'Platoon' (R)

"Platoon" is like the Wall -- a dark and unforgettable memorial to the dead of Vietnam and an awesome requiem to the eternity of war. And like that granite roll call of soldiers felled, it makes heroes of every anonymous kid who ever crawled into a foxhole.

Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone writes and directs this tough-minded masterwork, a cathartic combat drama based on his own experiences as a 25th Infantryman in 1967-68. Most of the cast is too young to remember that far back, but there are no toy soldiers here: no top guns, just grunts -- 30 guys from the bottom of the barrel, poor kids from "small towns you never heard of . . . They're the unwanted. Yet they're fighting for our society and our freedom."

Stone doesn't preach. He just remembers. He explodes the Rambo myth, like one of Stallone's fool arrows, to remind us that war is hell. Stone combines a crushing pace with fine, strong characters, fighting words and photography as bracing as rain in your face. You are there in the woods chasing Charley.

Like his father Martin before him, Charlie Sheen finds the heart of darkness in Vietnam -- the synthesis of evil in an old soldier gone awry. Sheen plays PFC Chris Taylor, a 19-year-old college dropout who comes of age during this dog-tired, death-defying tour. He's a younger version of his father in "Apocalypse Now," right hand of justice, symbol of a torn nation.

The parallels between the pivotal parts and their strong and seething performances are uncanny -- though "Platoon" is not in any way derivative. Its politics are more personal; its approach humbler. And Stone breaks our hearts much as Peter Weir did in "Gallipoli," all wasted youth played against a mournful adagio of strings. The living room war becomes a fictional reality of flesh and blood and body bags and blown minds.

"We didn't fight the enemy," observes Taylor. "We fought ourselves." The immortal struggle pits the platoon's Sergeant Elias, a two-year veteran who remains spiritually whole, against Sergeant Barnes, a lifer who lost his humanity along the way. For him, killing is no longer an ugly necessity: It's a living.

Tom Berenger, the TV hero in "The Big Chill," and Willem Dafoe, the chilling villain of "To Live and Die in L.A.," swap stances in their gritty performances as Barnes and Elias. They are explosive, mythic Titans in a terrible struggle for the soldier's souls. Barnes, his face twisted and scarred, avenges his men when he murders an old woman in a My Lai-like incident. Elias, the man of honor, steps in to end the massacre -- and the battle lines are drawn.

This marvelous multiracial ensemble -- combat trained before filming in the Philippines -- is the most convincing mustered since "A Soldier's Story." Standouts include John McGinley, the odious brown-noser; Mark Moses, the careless lieutenant who burns his men with friendly fire; and Keith David, big and magnificent as the expert in the art of survival.

This is a triumph in the trenches. Stone has come a long way since "Conan the Barbarian" (which he wrote), having written and directed both last year's "Salvador" and now "Platoon" -- the latter undoubtedly the finest film of 1986, a staggering study of war, which comes just in time.