2023-08-21
47 分钟Oliver Stone’s harrowing and heartbreaking Vietnam drama ‘Platoon’ becomes a worldwide phenomenon in 1986—and signals the beginning of the Vietnam movie boom. Host: Brian Raftery Producers: Devon Manze, Mike Wargon, Amanda Dobbins, and Vikram Patel Sound Design: Bobby Wagner Mixing and Mastering: Scott Somerville All interviews for this series were conducted before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hey, everybody.
Here at the Ringer, we're known for our talk shows, but you might not know we also have a whole slate of great narrative podcasts, all of them made for binging.
If you're looking for an unmissable sports history show, you'll love Icons Club.
It's a chronicle of the NBA told through the voices of legendary players whose stories warrant blockbuster movies of their own.
If you're a fan of culture podcasts, check out this Blew up, an investigative story about how social media is inventing an all new level of stardom, one that's not always as glamorous as it looks.
There's also Gamblers, a show about people who make money betting on, well, pretty much anything.
Just don't bet on finding a better podcast about gambling because you won't win.
Thanks for listening.
It's the summer of 1985.
Ronald Reagan has begun his second term at the White House, John Rambo has just taken over the box office, and Oliver Stone is miserable.
It was a very tough period for me when Rimbaud came out.
Stone had been trying for years to make a film about the event that had changed his life, the Vietnam War.
He'd enlisted in the army in the late 60s, ultimately spending 15 months in Southeast Asia.
Stone returned home with multiple decorations, including a Bronze Star for valor.
But he'd been shaken and angered by his experiences in Vietnam.
He'd been part of a battle that left several men dead, including about 25Americans, and he'd killed a man himself.
The whole experience, Stone said decades afterward, left him numb and dumb.
Back in the States, Stone struggled to readjust to civilian life.
But with the help of the GI Bill, he enrolled at film school at New York University.
And in the mid-70s, he poured his combat experiences into a tough screenplay about the heroism and the sins committed by a group of US Soldiers in the jungle.