Platoon

The war can be a very tough on a person. It is obvious that a war will put a toll on your body physically, but I think it will affect you more emotionally. You could definitely see that in the movie we watched called “Platoon”.

The quote that says we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves is a very true statement. Yes, they were obviously still trying to fight the enemy, but they were fighting with themselves more than anything. When in the war, you see a lot of things that you will never see anywhere else. You see hundreds of dead people, hundreds of injured soldiers just sitting there with a wound and there is nothing they can do. You are in so much danger and you could be the one getting shot at any moment. You become very good friends with all these people and it just kills you mentally when you see one of them go down.

All of these factors will affect you mentally to a point where you can’t even function anymore. You completely lose focus on fighting the actual enemy. You pretty much find a reason to get mad because you can’t take it anymore. So you end up getting mad at your fellow soldiers. Sometimes you and another soldier have a different opinion or think something should’ve been done differently. You might end up killing him because you are so messed up mentally from all the tragic events you have been through already.

Even when the war is done, you can’t go back home and live a normal life and be happy again. You might think or hope these memories will go away, but these they will live on with you until the day you die. Pretty much every soldier goes through what is called PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). This is where people have flashbacks and nightmares about the bad memories they had from war. They end up going to psychotherapists and take medicine to help but sometimes this won’t even help any. This can also lead to suicide because you can’t deal with all the depression and sadness you are going through.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was very sad to watch but it was really an eye opening experience. It really showed you in full detail what it is like to be in a war. You get to see all the hardships the soldiers face and the pain and agony that goes through them. I honestly don’t think that I would ever be able to be a war veteran. There is no way I would any help. I would be in complete shock if I see people getting shot and lying there helplessly. I get sick to the stomach when I see people break a bone let alone people bleeding to death.

I have so much respect for all of the war veterans that have been fighting. It takes a lot of guts to go out and do what they do and you seriously can’t thank them enough.