do it, but you have to do it.

Speaker 4:

You get all riled up.

Speaker 3:

Sure, yeah, you kind of lose your mind. Yeah, another thing, like saying a lot of movies, um, these coordinates on the, are these grids where they start giving them these coordinates, like you know, eight, seven, four, three, and they're to drop bombs, or I mean this stuff you see it in like these world war ii movies. They're always dropping it on like the wrong, yeah, like I don't know. Like it's kind of hard, I think, to know where you're at, like on a map they had a whole technology was a whole lot.

Speaker 3:

Yes, it was a whole lot different, and it yeah, even in these world war ii movies and the vietnam movies, and not for nothing, but not that they give the coordinates and they always get it wrong.

Speaker 2:

And not for nothing, look hey, hats off to the Air Force for being as well-equipped and as skilled as they were and still are to this day. But I mean God, to be able to drop bombs and navigate and put it where you are told to put it, that's not bad.

Speaker 4:

I know I can't do that shit. That's a plus for us.

Speaker 3:

Like you're saying, the technology, then like trying to put a map of your terrain on a grid and call it in had to been.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's stressful. They didn't have Starlink back then, they did not.

Speaker 2:

So I guess under.

Speaker 3:

Obama, elon Musk would have got it right on point.

Speaker 2:

Under Obama, everybody got a phone, so everybody's going to get Starlink now. Is that how it goes? I think so. I think so isn't.

Speaker 3:

Isn't trump building like another star wars? Did you guys see like another? He's doing that whole bubble over oh I've heard it over the us. It's going to be built in new york. It's going to be a big bubble by the bubble.

Speaker 2:

What you're talking about is what they do in israel iron shield.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so the iron shield is basically just like missile defense I thought he was a a wrestler.

Speaker 2:

Nobody's putting up a bubble.

Speaker 3:

No, no, not a bubble, it's going to be like Star Wars.

Speaker 4:

I don't think the bubble would last in a nuclear.

Speaker 3:

No, it's going to be like Reagan's Star Wars there's going to be all these satellites and it comes and goes.

Speaker 2:

It's okay, matt's still watching the news. Everybody no. I don't watch it, it're still counting Yep, texas is still counting.

Speaker 2:

You keep counting your prayers Well, meanwhile, meanwhile, back at the base. Back at the base. So Taylor now attempts to. This is Charlie Sheen. He's now rallying support amongst everybody, or the friends that he has left, that were all part of, you know, elias' hippie group. He's like look man, you know that. That. That damn barnes, like I know it was him, we, he he killed elias. You know, we, he needs to be fragged, we need to frag him. Uh, but barnes overhears it. So tom baron drew, overhears it and, uh, he gets into a bit of a scuffle with taylor and almost kills him too. Yeah, with a what's that called A push knife, push dagger. It's just a knife here, but it's a really small like two-fingered, I forget what they called them.

Speaker 2:

Some kind of small.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it's like a Put a hurt on you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's like something you would put in your fist and hold it. The handle's in there versus vertical.

Speaker 1:

It's horizontal.

Speaker 2:

Some find it the big M They'd have them down there, 100% and Chinese stars throwing stars.

Speaker 4:

Nunchucks Starting a war at the Big M?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, they would sell that stuff down there.

Speaker 3:

You know, remember you go like you could buy. I would buy like like ninja stars and I'd like lose them the next day because I threw them out there.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, dude, like it's like napoleon like damn it never mow the lawn out there when matt had his stars that's right, that's exactly right or then you get a pair of like the nunchucks you're walking around like a big knot on the back of my head.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm like what happened and I'm just pass out you could knock yourself out with nunchucks real easy. Oh yeah especially after watching all those movies on a theater. Was that on Saturday mornings? Yeah, Kung Fu Theater.

Speaker 2:

That's where everyone was Kung Fu fighting. It was fast as lightning.

Speaker 4:

Good song.

Speaker 2:

Great song. Well, here we come to, basically, essentially, the climax of the movie here, because the war carries on, yes, all right. So this platoon is sent back to the front lines to maintain the defense. Now the, the vietnamese, are coming on strong that night and they all but decimate the entire platoon, all but decimated. Taylor and his fox hole mate, francis, francis, they survive, uh, as does uh sergeant o'neill, sneaky, slimy, one of the bobs from office space. This dickhead? He hides under a dead body in a crater. Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 3:

It worked. Yeah, I think a lot of people did that. It worked.

