Tom Hardy is no stranger to a war film and so it is unsurprising that he has selected one as his all time favourite.
Hardy has listed several of his favourite films but it’s 1986’s Platoon that reaches the top spot for the Hollywood actor.
Platoon is a 1986 American war film that was written and directed by Oliver Stone.
It follows a young American volunteer as he deals with the terror of warfare and also the morally ambiguous politics he experiences when he watches the soldiers in his platoon patrol, fight and die in the jungles of Vietnam.
The film’s synopsis reads: “Chris Taylor leaves his university studies to enlist in combat duty in Vietnam in 1967. Once he’s on the ground in the middle of battle, his idealism fades. Infighting in his unit between Staff Sergeant Barnes, who believes nearby villagers are harboring Viet Cong soldiers, and Sergeant Elias, who has a more sympathetic view of the locals, ends up pitting the soldiers against each other as well as against the enemy.”
The film stars Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp and Kevin Dillon.
On the film, Hardy said: “I just think the end is really classy. I just thought it was a really beautifully put-together film.”
He added: “And Platoon has got – with the exception unfortunately of Charlie Sheen – everybody else in it is dope. Every actor and every character that I need as an English guy [is there]. You know what I mean? Every accent, class, creed, colour and religion is in there for me, so it’s a study book.
“It was something that had a taste across America [from] working class to upper class. It just had everything in it.”
Stone originally wrote the first draft of the script in 1971 and had sent it to Jim Morrison in the hopes that he would play the role that Sheen would ultimately play. Morrison had the script on him when he was found dead in Paris.
Platoon is widely acclaimed and picked up four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director.