Off Limits

Off limits became something of a quasi-cult film for me. I was in Vietnam with the Marines north and south of Danang in 1968 and once fantasized about hitching a ride down Highway 1 to see Saigon, no small feat as it is something like 580 road miles. But the highway was full of vehicles during the day and you could always catch a ride. I never did get Saigon during the war, but finally did with a group of war vets in 1994. One of my favorite quips in the movie is when Dafoe turns around and finds some South Viet QCs (MPs) coming toward him and says, "We've got mice." That's what we GIs called Viets wearing helmets with QC (Quan Canh) on them. I am now spending several months in Saigon on sort of a temporary assignment, i.e., staying with the in-laws of my Viet wife on a winter break. I would like to see Off Limits again just to critique the city backdrop it used and how realistic it was. I thought this movie could have become a TV mini series but realize it would have been more expensive than China Beach in coming up with SE Asian sets to shoot on. I give it a 7, perhaps too high of a rating, as it goes good on a rainy Saturday afternoon over drinks with friends, especially if they happen to be Vietnam vets.

I watched this film on Sky movies the other night, it is called Saigon here in the UK. It is of course set in Saigon and I think if you took this cop thriller and set it in LA or New York it would just be another average cop film. What makes it different is the setting and the backdrop of the Vietnam conflict. I must admit though I guessed the murderers identity about halfway through the film. It was also refreshing for the guy not to get the girl as it were! A decent if a quite forgotten film.

Off Limits (AKA: Saigon) is the missing Vietnam film, a film I feel not many have actually seen since I never see it mentioned on the message boards out there in net land. While I have certainly never heard it spoken about when talk of Vietnam films crops up. The film is in essence a who done it police drama, two cops on the streets of Saigon during the war are searching for a high ranking officer who is, erm, offing prostitutes.

It is the backdrop of the war that gives the film added substance and lifts it way above average, because we see not only the problems a murder investigation brings, but also the horror of war getting in the way as well. Some damn fine and tidy performances flesh out the characters, with both Gregory Hines & Willem Dafoe as our two stoic and battle weary coppers engaging us from the off, whilst the supporting cast of Fred Ward, Keith David (look out for his dance man!) & Scott Glenn are interestingly watchable; the latter of which who leaves the lasting impression with what has to be the best 5 minutes work he ever did during a brilliant interrogation sequence during a mid-air flight.

It's gritty and interesting and deserves to be better known and sought out. It doesn't pull up any trees as regards formula, and it certainly isn't one you will want to go back to time and time again for thrills and spills, but it hits the spot and as the mystery and stifling heat of Vietnam pervades the mood, you will remember watching it long after the credits have rolled. 7/10

In Saigon, during the war, Buck McGriff (Willem Dafoe) and Albaby Perkins (Gregory Hines) are U.S. Military Policemen trying to do law enforcement in a chaotic city. When a prostitute is executed on bed, they investigate and they find a witness – the G.I. Maurice (Keith David) that is scared since the killer is an American officer. However Maurice is murdered and soon they find that there are six other prostitutes that have been murdered but their cases have vanished from the files.

They meet the former investigator that gives a copy of his findings and they have five colonels as prime suspects that might be the serial- killer, but their friend Sergeant Dix (Fred Ward) warns that only three of them were in Saigon in the night of the last murder. McGriff finds that Sister Nicole (Amanda Pays) has a witness hidden in the jungle with the Vietcong and he tries to convince her to let them meet her to find who the serial-killer is.

"Off Limits" is a good movie with great cast and a storyline similar to "The Night of the Generals", i.e., a high ranking officer is killing prostitutes during the war. However, the movies are absolutely different and also in common the manhunt of the serial-killer in time of war. This movie is also a great chance to see the lovely Amanda Pays that has disappeared from the screens. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Saigon - Império da Violência" ("Saigon – Empire of Violence")

During the sixties,Anataole Litvak made "the night of the generals".A nazi officer was on a prostitutes murder's trail in Varsaw,Poland:and it seemed that the culprit was a general (check the title).That script was absurd -in Varsaw,during WW2,there was worse,to say the least!-and dubious taste.

So back in Saigon,during the Vietnam war.Two cops are on a prostitutes ' murder's trail...and it seems that this killer is a general....Well you get the picture.

Well,it's not that bad.It's rather entertaining,thanks to Dafoe's good performance.A lot of things do not rise above routine:the two cops who ,of course, are very different,the de rigueur swearwords ,and strip tease galore.What's more interesting is the conflict between the American cops and their local colleagues ,although it's much too superficial,as the Dafoe/nun 's relationship is.Unlike Litvak's Polish extravaganza in which we soon know the murderer's name,"off limits' is a whodunit,saving his identity for the last minutes.

Best moment:although over the top,the scene on the plane where two simultaneous questionings take place gives goosepimples.