Speaker 4:

Can you?

Speaker 3:

imagine at night fighting and stuff. They're crashing on you. There's a dead body. Just throw it over yourself.

Speaker 2:

Fair enough, it's camouflage.

Speaker 3:

If you know you're out, now you're out yeah, you're outnumbered, you got no hardly any ammo left and you're and you want to get home. I think that a lot of that kind of or even guys like in this movie, like shooting themselves in your own foot or, yep, you know, chopping your finger off, yeah so you just you're done.

Speaker 4:

So your tour is over, you can get home, yeah right well, yeah, it all depends on what kind of wounds you have. You can be sent back too.

Speaker 2:

That's right. That's vicious. So we were talking about suicide missions earlier. One of those actually happens in this scene. You got this crazy ass. I think they're called sappers. I think it's a sapper, John.

Speaker 3:

Sapper talkie, that's right.

Speaker 4:

Explosives.

Speaker 2:

That's correct. It's just this suicide bomber, this kamikaze, this kid or whatever, just run on the ground, he's strapped with, he's wrapped in explosives, makes his way into HQ, blows the place up. Just blows it up, told you about that?

Speaker 4:

Yeah that's bananas. Well, that's how they are. That's how they were trying to win the war Didn't have any values to me.

Speaker 3:

But I think they did have values. They. I think they did have. That's what I'm saying. I think that was like kind of their sure religion. That's how they were brought up. It's one of those things where they brought honor to their family by doing something.

Speaker 2:

They could be commemorated by. Look, this guy gave his life and, you know, on purpose, with willful intent, gave his life yeah well a good thing of that is 9-11 there it is what did those guys do?

Speaker 4:

yeah, through those planes in there, didn't even care about it nope, nope are they heroes today, or what are they today? They're nothing. All right, they just destroyed a lot of lives.

Speaker 2:

They did, I'd have to ask the people way overseas over in oil land yeah for now oil land. We'll be drill baby drilling here soon though.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, thank you thank you.

Speaker 3:

Thank you is right, thank you so, uh, all right.

Speaker 2:

so, captain harris, now without a bunker and basically without almost an entire platoon here, uh, he orders an airstrike to destroy the whole area. It's like, look, it's over, but we have some ordinance here, we have some documents, we have whatever we got here. Just blow the place up, we'll get out of here. So at this point, barnes that's Tom Berenger. Again, he's in full on rage. He is just in the moment. His eyes are fiery red.

Speaker 2:

He's killing Vietnamese with his E tool that's an entrenching tool, also known as a shovel to civilians. And so he's just going bananas, killing all these as many Vietnamese as he can. And so he's just going bananas, killing all these as many Vietnamese as he can. And he comes upon, or he sees, taylor, and he is about to kill him too with this sideways shovel. He's got the handle flipped down and just then, that's when the artillery or, I'm sorry, that's when the planes arrive and they drop all of the shit and everything blows up. Everybody gets knocked unconscious. Taylor awakes the next morning and finds a very wounded Barnes crawling his way through the jungle to finding anything he can do to just live. He's just crawling along tree stumps and looking for help, just bleeding out.

Speaker 2:

He actually orders him. He orders taylor to charlie, tom berenger orders charlie sheen to you know, hey, call, call for a medic for me, call for a medic instead. Charlie sheen just shoots him, just kills him, and I say good, that's the way it should be.

Speaker 3:

He wouldn't have done that a year ago.

Speaker 2:

No, he wouldn't have.

Speaker 3:

He was like writing letters to mom and he just sort of like sent mom something.

Speaker 4:

He was a different person, yeah.

Speaker 3:

But now he's like shooting somebody because he knows what he did, so it was revenge.

Speaker 2:

This was for sure a climactic scene. I mean to see that whole base just get blown. Now get it, I get it. It's a mobile base for all intent and purpose. It certainly wasn't set up with the dynamics and the logistics that you were in, you know, george, certainly not. But I mean this mobile base was a very big deal, as these guys are making their ways through.

