charlie sheen's red bandana
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Platoon
mr_x350 — 9 years ago(July 15, 2016 03:16 AM)
there's two things im wondering number 1. in the first scene where everyone is smoking weed, johnny depp is wearing a red bandana. after depp dies sheen is seen wearing one. so was it the same bandana? did charlie wear it as a tribute to his friend?
number 2 wouldnt it be dangerous to wear that? it would stand out really well in the forrest and make it easier to get shot. was that realistic? or just movie magic. -
stevekaczynski — 9 years ago(July 15, 2016 11:43 AM)
I don't know about 1, but the NVA sometimes wore coloured cloth as field signs, worn around their necks as bandannas or wrapped around an arm. A French photographer, Catherine Leroy, snapped a picture of NVA soldiers n the Hue 1968 fighting wearing red and blue field signs.
http://www.terapeak.com/worth/life-magazine-1968-february-hue-catherine-leroy-north-vietnamese-soliders-fixer/322090815553/
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=catherine+leroy+photos+vietnam&biw=1040&bih=632&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ1ICRkfbNAhVdFMAKHRcJAL0QsAQIGg#imgrc=tcIopJMGwzvMWM%3A
"Chicken soup - with a beep straw." -
stevekaczynski — 9 years ago(July 22, 2016 04:40 AM)
Sheen's character was not especially friendly with Depp's unless I missed something.
In jungle fighting there were probably conflicting motives to not stand out (ie. no bright colours) but have an identifying colour so your own soldiers could be distinguished during a clash.
http://img0045.popscreencdn.com/95321336_men-at-arms-143-armies-of-the-vietnam-war-2-by-lee-e-.jpg
In this illustration two NVA soldiers are wearing yellow field signs as a colour of the day. Apparently this was changed from day to day for security reasons.
My own feeling is that someone like Sheen's character wearing a red bandanna for no obviously military reason during jungle fighting is just asking to get shot.
"Chicken soup - with a beep straw." -
stevekaczynski — 9 years ago(January 15, 2017 01:45 AM)
Could be. Depp's character could speak Vietnamese (not an easy language for Americans to learn), had presumably been through the language school in Monterey, California and was probably one of the more intelligent members of the platoon, so he might be better able to get on with a college drop-out like Taylor than some members of the platoon would.
"Chicken soup - with a beep straw."
