A motivational/metaphysical model analysis of platoon

Abstract

This essay extends the tradition of organically explicating dialectical conflict in feature film. The author creates the Motivational/Metaphysical Model to analyze Platoon—exploring not only how the filmic and narrative elements function to channel viewers into the “Vietnam experience,” but also how the mythic conflict between humane and destructive impulses of war is symbolically resolved. What results is an interpretation of the film that suggest the presence of a previously unidentified pattern of conflict resolution the author refers to as dialectical centering. It is this new pattern, the essay concludes, that permits the film to move beyond providing a unifying homage to those who served in Vietnam to a point where it prescriptively outlines a message with foreign policy implications.