Speaker 4:

I don't know Well, yeah, there's hundreds of them there mobile bases.

Speaker 2:

You've just got to keep moving that line, pushing that line. You know we're moving the line forward, moving us forward. Okay, and now we're at matt's favorite part of the movie, the denouement. So the rest of the cavalry arrives, the rest of the morning unfolds yep, all the trees are dead all the trees are dead, everybody but a handful are dead. But you got mobile infantry coming in with, I mean you tanks blazing coming in francis, that's the, the guy that was in the foxhole with charlie sheen.

Speaker 2:

Uh, he stat we talked about. He stabs himself in the leg knowing that that will send him home. That's right. Um, and o'neill emerges from the crater where he was hiding under the dead body. In fact, because he's one of the last people left that can actually still function, has all of his four limbs limbs functioning. Captain Harris says okay, man, you're in charge. Yeah, you're promoted. And this is after. I guess he had been trying to go on R&R or trying to get out for a little bit and just couldn't get away. And now he's in charge and he can't go anywhere.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think he still had time, though he was thinking, oh yeah, I just got through this big battle, like I'm done. They were like no, you got time left, you're going back to something.

Speaker 2:

It's just starting. So, Taylor and Francis, this is our end here, the very end. Taylor and Francis are airlifted out of there. Taylor exchanges one final goodbye to Ra, who remains Ra.

Speaker 4:

Ra Ra. Can I say something here before, george you?

Speaker 2:

say anything, you want Nothing.

Speaker 4:

You're a veteran, hey, and yeah, I just want to wish everyone, all veterans out there uh, wish you well. Uh, I know what you've been through, most of you and all of us. Uh, the only thing we did was fight for our country. We were young and we didn't know any better, but we stayed there and we stuck it out and we gave them everything we had hell yeah, that's right so, uh, uh, just, uh, love y'all, take care of yourselves and uh, you have a great day and a great night.

Speaker 2:

But we're not done yet.

Speaker 3:

Fun facts Fun facts.

Speaker 2:

This is fun facts. So no matter how sad the movie, no matter how depressing the movie, no matter how true or how false the movie might be, there's always fun facts about the movie. Fun facts, fun facts, fun facts. So I've got a fun fact.

Speaker 1:

Go for it.

Speaker 2:

Fun fact this movie has because of its cultural significance, it has made its way to the Library of Congress.

Speaker 1:

Hmm, how about that? Don't they have like a list of 100 movies or whatever. Is that what it is?

Speaker 2:

They have the list of 100.

Speaker 1:

But this is not a list of 100.

Speaker 2:

No, the library of congress will grow and grow and grow there's no home loans in there.

Speaker 1:

I can't speak so they don't have like a set number, so the movies don't get kicked out for other movies.

Speaker 3:

No, I got you it's, it's if the world would blow up. And 500 billion years from now, they go into these archives and like what's this all about? And they had to restart it. Yep, that's right. Yeah, that's, it's true, that's real, real stuff.

Speaker 4:

Well, I agree with you. And you know, they probably don't even know what the movie was ever about. They probably don't even know what the title's about. No, you know.

Speaker 2:

But if you ever need to restart society, consult the Library of Congress if you're looking for a good movie.

Speaker 1:

There you go, there you go, you got one there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you just do it.

Speaker 1:

four academy awards yeah, I remember it was all the rage back then. That's probably why I think best picture, uh best director, um best sound, I think at one, yeah, but yeah it was uh best soundtrack or best yeah sound, sound effects or whatever given the nature of the movie?

Speaker 2:

was their sound laid down by the underground?

Speaker 3:

it might have been digital if there was hennessy on the shelf I drink it all up and introduce myself.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so the character chris taylor that was based on oliver stone, that was actually his. He did a tour in vietnam and he was correct and all that.

Speaker 4:

So and people didn't know that. No, in fact.

Speaker 2:

That leads me to my next fun fact. Uh, platoon was the first, first hollywood film to be written and directed by a veteran of the Vietnam War.

Speaker 1:

Who did? Was that Francis Ford Coppola did Apocalypse. Now Is that who that?

Speaker 3:

was yes, I believe, yeah, that sounds right. Or Roman Polanski.

