Home News Tribune Online – By MIKE SNIDER for USA TODAY. Oliver Stone considers the new “Platoon 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition” an improvement over the three previous DVD editions of his 1986 best-picture winner.
This version has been remastered for slightly better visuals and adds scenes with then-rising star Johnny Depp.
The new two-disc edition (now available for $25), Stone says, “is the fullest intention of the filmmaker.”
“The Platoon 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition” DVD has about 11 extra minutes, plus five new documentaries. Director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam veteran, discusses making the film:
An alternate ending – “Chris (Charlie Sheen) decides not to shoot Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger). Stone says he felt torn about the ending. “When the kid walks out of the jungle, he’s also a killer. That was the point: In a war, it stains everybody.”
More Depp – “A foxhole scene gives more screen time to Johnny Depp as Pvt. Lerner. “He went on to do “21 Jump Street,’ ” Stone says. “I wish I could have kept that in.”
Stone’s triumph – “Platoon” went on to win best-picture, director, sound and editing Oscars, and it took in $139 million in the United States. “At the time, I completely felt rejected by the system, and when (“Platoon”) came around, it was the hit of the year,” Stone says. “It swept the country. Not just the country, the world.”
