Word: platoons
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...science than to its dramatic and mythic qualities. Richard Slotkin, professor of English at Wesleyan University, says the show echoes the pioneer stories that dominate American history and literature. "What's so appealing about Star Trek is that it takes the old frontier myth and crosses it with a platoon movie," Slotkin says. "Instead of the whites against the Indians, you have a multiethnic crew against the Romulans and Klingons...
...never seen Apocalypse Now, Platoon or Bridge Over the River Kwai, then go see Paths to Glory and learn your lesson about the atrocities of warfare. For everyone else, you're better off renting Dr. Strangelove or A Clockwork Orange to get a taste of Kubric's true talent for innovation than wasting your time and money on this disappointing film...
...several key saves by Harvard's Ned Carlson, issuing the first challenge in what could be in interesting netminding platoon duel with sophomore Peter Albers, kept Cornell off the scoreboard. With play getting physical (Harvard's John Vrionis and Tom Marcotullio were booked within a minute of each other after halftime), it took another Kohler creation to dissipate the Big Red's chances...
...queasy feeling began during the film's key Vietnam scene. There is an ambush: Forrest saves some of his platoon; others die; his lieutenant loses his legs. A certain horror attends the explosions and deaths but so does a strong feeling that things here are happening by the book. As indeed they are. The grunts have not died in vain: they have died as a plot device, to facilitate Gump's upward float -- and the film's apparent message: act decent, stay positive (brains optional), and everything will be fine...
...that the only three movies of the past two decades to win both the year's box-office crown and the Oscar for Best Picture -- Rocky, Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man -- were canny, poignant fables of men in domestic crisis. Throw in two other high-grossing Oscar winners, Platoon and Terms of Endearment, and you have the recipe for a "mature," feel-good smash. Let's see: retarded man, family man, Vietnam hero and lots of decent folks on their deathbeds. The movie is not only a greatest-hits rendering of 25 years of Americana, it's a distillation...