Speaker 2:

No, I want to say that was definitely Francis Ford Coppola.

Speaker 1:

Now, George, did you see this back in 86 when it came out? Which one Platoon Do you remember going to the theater? Did you wait and rent?

Speaker 4:

it? No, I waited for a long time and then rented and then you rented it I never.

Speaker 1:

I still have it at the house yeah, because there was a lot of talk of um, even back then and like when I was researching about the movie that a lot of veterans had, you know they would cry walking out of the movie, like really, I guess up to that time it was one of the more I don't want to say realistic, because nobody can really know what war is like but like they had an emotional reaction to the movie because they felt like it was closely portrayed, what maybe they experienced like could you, would you say you had that feeling as well?

Speaker 4:

oh, yeah, true, I mean, I thought I thought that that played well, I mean I remember the christmas lights and I remember all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 4:

Right, so they did a great job. I think the movie is probably one of the closest to what was going on that we went through as young kids, at 19 years old, sure.

Speaker 2:

I mean I kind of imagined again that veteran reaction you had mentioned that this is, this was their FUBU. I mean this is for us, by us. This, this was again. This is the first time we had a Vietnam vet actually directing and writing a Vietnam war. Like who in the hell else is going to know it better?

Speaker 1:

And they had a lot of consultants on the set like helping them with, you know, getting it as real as possible.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

In fact, the guy that played, Captain, boo Boo, boo, boo Boo Boo. Captain Crunch no Captain.

Speaker 2:

Crunch. Captain Kangaroo, goddamn Harris. Captain crunch, no captain crunch.

Speaker 1:

Captain kangaroo, god damn harris, the guy that played captain harris.

Speaker 2:

Uh, he's a consultant oh okay, he's like that's his job, that's what he does.

Speaker 3:

100 uh, fun fact. Uh, oliver stone wrote the first draft of this script in 1971 and sent it to jim morrison yes yeah, yeah. The lead singer of the doors he was supposed supposed to play.

Speaker 2:

He was supposed to play Jim. Morrison was supposed to play Taylor. Yeah, that's right, taylor's part.

Speaker 3:

Yep yeah, but he ended up dying in Paris. Yeah Fun fact, which we don't know if he did or not Wait fun fact.

Speaker 1:

He had the script on him when, oh yes, wow, that is true. Now, what do you think? That would have been too soon, though, to make a movie about vietnam in 71 like that. You know, sometimes you gotta wait and let you know what I mean, the war was still going on.

Speaker 4:

That's what I'm saying I think we pulled out in 73 yeah like that's way too soon, too soon. Too soon, too soon in a way, yeah, the war was still going and guys were still over there. Our guys were still over there, our guys were still over there.

Speaker 3:

Yep, yeah so I had to wait a little bit. Yeah, I think 86 made more sense than 71. Anything else.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I got plenty here, so this we were talking about cheap labor earlier, so this was primarily filmed in the Philippines. So Stone actually got actual Vietnamese refugees who were living in the Philippines at the time to play the parts of the Vietnamese people.

Speaker 1:

Oh, really, yeah, I wonder where they got paid for that Rice Rice.

Speaker 2:

I'm sorry. They got paid with flavor packets to season their rice To season their rice.

Speaker 3:

Tom Petty wrote a song about that. Flavor packets, no refugees.

Speaker 2:

Oh, you don't have to live like one.

Speaker 3:

That's what they told them. No refugees oh, you don't have to live like one.

Speaker 2:

That's what they told them.

Speaker 3:

No, you do not. Johnny Depp was 22 when they filmed this movie. And it was filmed in the Philippines and that was his first time out of the United States traveling to the Philippines.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my first time out of the United States was Mexico. I went up Tijuana to be specific.

Speaker 4:

Oh, you went to Tijuana.

Speaker 3:

Okay, you can't get in there Coming soon, wow, that's true, that's true, it's going to be a big wall.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're going to get over that. That's okay. I don't need to go there. You don't need to go over there. No, there's nothing I want there. I don't know why I got Taco Bell.

Speaker 1:

This is from Oliver Stone. I. In most movies leading up to this, barringer was a good guy, dafoe was a villain, so he flip-flopped him in this movie and made them opposites intentionally, so I thought that was interesting.

