Pecados de Guerra

`Casualties of War' belongs to the same year as that other anti-war film `Born on the Fourth of July'. From about the mid-eighties American feeling rose bitterly against the aftermath of the Viet Nam war: the price had been too high. Too many young men killed or wounded and, worse perhaps, too many young men psychologically scarred for the rest of their lives. `Casualties of War' does not point any accusing fingers at anyone: the film is an anguishing account of a horrendous series of actions based on real facts. Even so, our interpretation must go a little beyond what the film tells us, what we are seeing. We must ask how many more service-men lost their nerve in the middle of that jungle inferno which was Viet Nam?

Brian de Palma obliges us to enter into that indescribable hell, so that we might, with a bit of luck, if our feelings can bear the torture of witnessing such inhumane irrationality, understand a little more the agonising palpable naked terror which so many men had to go through.

However, whether Michael J. Fox or whether Sean Penn played their part better seems to overlook an obviety: without that performance by the Vietnamese girl, Thuy Thu Le, this film would have been forgotten years ago. My first seeing of that fragile creature – some years ago – left me nauseated, my stomache churned and I had bad dreams for several nights. That pathetic little face and her screams of anguish haunted me for days afterwards. Her performance was so compelling, rivetting, anguishing, it had me hating being a man. I only just stopped short of throwing up. Perhaps nobody expresses this better than `Tony's Corner: a Fan's Notes' (www.colba.net):

<< the performance of a young actress, a woman named Thuy Thu Le. It is to my mind, one of the bravest, most courageous, and one of the most heartbreakingly real pieces of acting that I've ever seen………… the intolerable suffering that Thuy's character Oahn endures, her emotional intensity………... searing power, of blistering emotion, and raging despair, the outstanding performance of Thuy Thu Le is central to it's success >> (end partial quote)

Amen.

It is one of those performances that no Oscar can ever pay for: indeed such a triviality would have been an insult. The film is cruel, sickening, loathsome, heartbreaking; but something humane, something I can't explain, something deep inside me, compelled me to see this poor `wretch' again, compelled me to witness once again her tremendous scream of despair against the bestial inhumanity of war – any, every and all war. I have no love of morbidity: I shun such ridiculous programmes. But this poor creature called Thuy Thu Le forced me to see the film for a second time.

Enough: I will never see this film again. I have seen naked desperation and fear so realistic that my soul seethes to boiling point and is about to burst thus twice. That will do. In the end we are all casualties of war.....

No vote: I cannot reduce this to a simple vote. It just would not have any real meaning, would it?

CASUALTIES OF WAR tells the excruciating true story of a squad of American soldiers during the Vietnam War, who kidnap and rape a young Vietnamese girl in the name of fun. The story is told through the youthful and innocent eyes of Michael J. Fox, in a rare dramatic performance that may be his career-best.

Films like this can hardly be enjoyed, but CASUALTIES OF WAR proves to be unmissable entertainment and one of the harshest war stories out there; also, one of the best. It's a bit like watching a film of a train wreck, where you can't tear yourself away from what's happening and what you know is going to happen. The tragic, soul-searing story is one of the most moving I've ever seen.

A film like this needs a great director to tell it, and de Palma is that director. He wisely lets the story tell itself for the most part, but he can't resist incorporating a couple of flourishes (like the POV sequence) that remind us of his skill as an auteur. The cast is great, too, particularly the newbie actors (John C. Reilly and John Leguizano) playing soldiers and Sean Penn as the hateful sergeant. Understandably, Thuy Thu Le has the toughest role, and it's one she walks away from with her head held high; if ever an actress deserved an Oscar nod, it's her.

CASUALTIES OF WAR

Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)

Sound format: 6-track Dolby Stereo

(35mm and 70mm release prints)

During a routine field trip at the height of the Vietnam War, a young soldier (Michael J. Fox) rebels against his commanding officer (Sean Penn) and other members of his patrol when they kidnap a defenceless Vietnamese girl (Thuy Thu Le) and subject her to a terrifying physical ordeal.

Unfairly overshadowed by the simultaneous theatrical release of Oliver Stone's pompous - but still impressive - BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (1989), Brian DePalma's CASUALTIES OF WAR recreates a harrowing incident from the Vietnam conflict - first reported in 'New Yorker' magazine in 1969 - in which a group of otherwise decent men succumbed to their own worst impulses and committed a terrible crime. Filmed with typical cinematic bravado by master craftsman DePalma, the movie uses every inch of the scope frame to convey both the duality of the landscape (vast swathes of breathtaking countryside, where sudden death lurks around every corner) and the moral vacuum which stretches the two central characters (Fox and Penn) to breaking point. Crafted with blistering simplicity by screenwriter David Rabe (himself a Vietnam veteran and author of the acclaimed stageplay 'Streamers'), the soldiers are depicted as brave individuals whose principles are shattered by their traumatic combat experiences, leaving Fox to essay the role of peacemaker in a world where all the rules have been turned upside down. Thuy - a model with no prior acting experience - is truly heartbreaking as the soldiers' terrified prisoner, and her ultimate fate is so horrific (arguably the most disturbing set-piece of this director's entire career), many viewers will be too appalled to see the film through to its inevitable conclusion. All in all, this uncompromising drama emerges as one of DePalma's strongest films to date.

This is a true story of what happens in war when morality and ethics are tossed aside. The killing that is involved in war gets mixed up with murder, bigotry, and revenge in this factual horror story.

Fox is excellent as the naive but ethical young man exposed to a "Nobody cares" atmosphere in the midst of war. The film not only shows what can happen to human beings when they let go of any sense of conscience, but it is also a metaphor of the amoral mentality that was behind the Viet Nam conflict and its aftermath.

The struggle depicted here is between going along with the group or maintaining one's own integrity. Are there rules of war? Are there rules of living? These are the profound questions which underlie the action in this disturbing film.

If there's a moral to this story, aside from all the basic ones, its that a lot of casualties of war are because boys are sent in to fight for causes they only know a little about. In this case, Michael Fox plays a boy who, more than any other movie ever made, has to grow up in a hurry. He is part of a fighting unit which has gone loco, thanks mostly to two insane members. The five man unit kidnap a young girl in order to rape and kill her. Fox does all he can to stop it, as a boy who is a member of a respected group. During the movie, Fox realizes he must be more than that to stop the maniacs. He realizes the maniacs will never stop. In essence, he becomes a man, which alienates him from the numerous maniacs in charge, which is the real problem. Excellent writing and production. And one of the best realistic yet Hollywood endings of all time.