Platoon (1986) - 7 corrections

Directed by Oliver Stone, starring Charlie Sheen, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Depp, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe (add more)

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Entry In the scene where Chris Taylor is shooting at the feet of the Vietnamese man and shouting at him to dance, this action would have, at very least, injured the Vietnamese man severely. This is because of the fact that the M-16 rifle used an extremely high velocity bullet which, because of its high velocity and small size (I believe it was .223 caliber), broke up into fragments upon impact. In this case, fragments from the impact of the bullets into the ground would have flown up and caused a certain degree of injury. [Not if the ground was loose soil, and absorbed the fragments. Besides which, he may have been getting hit by small fragments, but due to fear and adrenalin, he continued hopping around.]
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Entry At the end after Charlie sheen has shot Barnes an APC comes to them and administers help. When that APC starts to come out of the jungle you can see it is flying a flag. This flag is not the US flag however, it is the Nazi flag. [Character decision, not a movie mistake. As we can see in the movie, and many others, soldiers in a warzone where discipline is not enforced rigorously, can decorate their equipment and themselves with loads of weird stuff (like writing on helmets, headbands, cigarettes stuck into sleeves or helmets, pin-up photos, etc).]
Corrected by Twotall Time
Entry After the scene when Sandy and Sal get blown-up at the camp Taylor and Mannie are sent to go out on point. In the initial scene when they are told to go out, if you look in Mannie's helmet at his pack of cigarettes they are Marlboro, in the next scene when he is on watch the cigarettes are Kool. [We don't know the elapsed time between being sent on point and when he was actually on watch. It's entirely possible that he finished his Marlboros, and took another pack of whatever was available, possibly the Kools. If his favorite brand wasn't available, likely he'd take whatever was around.]
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Entry Just after the scene when the soldiers burn a village and they are walking in a field along with some civilians, they are all noticeably left-handed (they carry their rifles with the trigger on their left side, pointing them to the right). The image is a reversed (flipped) shot. [The soldiers carrying their rifles with the muzzles pointed to the right is technically a correct detail. You'll notice the soldiers are walking in a double column formation. All rifles are pointed outboard in this type of formation for safety's sake. Therefore, the soldiers in the right hand column would always carry their weapons left handed to prevent shooting the soldiers in the left hand column if they were suddenly ambushed. It is standard practise in U.S. ground forces to do so.]
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Entry Some of the U.S. soldiers appear to be carrying M16 carbines (often referred to as the "Car 15"). The short M16s of the period were known as XM177s and had a noticeably shorter barrel. The CAR 15 version was not used until after the Vietnam period. [The CAR-15 was first introduced into the Army's inventory in 1965. It was usually used by specialized units (such as long range recon patrols) but was often issued to squad leaders and above in line infantry units as well. It is completely appropriate for Elais (Squad Leader) and Barnes (Platoon Sergeant) to be carrying them.]
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Entry This movie is about US Army soldiers, but the actors wear the tan US Marine Corps web belts with frame buckles. Army web belts are black and the buckles are solid rather than frames. [Although it is true that army belts are black, it cannot be said that the army wore only solid buckles in Viet-Nam. I was an infantryman in the 1st Cavalry Division in 1969 and can assure you that the buckle I (and everyone I knew) in the field wore frame type belt buckles. There was good reason for this. Would anyone in their right mind wear a "shiny" brass belt buckle in the field?]
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Entry In the scene just following the tragic village-burning episode the black soldiers were digging foxholes discussing their bad feelings concerning the killings. During the discussion they used the word "Holmes" when addressing each other. The phrase "Holmes" was coined in reference to the Boxer Larry Holmes who didn't win the heavy weight championship title until 1978, a good decade after the events in the movie were to take place. ["Homes" or "home" has nothing to do with Larry Holmes. It's a term that was used by soldiers to address others from the same stateside city or town. For example, a soldier from Chicago would address another soldier from Chicago by calling him Home, Homes, or Homey. It's actually short for "Home Town." Although it was first used by black soldiers, it was adopted by everyone.]
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