Speaker 2:

I think Barringer did a pretty good job as a villain.

Speaker 3:

I think they both did great.

Speaker 2:

The scar makeup on his face that was pretty good. Yeah, that was pretty pretty good.

Speaker 4:

Fun fact.

Speaker 2:

Platoon was the third highest grossing film of 1986. Number one, top gun. Number two crocodile dundee. Now, of course, at number three, it beat out karate kid. Part two, star trek 4. Back to the future, I, I'm sorry. Back to School.

Speaker 1:

Back to.

Speaker 2:

School Aliens, the Golden Child, ruthless People and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Speaker 3:

That's a big list. That's a big list.

Speaker 2:

That was the top 10 of 86.

Speaker 1:

I always like those though, like looking at what was out those years, because you forget a lot of times, Sure, or Crocodile Dundee. He's like that's not a knife. This is annoying, bro. Crocodile dundee made almost 175 million dollars.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I contributed to that too, I went to the theater. Is he still in australia? I don't think so. No, I don't know if he's still alive.

Speaker 4:

He might be, I don't know well, he married the girl that he saved did he yeah, he married he married that chick.

Speaker 3:

Yes, okay, remember she was down by the, by the river there, and she was trying to get in and he went and grabbed her. Didn't he get killed?

Speaker 1:

by a stingray or something.

Speaker 2:

No Crikey yeah he dove in the water.

Speaker 1:

That was the guy that played with the manatee. Yeah, manatee got him through the chest. I think Wait really.

Speaker 2:

No, no, I thought that was that other guy, the crocodile hunter. That's a crocodile hunter.

Speaker 3:

I thought he got killed by a Norwalk.

Speaker 1:

He might have, that's right, this was Paul Hogan Croggy. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2:

So I was talking about the guy that played Captain Harris. That actor's name is Dale Dye. He was, at least from my perspective. He is best known as the Colonel from Band of Brothers.

Speaker 1:

The old band Colonel.

Speaker 2:

But even better, he was Commander Wiley from a personal favorite movie of mine, Spy Game, starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.

Speaker 4:

Oh yeah, that's a good movie.

Speaker 2:

So, good Spy Game is so goddamn good.

Speaker 3:

That was good. In many US military war academies they look at Lieutenant Wolf in their classes as how to not behave as a junior officer. Right, right.

Speaker 2:

If you're going to be an officer, don't do this Don't be this guy.

Speaker 3:

That's right, that's funny. Yeah, stone, he's responsible for that.

Speaker 1:

You got one. Yeah, so the scene with the foe. He's responsible for that. You got one, yeah. So the scene with the foe, the iconic scene we talked about, where he's running and he throws his arms up in the air like a why he's being chased.

Speaker 2:

He's being chased by the nva and as he's, he's being shot and he runs and as he falls to the ground, he throws his hands up in the air yeah, so he was on larry king doing an interview.

Speaker 1:

This is a few years back and he said in that scene if you look closely you can see in his left hand he has a detonator and he's detonating the explosions that are supposed to be going off, like at his chest, while he's being shot.

Speaker 1:

So if you look closely and go back and watch that scene, you can see it in his left hand Now when he goes down to the ground. I guess he threw it at some point and by the time he puts his arms up in the air it's gone. I look for that in that scene. And he also said they asked him how many times did you shoot that scene? He was like it was only like three to five times and they got the take they wanted.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he said, but um, so he's controlling the action which makes sense. So he knows how to contort and move his body to the appropriate special effects yeah, yeah gotcha but I also read that he was calling the shots.

Speaker 1:

Calling the shots, yeah, but I also read that they actually didn't go go off and the explosions that were supposed to happen in his body had a vest on, I guess, with things underneath you can tell that too. Now that you're looking yeah.

Speaker 2:

As you see him running at you. You don't see any bullet wounds added to his body. You don't see anything flying out. Now, granted, I'm not saying that every bullet has to go through the body, right, there's a lot of bullets that'll just stop once it hits something, which is okay. That's just science, man. I'm no scientist.

Speaker 4:

Not with an AK-47 assault rifle, that's what I couldn't figure out how they would let him stand up after AK hits you.

Speaker 3:

Well, I think they were showing his determination, his machismo.

