CASUALTIES OF WAR

CASUALTIES OF WAR

CASUALTIES OF WAR - 9.5/10

A beautifully written movie that was exceptionally well directed by Brian De Palma. I first saw this film back in 1991, and although I remembered a little bit about it, I had forgotten most of it. Michael J Fox, in the beginning of the film seemed to underact a little, but gradually got to about perfect as the film progressed. I honestly felt that Sean Penn, while at times brilliant throughout the film, overacted a bit in parts too. Really the best performance out of the entire ensemble of actors was Don Harvey. He was absolutely amazing.

The character study in this film was what made it so good. You had Sean Penn's character, who seemed to be gradually made into a monster. He raped and murdered the young Vietnamese girl out of anger, out of revenge. The speech about, "I ain't Vietcong....she's Vietcong" highlighted what he was feeling. He saw her as who killed his best friend and he wanted to make her hurt as much as he did. Harvey's character on the other hand, was simply a sociopath. He raped and killed the girl, for the pleasure of it. John C Riley's character, was a subconscious conformist, whereas John Lugizamo's character was a conscientious conformist. He did not want to deviate from the group, so he did what he knew in his heart was wrong, for acceptance.

The only one who remotely tried to do the right thing, was also th only one who felt regret at the end of the film. The rest of them had a, "What happens in combat, stays in combat" mentality, feeling and showing no remorse for raping and murdering, and Fox's character felt deeply responsible for not being able to protect her and stop it from happening. With hardly no time to analyze the situation, Fox had a crucial decision to make and was unable to come to a conclusion.

The interaction with Dale Dye's character was particularly interesting and furthermore reflective of the grayness that is our society. He says what we as the audience and Fox's character do not want to hear when he says that the other four men will either not be punished at all or their punishment will be extremely lenient.

When Fox goes into confront the four men, after they try and kill him and he smacks Harvey's character in the fact with a shovel, was one of my favorite parts of the film. De Palma did such a good job of building up the tension that the pay off was absolutley beautiful .

"Go to Hell.....sir." - Best line of the entire film.

Two more thoughts....

Both John C Riley and Sean Penn look so freakin young in this film! Yet Riley hasn't aged one bit and Penn looks like he's pushing 90.

Riley's character is asked during the interrogation (which by the way I wonder, was it real or what Fox was imagining would happen?) why Fox's character didn't participate in the murder/rape of the girl. His response was, "I'd been there a lot longer than him. Probably 3 weeks longer than him."

Having never been to War (and hopefully never having to) I've heard that it is Hell. 3 weeks doesn't seem like a long time to the rest of us, but it is probably a lifetime for a soldier. Perhaps 21 days in Hell could change a man that much.

Awesome movie! If you enjoy intense dramas and you want to have one of the rare experiences to watch Fox in something other than a comedy I highly recommend this film.