In 1986 the movie Platoon was released in theaters revealing the gruesome terrors of the Vietnam war. Many powerful images were used to depict the main purpose of the movie in posters and commercials. The most influential image came from a movie poster created by the director Oliver Stone during the recording of the film. This image focused on an injured American soldier, covered in blood and soot, struggling to survive while enemy soldiers chased him down. The image displays a soldier kneeling on the ground with his hands raised in their air and looking towards the sky as if to be calling out for mercy. In the background, you can see enemy soldiers hunting him down while explosions from constant airstrikes fill the sky with fire. Another…show more content… It forces its viewers to look at the logic and reason used in the Vietnam war. When people look at the poster they see the absolute destruction of Vietnam in the background where explosions wipe out the countryside. It reminds people of the controversial tactics used to help the United States during the war against communism. These tactics included the use of Agent Orange and Napalm to kill the dense vegetation across Vietnam, which in turn killed many civilians adding up to two million deaths by the end of the war. Agent Orange was a detrimental chemical used to kill plants in Vietnam but had many terrible side effects that can still be seen today. It was found out in future years that the chemical caused tumors, birth defects, rashes, and cancer. This caused people to rethink the decisions made to use this deadly chemical in Vietnam as they saw the effects on the aging veterans in the U.S. and civilians in Vietnam who still suffer from the chemical today. When looking at the effectiveness of the Platoon movie poster, it is powerful. It reminds people of the pain suffered, horror inflicted, and dangerous tactics used in Vietnam war. This war caused thousands of lives to be lost or to be changed due to the horrific side effects of Agent Orange and other chemicals used to destroy vegetation in Northern