Speaker 4:

To be a hero.

Speaker 2:

You had to suspend disbelief.

Speaker 1:

As most all movies do. It's the movie. Yes, yeah, and that's the the cover of the movie.

Speaker 3:

That's what they actually show on the cover. That's the. That's right. Here's a here's one for zap uh. Special packs of marlboro cigarettes were made for the movie that's correct on the assistance of oliver stone, who wanted the cherry red color on the pack to more closely match those made during the late 1960s.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, marlboro changed its color scheme. I did that between between, non was it more of a less red. No, it's a, it was a. A hint darker red than the brightest of brightest rainbow bread like. So if we're looking at that megaphone right there, that's the current marlboro, the other, the older marlboro, would like be the red cooler gotcha.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, details. I just remember, like the white with the gold top, that was the lights, I believe.

Speaker 4:

Yes, marlboro lights.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, camel wides, that was a good pack White with a gold top.

Speaker 2:

I miss soft pack. They're still available.

Speaker 3:

You just got to find the right places and order them For like a good pack of Paul Malls. They.

Speaker 2:

I always like to do the coulda woulda shouldas Barnes's character played by Tom Berenger could have been James Woods, mickey Rourke, emilio Estevez or Kevin Costner.

Speaker 1:

Oh, how about that, Kevin Costner?

Speaker 3:

They could have threw all them guys in there and nobody would have known. I mean, they all could have played in that movie with all the people they had in it.

Speaker 4:

I don't know, kevin Costner might be a good good deal to play.

Speaker 2:

that it would have been yeah to play the bad guy yeah yeah now you guys got that I'm trying to think about there's a ruggedness about him. Yeah, yeah, for sure, he's still making movies he is yellowstone he is.

Speaker 4:

That's not a movie no, it's a tv show that's right.

Speaker 3:

Um, I was just looking at the characters trying to think who won? Uh, yeah, who all these? Anybody that won the oscar, and I know? Um, I don't know if willem dafoe won one or not he probably should have not.

Speaker 1:

Not I mean not necessarily for this, but throughout his career, I would think but uh, forrest whitaker won one oh, he's good yeah that's correct.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I don't know if willem dafoe did or not. Then he won one for the he might have. What were did or not? Didn't he win one for the he might have? What were those guys that, the Doc Saints? Yeah, did he win one for that.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, but damn, I love that movie. That's a great movie and he was really good in that too.

Speaker 3:

Yeah yeah, good actor, good actor, dave, what do you got?

Speaker 1:

So they approached the Department of Defense to cooperate. They had to go to the armed force of the Philippines that loaned all the equipment and everything they used in the movie.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's crazy, huh, wow. No help from the DOD?

Speaker 3:

No, probably saved on cost. Yeah, that's a lot of money.

Speaker 2:

So another coulda, woulda, shoulda. So we talked about Tom Berringer's character Barnes. Now Charlie Sheen's character Taylor could have been Keanu Reeves, John Cusack or Kyle McLaughlin. Fun fact Johnny Depp was considered, but he was actually given, obviously, the role of learner instead yeah, they said he was too young looking yeah, so Cusack, I don't know, I don't see Cusack too like I would think him.

Speaker 3:

Nah, he was in too many movies yeah, cusack would be too goofy.

Speaker 2:

I could imagine Kyle McLaughlin, thanks to his role in a personal favorite of Matt's and mine, from coming up the Hidden, which I very much look forward to doing that on this podcast.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's the lucky special gun. Yeah, yeah, mclaughlin. Nah, I still think they cast it right.

Speaker 1:

No, anthony Michael Hall, in this one.

Speaker 2:

finally, Finally, that's right, he comes up on everything. It is fortunate that we would see Barringer and Sheen, so they were obviously against each other in this. I mean, for Christ's sake, sheen killed him. But we would later see Barringer and Sheen return as friends three years later in Major League Great flick In 1989.

Speaker 3:

That's right, which was some of that was filmed in Harrisburg. Major League 2 Major League 2.

Speaker 4:

Major League 2 well, I'll tell you a really good one. I thought was good.

