A MOVIE FOR ANY WAR

Once in a while, a movie appears that captures the nation’s attention. Critics love it; people who hate critics love it. Time does a cover story on it. Praises rise from the land like banks of smog.

But in the midst of this media orgy, a few people, unable to resist a bit of iconoclastic cynicism, dip their middle fingers in ink and scribble away about how amazed they are that such a worthless movie could get so much respect.

“Platoon” is such a movie.

A letter in Saturday Letters (April 4) said this of “Platoon”:” . . . is a fraud . . . no story line . . . calculated to shock . . . (lacking) three-dimensional characters.”

Let’s presume he knows what he’s talking about. Maybe “Platoon” does lack a true plot and real characters. But are these really needed for a movie to be effective?

Certainly the characters are more symbols than authentic personalities; the plot is a base, a background, a mold rather than a cartoonish action-adventure. To have included a clear-cut plot in “Platoon” would have been to limit its universality. As it wisely exists, it is a movie for any war, anytime.

History is like a buoy--you can push it down but it will always bob up again. So why shouldn’t Oliver Stone’s movie be calculated to shock? The best movies not only tickle our craniums, they beat our emotions to bloody pulps.

These seem to be the only two givens for a good movie--not the plot and the characters and whatever else. Leave those to English teachers.

KURT BIGENHO

Rolling Hills Estates