How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Platoon.
Quote #1
TAYLOR: I just wanna be anonymous like everybody else, do my share for my country, live up to what grandpa did in the first war, dad did in the second.
Taylor is initially influenced by traditional ideas about warfare being a chance to serve one's country and do what's right. But Vietnam was a whole different ballgame, and the relative invisibility of the enemy in this film suggests that there really wasn't any "evil" to fight. Taylor's words come to seem hollow as we come to see that there's no point to his sacrifice.
Quote #2
BARNES: Elias is a water walker, like them politicians in Washington trying to fight this war with one hand tied around their balls. Ain't no need or time for a courtroom out here
War is a lawless, evil zone, a place about as far removed from the civilized world of the "courtroom" as a place can be. Winning a war takes decisive action, and politicians seem unwilling to permit it. They would rather try to fight "with one hand tied around their balls."
Quote #3
TAYLOR: She's a f***ing human being man, f*** you… f***ing animal… all of you are f***ing animals.
This is what Taylor says to his fellow soldiers when he discovers them raping a Vietnamese girl. In this movie, war makes "animals" out of human beings. It destroys all that makes them human and reduces them to their most primal of instincts.