Speaker 1:

Forrest Whitaker was a DJ yeah, the guy that played Mork and Mindy, oh, Robin Williams, robin Williams and Forrest Whitaker oh, good Morning Vietnam, good Morning Vietnam yeah, that was a good flick, awesome movie, that was a good flick, awesome movie, that was a good flick. So here at the end, george, what we usually do is late fee, return or burn.

Speaker 1:

So late fee means great movie, I love it, I'm going to pay a late fee, I'm not taking it back. Return means, eh, it was okay, I liked it, and I'm returning it. And burn it means I hated it, it was the worst movie ever. You know, I'll start it off, kind of see, for for me, I think I might late feed this because I I mean, it's just a really, really good movie. I I remember seeing it as a little kid I was 10 or 11 years old, um and I've watched it over the years probably like three or four times and, uh, this is a movie that, even though it's 1986, probably because it's a set period movie period movie that it doesn't seem dated.

Speaker 1:

It didn't seem like it is timeless. It is timeless. It's one of those movies I think it's just, it's just great and I would late for you so get how it works.

Speaker 3:

So I would I would agree with dave. I would say I would late for you. This probably like watch it that night, take it in and be like I'm gonna watch that again tomorrow. And if I have to take it in a day late or whatever, you'll pay yeah, I'll pay the extra three dollars, or whatever it was back then, for taking it back to blockbuster but um yeah but it was just a no like a great, like you said, a great period movie that will never. Like you said, it's archived it's timeless.

Speaker 3:

Yes, it's not going to change it'll be there forever, yeah, so yeah, uh, late fee on this one I would.

Speaker 2:

So I I got one more fun fact. I neglected to mention fun fact for this. That's the first time I've ever seen this movie. No way, way, way, way, no way. Never seen this movie before, so obviously I knew it existed. I might have given it a shot a couple of times and I just couldn't get into it Watching it. Obviously, having to watch it for this'm somewhere between return and late fee. I'm I'm somewhere in the middle there like I would definitely watch this a few times while I have it. Would I just let that day go and just keep carrying on and just watch it with such intensity that I forget to take it back? That could happen. So I'm borderline between return and late fee, so still enjoyed it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yes, yeah. So go ahead, go ahead Dan Platoon. Yes, yep, platoon.

Speaker 4:

I, I think the movie was done well. I think, uh, the characters were fit well, you know, and most of these characters are characters, but there are regular people. But, yeah, I would watch it. I've watched it several times and I guess I would not take it back for a while. Okay, late feed. Late feed.

Speaker 2:

We have almost unanimity there. We're three and a half out of four there.

Speaker 1:

And speaking of that, I did see a fun fact on the price on this back then in 1986. Now, back then, with movies, at this time when you would buy a movie, it wasn't like it is a couple years later where it was like $699, $799.

Speaker 2:

This movie was $99.99 $100 American dollars American dollars.

Speaker 1:

Yes, if you wanted to buy this when it came out on VHS. Now that was $20 more than the standard VHS prices back then, which was like $79.99. So this was like priced up $20 more than any other movie in 1986. Is it lined in gold?

Speaker 3:

It must have been, so the inflation on that would be $8 million today.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

My quick math Dude your decimal is right on.

Speaker 1:

I know I kept moving it over. Damn it.

Speaker 2:

Three commas yeah.

Speaker 1:

All right, yeah, I over three commas, yeah. So yeah, I mean like I guess that's pretty much it for that.

Speaker 2:

Do you guys have any other facts or anything we missed? I think the only fact that is the only fact I want to mention again is the fact that we have a great man, a great warrior, uh, a national hero, absolutely george, that's right, steelton george steelton, george duke. George who. Who will be? Who may be George Stilton, george Stilton, george Duke.

Speaker 3:

George, who may be running for president in four years.

Speaker 4:

Stilton.

Speaker 3:

George on the ticket.

Speaker 4:

And Stilton, where there's no one.

Speaker 3:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

Hell yeah, president of Stilton Stilton is getting lowly.

Speaker 3:

A lot of people are moving out of Stilton. It's pretty ghetto.

Speaker 2:

It's pretty ghetto, no, but seriously, george, all joking aside, sincerely thank you so much for joining us, thank you so much for you know, obviously, fighting for our country. Absolutely Happy, happy Veterans Day and one more time and a million times more, welcome home.

