Film

Nothin' to see here, folks. Platoon was filmed and produced in 1986. There was no digital yet, so this bad boy was shot entirely on film in the jungles of the Philippines (the Philippine government even allowed Oliver Stone and co. to use some of their old military equipment).

Now even though this film utilizes a very traditional mode of production, it does its best with special effects. There are lots and lots of explosions, fires, bombings and all that stuff. While it's easy to tell sometimes that the explosions are props (sometimes the grenades resemble high-grade firecrackers rather than real explosions), the film does a great job of blowing things up without the assistance of digital, which these days can make things look even more real.