That part wasn't comical, though, really. What I said was those army guys were so stressed out and crazed from the war that they became like beasts and raped that woman. The comedy was in the fact that people like Sean Penn and John C. Reilly played such guys. (Too bad Will Ferrell wasn't around!)
I with you here. The men have been so traumatised and desensitised by what they've seen and done whilst in Vietnam that they're unable to see how disgusting and wrong their behaviour is. This is exacerbated by the fact that they see the Vietnamese people as sub-human. The fact isn't/shouldn't be lost on the viewer that this state is created and promoted by the military themselves. One of the things you have to do to get men to kill is to demonise the enemy and make them all the same. Whether it's gooks, Fritz, Jerry's, etc it's all the same, the point is to stop the soldier seeing them as individuals.
The film also demonstrates how a mob mentality can consume a group or individual and mean that they do things that, at another time, they would think they could never do.
On IMDB.com there's a thread in the message board for this movie called, "WERE THEY WRONG?" I wasn't the only person in the world who understood what they were doing. Many people said, "YES. They were wrong." -- but I still feel skeptical about being so unsympathetic.
First of all, Casualties of War does a horrible job at creating a situation to construct the inner lives of these men. The movie paints them as just horny men who rape a woman for fun. Though -- wake up call, movie -- they're men in the Vietnam War.
People like you -- who are automatically ready to point the shame finger -- turn to this movie to seethe and scorn, because the movie makes it easy for you. The movie's like, "Here we have a group of men in the Vietnam War. They're going to rape this woman. They're raping this woman. Now she's running for her life. She's bloody and bruised. She's stabbed. She's crying out in pain. SHE DIES! Oh my god! Lock the men up!"
Hilariously, they throw in a sensitive, effeminate Michael J. Fox to stand around like Mother Theresa and shed a few tears for the rape victim. He's the PERFECT MALE, you see? He's feminism's answer for the correct mold of a man. Gentle and "right in the head." A eunuch!
Miss Vicky's type.
Meanwhile, the movie does nothing to explain why a bunch of men in the VIETNAM WAR have snapped and raped this woman. They just did! They're men and they should be shamed!
These men were under a bombardment of issues, though Casualties of War does nothing to really address them. Their friend -- that black guy who suddenly died on them -- that's about all we saw. They watched one of their own die. NOT ENOUGH, THOUGH! This movie is like Platoon Light, but with a much harsher punishment and criticism towards the men. They do not give a fair assessment of the situation.
And how hilarious that you, yourself, Miss Vicky, don't watch many other war movies, but you love Casualties of War. All the other drama of war -- all the killing, all the massacring, all the madness -- but a movie about a woman getting raped during the war is like all you need to see about the war. You're like Spike Lee -- "WHERE'S THE BLACK PEOPLE?!" Can't be good until you're represented.
Casualties of War is a failure. Nobody cares about it because nobody agrees with it.
With the rest of this, though, I can't agree with. Firstly, while it's been a very long time since I saw the film, I wouldn't say it fails at all. I don't think it's necessary to construct their inner lives because that's knowledge you'd be expected to have. Especially at the time the film was made. Not in detail, of course, but I think you'd be expected to presume that these men are suffering, as I've already said, and are now damaged. I disagree that the film just shows them as "just horny men who rape a woman for fun." They're men who've been stripped of their humanity by the war. They're not raping her because they're horny, they're raping her because they can and they're in control. If I remember correctly, not all of them want to do it but are 'forced' to, as I said, it's a mob mentality.
Hilariously, they throw in a sensitive, effeminate Michael J. Fox to stand around like Mother Theresa and shed a few tears for the rape victim. He's the PERFECT MALE, you see? He's feminism's answer for the correct mold of a man. Gentle and "right in the head." A eunuch!
This part I thought was particularly wrong. MJF is there, as in most stories about a world we the audience are unfamiliar, to represent us. He reacts as you'd expect most to react. He is to Casualties Of War as Charlie Sheen is to Platoon. This has nothing to do with feminism, it's about being a human being. I'm not saying that everyone watching the film should cry or feel in any particular way, but he's the moral centre of the film. If you can't understand that I don't know how you could ever enjoy/understand a film like Casualties Of War.