Speaker 4:

Thank you and, like I said, this was great for me. I got to talk about a lot of things maybe I haven't talked about in about 12 or 14 years. So thank you guys for letting me speak up and let you know, let people know, that it wasn't what it was in the papers. It was a lot different, and I think our president was Johnson at the time, that lion son of a bitch. Well, he was one of my favorites. I just pulled him on a pony and sent him to Africa.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that was a oh. No, that was a quote from. Oh God, that was a quote from Forrest Gump Forrest. Gump, forrest Gump, that lion son of a bitch.

Speaker 4:

Oh, forrest Gump, yeah, yeah, I don't think he liked Johnson.

Speaker 2:

Another great movie.

Speaker 1:

But one hippie hated Johnson. He wanted to ask you when you got back from Vietnam and you did your time there, what was the first thing you did when you got back? Like I got to go either, that's right. I wanted to thank you, I want to either go eat a hamburger or I want to do whatever.

Speaker 4:

Like, what was the one thing when you're not going to believe this? All right, well, I'm going to hear after. I'm going to tell you this. But after they put us through the psychiatry thing down there at seattle, you have to go through a psychiatry guy and he looked at me, says well, he said I know what you've been through and everything's going. Uh, you know your way. Now you're out. He says I got to sign these papers for you, he said. And he asked me the same question what, what do you want to do when you leave? What? What is the thing in your heart? I just I want to go and get a mcdonald's cup of coffee. There.

Speaker 4:

You go, wow, okay, and guess what he signed my papers nice nice, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

That's the right answer yeah, it reminds me of like uh had you said I want to go kill a group of children, he might not have signed.

Speaker 3:

I'll still be in seattle, that's right, that's much like uh it reminds me like as much like shawshank redemption there.

Speaker 4:

There you go.

Speaker 3:

He's like you know, have I been. We're trying to let him out for leave.

Speaker 2:

Have I been rehabilitated? Yeah, have.

Speaker 3:

I been rehabilitated. Yeah, that was a good part.

Speaker 4:

Awesome. But yeah, that's a true, true story. That happened and that was it. And the other thing I want to tell you, the funniest thing about flying home and coming in and maybe a lot of people don't realize it, but don't we fly over a nuclear plant, A TMI?

Speaker 3:

It's not there anymore. It's not there anymore, but when?

Speaker 2:

I came in. It was. You know. They're restarting that. That's what they're saying. They're saying they're working on that one.

Speaker 4:

But I always hated coming across that river looking at that plant. It's ominous.

Speaker 3:

I think it looks pretty ominous and if you ever go with like, if anybody's ever flying into Harrisburg, if you're on a plane ride, everybody's always looking at where's TMI, because they're always like there's TMI.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, you know, you're coming down.

Speaker 2:

George, we've mentioned this on an episode or two. Where Matt grew up was on Riverview Drive.

Speaker 4:

Yes, Middletown.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but it wasn't really.

Speaker 4:

Riverview view.

Speaker 3:

You couldn't see the river, but you for damn sure could see those towers yeah, yeah, we could see towers but no river.

Speaker 4:

I always wondered about that?

Speaker 3:

yeah, we got that place for pretty cheap back in the 70s I think yeah, we got out of there too.

Speaker 4:

Those were the days yeah but um, yeah, not uh.

Speaker 3:

And one more quick thing. Uh not, this has nothing really to do with the podcast, what we're talking about today, but uh, just want to give a shout out to a good friend of Dave and I absolutely. Maddie Dix uh, I know you're hearing us, brother, and uh. Rest in peace, man yeah, rest in peace.

Speaker 1:

Lost a good friend yeah, so I guess that's it for now, so we'll catch you where on the flip side.

Speaker 2:

If we don't see you sooner, we'll see you later.

Speaker 3:

Peace thanks for listening to the vintage cinema review and the old, dirty basement. If you dig our theme music, like we do, check out the tsunami experiment, find them on Facebook. Their music is streaming on Spotify and Apple and where great music is available.

Speaker 1:

You can find us at old dirty basement on Facebook and Instagram and at old dirty basement podcast on Tik TOK Peace. Old Dirty Basement Podcast on TikTok Peace. We outie 5,000. You.