Tools of Characterization

Characterization in Platoon

Actions

You can divide the characters in the platoon into two groups based on their various actions. The "good" guys tend to do good things, while the "bad" guys tend to do, well, bad things.

This is most evident with guys like Barnes, Taylor, and Elias, the three main characters. The heavily scarred Barnes, who gradually emerges as the film's villain, is willing to kill innocent people (he kills a woman in the village, and is about to kill a child before Elias stops him), something that Elias won't stand for.

Elias' willingness to attack Barnes for his actions, and even to file a report against him, shows that he is one of the "good" guys, the platoon's unofficial conscience. Taylor takes after him, choosing ultimately not to kill the innocent one-legged boy in the village and even breaking up a rape shortly thereafter. The very fact that he kills Barnes at the end of the film testifies to fact that the war has made him more "bad" than he once was.

Habits

The real war in Platoon is the war among the troops of the platoon itself, and one of the major points of contention involves recreational activities—habits. One group of guys (King, Rhah, Lerner, Elias, Big Harold) spends their time in the Underworld (a dimly lit underground lair turned unofficial drug den) smoking pot and listening to 60s classics. The majority of the guys that end up in the Elias camp (Taylor and Rhah in particular) spend their time here.

In contrast, the guys that gravitate towards Barnes (O'Neill and Bunny especially) are not into smoking marijuana at all, and actually speak out against it (Bunny in particular). They prefer the better-lit facilities aboveground and the more refined pleasures of… Budweiser beer and poker. The film goes out of its way to paint these guys as a little less fun loving than the boys underground, and a little more dangerous.

Speech and Dialogue

It's not enough for the soldiers in Platoon to just look like soldiers. They have to talk and act like soldiers, too. And talk like soldiers they sure do, utilizing not only a barrage of profanity all the time, but, more importantly using the military lingo of 'Nam. Thus, for example, guys on the radio are always talking about their "Six," a colloquial term for a unit's commanding officer (usually Captain Harris).

In one memorable scene, O'Neill talks about how "Tubs and Morehouse are short... and you wanna send them out on an ambush?" Tubs and Morehouse aren't literally "short" (well they might be), but short in a different sense. To be "short," in military terms, is to have only a few days or weeks left of one's tour. It means one is going home soon.

Platoon also makes heavy use of the word "Gook" a widely used term during the Vietnam war to describe all the different Vietnamese people (Viet Cong, NVA troops, Vietnamese citizens). The word's widespread use in the film and in the war testifies to the racial hostility of the soldiers towards their enemy and their general willingness to include everybody (enemy and non-enemy alike) in that category.