Going Back

This is a fairly morbid yet emotional war drama, starring Caper Van Dien and Carrie Otis. It is about a group of ex vietnam soldiers re-visiing aold battle gorunds years after the war. THye re-live memories of the war and remember things that they had tried to forget.

The film doesn't delve into the cliche bucket to many times as war films usually do and the script is fairly good. The actors perform well in some good roles but Casper Van Dien, who has the most important part, just cannot act. He almost ruins some emotional and effective scenes but is thankfully just rescued by some superior performance by people such as Jaimz Woolvett. The film is low budget but veteren director Sidney J Furie handles preceedings well, the guy definitely knows what he is doing. There are some good battle sequences, particularly in the last half. Overall this could have been better but it isn't bad, it is certainly better than some big budget stinkers like Windtalkers. 6/10

It is not serious "vietnam movie". It is melodramatic and unconvincing. Casper Van Dien's character is a plastic toy but not a real man. Story may be is not hopeless but realization is poor. Ending is funny.

The above is what fell out of my mouth during the final 20 minutes of this film. I've never laughed so hard at bad acting, cheesy sentiment, and overwrought "drama" before seeing this farce. Utterly ludicrous dialogue permeates the film but it never seems overly unwatchable until we enter the home stretch. Until then, it is a mildly enjoyable exercise, filled with decent costumes, vehicles, and locations (including genuine Vietnam footage --- nice). I'd rented on a whim expecting nothing, so I was surprised that it at least looked accurate and wasn't boring.

However, the movie's ultimate undoing is its commitment to the most overt and silly sentimentality this side of the "tell me I'm a good man" framing sequence from SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. The filmmakers milk it for all its worth and believe me it isn't worth much. Endless 'crying' scenes in slow motion, repeated 'breaking down' scenes, slamming of fists against walls, brotherly hugs, etc, beg the question if this was not all meant as satire.

A handful of scenes work fairly well --- the battle for Hue City is harrowing and exciting, and a "tunnel rat" sequence is suspenseful even though preceeded by the silliest on-the-nose dialogue imaginable. One bit involving a spare fuel pod in a treeline is cartoonishly innovative but seems more fit to MISSING IN ACTION than a movie meant to be taken seriously.

Ultimately the movie fails as it adds nothing to the played-out genre of the 'Vietnam film.' "War is bad!" --- check. "You wouldn't understand because you weren't there!" --- check. "It was a massacre!!!" --- check. All it lacks is a gruff Air Cav officer admonishing his troops that CHARLIE DON'T SURF!!!! Then we'd have had something.

To start off, I have to say that the European name, "Going Back" really suited this movie better than "Under Heavy Fire." I'm not much of a war movie fan, but as I'm trying to see more of Casper's stuff I took a chance.

As this is a story about the soldiers, and not the War, it was much easier for me to enjoy it. It takes place in the present day, and only shows the war when being remembered, or as footage taken on the scene. It's about a US troop during the Vietnam War who experienced a tragedy by friendly fire, and they blamed their captain (Casper). In the present day a reporter / historian wanted to help the remaining troop relive this tragedy, by revisiting Vietnam and reenacting the event to help them figure out what really happened, thus "Going Back."

Most of the present day scenes felt genuine, and the War memory scenes were used strictly to clarify or enhance emotion and not just to show the War. There was an especially touching present day scene where a Vietnamese woman Captain Ramsey went to visit sings him a BEAUTIFUL song to thank, "A soldier who has lost his way."

Certainly worth my time to see.

This story of US Marines going back to Vietnam is far fetched and the flashbacks may be a pastiche of events involving a number of different units. However, they catch the spirit of interaction of Marines, their noncoms and officers. Ramsey is a very believable captain, but in reality, he would have been at least a company commander and would not have been so directly involved in unit leadership. Otherwise, his and his marines' interactions were consistent with my experience.

So take the plot with a grain of salt, but watch closely the way the marines and their Navy Hospital Corpsman and Chaplain go about their business. It will give you a good understanding of how marines think and act in a combat environment.