The first casualty of war is innocence.

As the overriding theme of Platoon, Oliver Stone's dramatic depiction of the Vietnam War based on his own experiences, this tag line is a foreboding warning to the audience of the movie's dehumanizing and shockingly real portrayal of the effects war has on all involved.

While many other war movies depict soldiers as heroes and allow certain characters to rise above hardship to heroic ends, the many characters in Platoon are decisively human -- not heroic. Throughout the film's two hours, the viewer is exposed to a seemingly random mix of violent combat, inter-platoon bonding and conflict, and each character's striking internal battle of morality.

In effect, we see the movie as the soldiers see the war; a confusing mix of random incidents and powerful emotions with no clear objective or end.

In Platoon, it begins with the arrival of young, idealistic Pvt. Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), who has dropped out of college and volunteered for a tour of duty along the Cambodian border. While Taylor is the closest thing to a main character the film offers -- his narration and letters to his grandmother give the viewer some introspect into the mind of the soldiers -- it is his interaction with the other characters that make the film a powerful work.

Soon after his arrival, Taylor begins to think that his decision to enlist has been a mistake. He struggles to find acceptance with the other soldiers, who feel that new soldiers are fairly worthless. It is better to die in the first few weeks of duty than to serve for years and be killed.

When he does inevitably find his niche in the platoon, it is only after the physical and mental horrors of combat begin to strip him of his ideals. This opens his eyes and allows him to see the Vietnamese, his comrades and his surroundings for what they truly are. The conflict between Taylor's two immediate commanders -- the crazed warmonger Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Elias (Willem Dafoe), a more introspective soldier who finds his peace in drug-prompted escapism -- divides the platoon throughout the film.

This internal conflict diverts attention away from Vietnamese soldiers as the enemy -- they are rarely seen as more than shadows and ambiguous figures -- and onto the animosity between Barnes and Elias.

While Taylor identifies with Elias, the dehumanizing effects of the war cause him and other soldiers to think about survival first, prompting decisions of cowardice, cruelty and compassion from each of them that expose the flaws, hypocrisy and humanity of each character.

The winner of several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and featuring a strong supporting cast including Forest Whitaker, John C. McGinley and Johnny Depp, Platoon certainly runs at the front of the pack of modern war epics. More importantly, it painfully shows sacrifices made by those at war to preserve the precious innocence of those at home.