Sergeant Elias Grodin
E336220
Sergeant Elias Grodin is a central, idealistic yet battle-weary soldier in the Vietnam War film "Platoon," known for his moral integrity and conflict with the more brutal Sergeant Barnes.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Sergeant Elias Grodin canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3198016 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sergeant Elias Grodin Context triple: [Platoon, character, Sergeant Elias Grodin]
-
A.
Sergeant Joe Bomowski
Sergeant Joe Bomowski is a tough but comically beleaguered Los Angeles police detective whose overbearing mother constantly interferes in both his personal life and police work.
-
B.
Sergeant "Mac" MacChesney
Sergeant "Mac" MacChesney is a tough, no-nonsense British army sergeant and one of the central military characters in the classic adventure film *Gunga Din*.
-
C.
Corporal Miller
Corporal Miller is a skilled explosives expert and member of the commando team in the World War II adventure film "The Guns of Navarone."
-
D.
Sergeant Waters
Sergeant Waters is a complex, embittered Black non-commissioned officer in the film and play "A Soldier's Story," whose internalized racism and harsh leadership drive much of the story's central conflict.
-
E.
Lieutenant Hearn
Lieutenant Hearn is a central character in Norman Mailer’s World War II novel "The Naked and the Dead," serving as a thoughtful, conflicted army officer whose clashes with authority explore themes of power and morality in wartime.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sergeant Elias Grodin Target entity description: Sergeant Elias Grodin is a central, idealistic yet battle-weary soldier in the Vietnam War film "Platoon," known for his moral integrity and conflict with the more brutal Sergeant Barnes.
-
A.
Sergeant Joe Bomowski
Sergeant Joe Bomowski is a tough but comically beleaguered Los Angeles police detective whose overbearing mother constantly interferes in both his personal life and police work.
-
B.
Sergeant "Mac" MacChesney
Sergeant "Mac" MacChesney is a tough, no-nonsense British army sergeant and one of the central military characters in the classic adventure film *Gunga Din*.
-
C.
Corporal Miller
Corporal Miller is a skilled explosives expert and member of the commando team in the World War II adventure film "The Guns of Navarone."
-
D.
Sergeant Waters
Sergeant Waters is a complex, embittered Black non-commissioned officer in the film and play "A Soldier's Story," whose internalized racism and harsh leadership drive much of the story's central conflict.
-
E.
Lieutenant Hearn
Lieutenant Hearn is a central character in Norman Mailer’s World War II novel "The Naked and the Dead," serving as a thoughtful, conflicted army officer whose clashes with authority explore themes of power and morality in wartime.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (40)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional character
ⓘ
film character ⓘ |
| alignment | morally principled ⓘ |
| appearsIn | Platoon ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Charlie Sheen’s character Chris Taylor ⓘ |
| awardContext | role contributed to Willem Dafoe’s Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | gunshot wounds ⓘ |
| characterTrait |
battle-weary
ⓘ
compassionate ⓘ idealistic ⓘ protective of new recruits ⓘ |
| conflict | Vietnam War ⓘ |
| conflictsWith |
Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes
ⓘ
surface form:
Sergeant Bob Barnes
|
| countryOfService |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| createdBy | Oliver Stone ⓘ |
| culturalImpact | iconic image of a soldier’s anguish in Vietnam War films ⓘ |
| deathContext | betrayal during combat ⓘ |
| diesIn | Platoon ⓘ |
| familyName | Grodin ⓘ |
| filmReleaseYear | 1986 ⓘ |
| fullName | Elias Grodin ⓘ |
| genreContext | anti-war cinema ⓘ |
| givenName | Elias ⓘ |
| hasRival |
Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes
ⓘ
surface form:
Sergeant Bob Barnes
|
| killedBy |
Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes
ⓘ
surface form:
Sergeant Bob Barnes
|
| loyalTo | his platoon ⓘ |
| mentors | Chris Taylor ⓘ |
| militaryBranch | United States Army ⓘ |
| narrativeRole |
central character
ⓘ
mentor figure ⓘ |
| notableFor |
moral integrity
ⓘ
opposition to brutality in combat ⓘ |
| notableScene | final death scene with arms raised ⓘ |
| opposes |
unnecessary killing of civilians
ⓘ
war crimes ⓘ |
| portrayedBy | Willem Dafoe ⓘ |
| rank | Sergeant ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
humanity amid war
ⓘ
moral conscience of the platoon ⓘ |
| workType | war film ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Sergeant Elias Grodin Description of subject: Sergeant Elias Grodin is a central, idealistic yet battle-weary soldier in the Vietnam War film "Platoon," known for his moral integrity and conflict with the more brutal Sergeant Barnes.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.