Platoon Opening Sequence

In the opening sequence of Platoon the audience are show new troops arriving in the Vietnam war zone on planes and in helicopters. These soldiers are shown to be very young, naive and innocent. As they are leaving the aircraft they see dead American soldiers in body bags getting loaded onto another plane this shows the harsh reality of war. As they walk away they pass a group of veteran soldiers who look rugged and skinny, however the new troops look immaculate. The audience is then shown a view of the jungle from above as a helicopter flies across this shows the audience where most of the fighting is going to take place. The soldiers are then shown to be walking through the jungle; they are shown to be very scared in that situation. The audience is introduced to Chris Taylor the main character in the film; he is shown to be very young and very scared as he arrives in Vietnam. He is shown to be new to the situation as he is straight out of training with no combat experience. The audience are positioned to feel sorry for him, as he has only just arrived in the war zone, is very young and very inexperienced. The opening sequence reveals that the main setting of the film is going to be the Vietnam jungle. The jungle is shown to be a very dark, scary and dangerous place with the enemy not being the only danger. The main camera shots used in the opening sequence are master shots and establishing shots. These are used to show the settings and all the different surroundings they also show all the young soldiers. The editing is mainly continuity or invisible editing this is to help all the surroundings to be shown. There is also a dissolve when they move from the airfield to the jungle. During the opening sequence there is slow, sad music playing, the music is fairly quiet. There are also diegetic sounds such as the planes and helicopters in the airfield or the sound of running water in the jungle. The producer and directors names are shown in white font on a plain black screen right at the start of the sequence along with a quote “rejoice O young man in thy youth” this is used to show how young the soldiers were. The main title of the film was then shown in green text as the pictures started along with the names of the main actors. When the soldiers are shown in the jungle the other actors names are shown in white text.