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Casualties of War
(1989) - Directed by Brian de Palma
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War/ Drama
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"You survive the Nam, you get to live forever, man."
(1989) - Directed by Brian de Palma
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War/ Drama
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"You survive the Nam, you get to live forever, man."
War movie ballot plus mood for de Palma ignited by Carlito's Way equals Casualties of War. I went into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about it other than it was a Brian de Palma movie. I mean, imagine my surprise when I see the face of Michael J. Fox and hear the voice of Ving Rhames. I could see Ving Rhames doing this, but I know Fox from Back to the Future, Stuart Little and Atlantis. This is a guy a lot of people spent their childhoods with. This intrigued me.
But I probably never would've watched this had I known the plot. It is based on a true story in which a group of soldiers (save one of them) kidnap a Vietnamese girl, raped her and killed her when she became a "problem." Apparently, this is the movie that Quentin Tarantino claims in the greatest 'Nam war movie ever, or so I read on Wikipedia. And after watching I begged to God that's just some internet joker, but God ain't gonna change history, or interviews on articles.
While the spectacle of the first battle scene satisfies enough and has a few shocking moments, the actors are working hard to save the movie's simple story for the first 25 minutes, mostly just showcasing the soldiers with minimal character development. And I expected things to get a little more interesting after the actual kidnap took place, but once again it became nothing but a slow, well-filmed tirade of a bunch of soldiers angrily ranting towards Fox about how they think they're better than everyone else. We finally get a breathe of fresh air when Fox is given the opportunity to report it. But this plot is stretched so thickly that we have to deal with the first chapter, specifically the cruelty, for a literal hour.
Early on, the music is one of the better scores by Ennio Morricone, but I noticed some John Williams influence in the orchestra in the first battle scene. But it can be overly dramatic, too, even sugary like Monster Energy writing an opera. But as far as the acting goes, I think the only ones who were really convincing were Fox and Rhames. Fox's typical youthful persona works perfectly as the innocent man in the bunch of rapists he's forced to hang around, but Ving Rhames barely had any screen time. He did a good job at his role and he was onscreen for maybe two minutes. Everyone else was cheesy and overplayed or didn't even try to act. Big flaw.
This is an overly bitter movie with cheesy acting, drawn out and overly dramatic scenes and way too much cruelty with little to no cleverness. The war scenes are pretty good, and the second half is a major improvement over the first. But due to the obsessive length of the first half, this is not a movie I would recommend for anyone despite its merits eventually driving the film toward the end. It's true that this story should have been told, but at two full hours it's just too much. I'm certain that I'm in the minority when I say that you should just watch the tropy Black Dahlia instead. This isn't a bad movie, but I'll likely never watch it again.
= 62/100
Brian de Palma's Average Score (6 good vs. 0 bad)
This film does not alter Brian de Palma's top 5 score. 86.8 / 5
But I probably never would've watched this had I known the plot. It is based on a true story in which a group of soldiers (save one of them) kidnap a Vietnamese girl, raped her and killed her when she became a "problem." Apparently, this is the movie that Quentin Tarantino claims in the greatest 'Nam war movie ever, or so I read on Wikipedia. And after watching I begged to God that's just some internet joker, but God ain't gonna change history, or interviews on articles.
While the spectacle of the first battle scene satisfies enough and has a few shocking moments, the actors are working hard to save the movie's simple story for the first 25 minutes, mostly just showcasing the soldiers with minimal character development. And I expected things to get a little more interesting after the actual kidnap took place, but once again it became nothing but a slow, well-filmed tirade of a bunch of soldiers angrily ranting towards Fox about how they think they're better than everyone else. We finally get a breathe of fresh air when Fox is given the opportunity to report it. But this plot is stretched so thickly that we have to deal with the first chapter, specifically the cruelty, for a literal hour.
Early on, the music is one of the better scores by Ennio Morricone, but I noticed some John Williams influence in the orchestra in the first battle scene. But it can be overly dramatic, too, even sugary like Monster Energy writing an opera. But as far as the acting goes, I think the only ones who were really convincing were Fox and Rhames. Fox's typical youthful persona works perfectly as the innocent man in the bunch of rapists he's forced to hang around, but Ving Rhames barely had any screen time. He did a good job at his role and he was onscreen for maybe two minutes. Everyone else was cheesy and overplayed or didn't even try to act. Big flaw.
This is an overly bitter movie with cheesy acting, drawn out and overly dramatic scenes and way too much cruelty with little to no cleverness. The war scenes are pretty good, and the second half is a major improvement over the first. But due to the obsessive length of the first half, this is not a movie I would recommend for anyone despite its merits eventually driving the film toward the end. It's true that this story should have been told, but at two full hours it's just too much. I'm certain that I'm in the minority when I say that you should just watch the tropy Black Dahlia instead. This isn't a bad movie, but I'll likely never watch it again.
= 62/100
Brian de Palma's Average Score (6 good vs. 0 bad)
This film does not alter Brian de Palma's top 5 score. 86.8 / 5