Editing Platoon (film) (section)

===Development===
{{quote box
| quote = "Vietnam was really visceral, and I had come from a cerebral existence: study ... working with a pen and paper, with ideas. I came back really visceral. And I think the camera is so much more ... that's your interpreter, as opposed to a pen."
|source=—Oliver Stone<ref name="salewicz" />
| align = right
| width = 25em
}}
The seeds of what would become ''Platoon'' began as early as 1968, months after Stone had completed his own tour of duty fighting in Vietnam. Stone first wrote a screenplay called ''Break'', a semi-autobiographical account detailing his experiences with his parents and his time in the Vietnam War. Stone's active duty service resulted in a "big change" in how he viewed life and the war. Although ''Break'' was never produced, he later used it as the basis for ''Platoon''.<ref name="salewicz" /> His screenplay featured several characters who were the seeds of those he developed in ''Platoon''. The script was set to music from [[The Doors]]; Stone sent the script to [[Jim Morrison]] in the hope he would play the lead. (Morrison never responded, but his manager returned the script to Stone shortly after Morrison's death; Morrison had the script with him when he died in Paris.) Although ''Break'' was never produced, Stone decided to attend film school.<ref name="salewicz" />

After writing several other screenplays in the early 1970s, Stone worked with [[Robert Bolt]] on the screenplay, ''The Cover-up'' (it was not produced). Bolt's rigorous approach rubbed off on Stone. The younger man used his characters from the ''Break'' screenplay and developed a new screenplay, which he titled ''Platoon''. Producer [[Martin Bregman]] attempted to elicit studio interest in the project, but was not successful. Stone claims that during that time, [[Sidney Lumet]] was to have helmed the film with [[Al Pacino]] slated to star had there been studio interest.<ref name="chris">{{Cite magazine |last=Nashawaty |first=Chris |date=May 24, 2011 |title=Oliver Stone Platoon Charlie Sheen |url=https://ew.com/article/2011/05/24/oliver-stone-talks-platoon-and-charlie-sheen-on-the-vietnam-films-25th-anniversary-exclusive/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729210846/https://ew.com/article/2011/05/24/oliver-stone-talks-platoon-and-charlie-sheen-on-the-vietnam-films-25th-anniversary-exclusive/ |archive-date=July 29, 2019 |access-date=July 29, 2019 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]}}</ref>  But, based on the strength of his writing in ''Platoon,'' Stone was hired to write the screenplay for ''[[Midnight Express (film)|Midnight Express]]'' (1978).

The film was a critical and commercial success, as were some other Stone films at the time, but most studios were still reluctant to finance ''Platoon,'' because it was about the unpopular Vietnam War. After the release of ''[[The Deer Hunter]]'' and ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'', the studios then cited the perception that these films were considered the pinnacle of the Vietnam War film genre as reasons not to make ''Platoon''.<ref name="salewicz" />

Stone responded by attempting to break into mainstream direction via the easier-to-finance horror genre, but ''[[The Hand (1981 film)|The Hand]]'' failed at the box office, and he began to think ''Platoon'' would never be made. Instead, he cowrote ''[[Year of the Dragon (film)|Year of the Dragon]]'' for a lower-than-usual fee of $200,000, on the condition from producer [[Dino De Laurentiis]] would next produce ''Platoon.'' ''Year of the Dragon'' was directed by Stone's friend [[Michael Cimino]], who had also helmed ''The Deer Hunter.''  According to Stone, Cimino attempted to produce ''Platoon'' in 1984.<ref name=chris/>

The [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]] refused to support the production of the film due to its depiction of [[American war crimes in Vietnam|American war crimes]], claiming the script was "rife with unrealistic and highly unfavorable depictions of the American soldier" for its depiction of the murder and rape of Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers, the attempted murder of one US soldier by another, drug abuse and portraying the majority of American soldiers as "illiterate delinquents." The film was also accused of perpetuating racist stereotypes of African-American soldiers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Beckett |first=Jesse |date=June 23, 2021 |title=Charlie Sheen's Co-Star Saved Him From Falling Out of a Heli and 7 Other Little-Known Facts About 'Platoon' |url=https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/platoon-facts.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241229085509/https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/platoon-facts.html |archive-date=December 29, 2024 |access-date=December 29, 2024 |website=warhistoryonline |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=August 29, 1987 |title=Why the Pentagon didn't like 'Platoon' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1987/08/30/why-the-pentagon-didnt-like-platoon/b638371d-0dbf-4810-9483-898fa8b68cfe/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220811065123/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1987/08/30/why-the-pentagon-didnt-like-platoon/b638371d-0dbf-4810-9483-898fa8b68cfe/ |archive-date=August 11, 2022 |access-date=December 29, 2024}}</ref>

De Laurentiis secured financing for ''Platoon,'' but he struggled to find a distributor. Because De Laurentiis had already spent money sending Stone to the Philippines to scout for locations, he decided to keep control of the film's script until he was repaid.<ref name="salewicz" /> Then Stone's script for what would become ''[[Salvador (film)|Salvador]]'' was passed to [[John Daly (producer)|John Daly]] of British production company [[Hemdale Film Corporation|Hemdale]]. Once again, this was a project that Stone had struggled to secure financing for, but Daly loved the script and was prepared to finance both ''Salvador'' and ''Platoon.''  Stone shot ''Salvador'' first, before turning his attention to ''Platoon''.<ref name="salewicz" />