El amor es un juego cruel

On the day my friends and I learned of River Phoenix's unfortunate death, we planned to have a movie marathon that weekend. Apparently other people on campus had the same idea. By the time we got to the video store, all of the better known movies (Stand by Me, Mosquito Coast, My Own Private Idaho) had already gone. Someone happened upon Dogfight, of which none of us had ever heard. We decided to give it a shot.

What a fabulous movie! The "first kiss" scene will probably never have an equal: most movies show a first kiss as a passionate, perfect moment rather than an awkward and tense one.

This movie contains fantastic performances by Lili Taylor and River Phoenix. The story is very slight and it takes awhile to get going, but for ninety minutes I was interested in these people, especially Taylor. The scene where she orders dinner for herself in an upscale restaurant is very funny. The whole thing makes me miss River very much also.

The most atypical River Phoenix role, the furthest from his own personality comes in this film. In Dogfight River plays a young Marine recruit who along with buddies Richard Panebianco, Anthony Clark, and Mitchell Whitfield who are on a last night's leave and are heading from their Treasure Island base for a night of fun and frolic in the San Francisco of November, 1963.

The guys are about to participate in a really mindless and sick ritual called a Dogfight. The guys seek out the ugliest woman they can find and bring her to a designated bar where they're judged. The 'winner' gets a prize of whatever monies the Marines have collected among themselves. Talk about objectifying the female body in a negative way.

Phoenix hooks up with sweet and shy Lilly Taylor who really moved me with her performance. She and her mother run a coffee shop and she's a quiet kid into folk music, her favorite being Joan Baez.

While the other three have the usual night on the town for the Armed Services, Phoenix and Taylor find they connect in ways that they never dreamed possible. As they get to know each other the audience sees a more typical River Phoenix.

I remember seeing this when it first came out. It had a limited release and was restricted to art houses. The theater I saw it in was memorable too, it was the only one I've ever been in without a concession stand, not even concession machines. I guess in this no frills theater I was lucky they had rest rooms.

Phoenix and Taylor make a very lovely couple. It's a good picture for River, but Taylor was the one who really blew me away.

Dogfight captures the feelings of the mid to late 1960's in San Francisco. It accurately shows the characteristics of young U.S. Marines destined for Vietnam. They are insensitive and cruel to the young women they invite to the 'Dogfight' because of their youth and the situation they find themselves in as G.I.'s. Being in the Air Force during this period I could relate to their crudeness as a posture taken by some young men as a defense against their environment. Being insensitive was a way to deal with their situation over which they had little control. The movie also accurately portrayed how young G.I.'s bond with other young guys who in civilian life they might not have bothered to befriend.

The love story involves a girl invited to the 'Dogfight' (a contest to see who could bring the ugliest girl) and the young Marine who brings her. She breaks through his shell of indifference and they become friends and lovers.

Lilly Taylor and River Phoenix are terrific. Their characters ring true and my wife and I cared very much about what happened to them.

Phoenix's return to S.F. after his tour in Vietnam was just as I experienced it. Although I was not returning from overseas when I returned the Bay Area in 1969, I discovered that the San Francisco of 1965 was totally gone and replaced with a foreign land.

'Dogfight' is accurately nostalgic for those of my generation and perhaps older. Younger viewers get to enjoy a truly good love story. They also get a glimpse of life as a young G.I. during that uniquely explosive period of change and social upheaval in America during the middle to late 1960's.

"Dogfight", starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, is a surprisingly charming film. It tells a love story born of peculiar circumstances, much like "Marty" starring Ernest Borgnine. Phoenix and Taylor are quiet and awkward people on seemingly different paths who spend a short time together and wind up falling deeply in love with one another. The film is set against the backdrop of the autumn of 1963, prior to immense change in the United States. It is an intelligent work with a keen visual sense--watch for a kissing scene where our leads practically become musicbox dancers--and fine acting.