Going Back

That's the only way I would ever sit through this piece of crap again. Even before seeing the credits, I could tell that it was a Canadian production. It has a cheesy low budget look. Bad acting, terrible make up, bad script and low production values. The plot was a tired and worn out premise; A Commander wrongfully accused of getting his men killed. From the first scene of the disputed event it's obvious, "The RTO did it". It seems to me that the Vietnamese Govt. gave the producers permission to film on location only if they put in a lot of revisionist history sprinkled with some American apologist B.S. smothered in "Peace loving peoples of Vietnam". The only redeeming qualities of this film are the location shots and the relatively authentic period US military equipment.

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.

Sidney Furie has taken something of the low road since those promising early films in the seventies, including another Vietnam movie, "The Boys in Company C." "Going Back," or "Under Heavy Fire," the new video title is not in the class of that earlier effort, but I give Furie credit for trying to make a statement about this increasingly forgotten war which left so many scars on us as individuals and a society. Neither the budget nor some of the actors are up to the task of presenting the kind of film Furie wanted to make here, and the overall compromises to the B movie market ultimately sink the director's finer aspirations. Still, credit must be given for the attempt. Especially in a time when the far right is offering revisionist fantasies like "We Were Soldiers" in an attempt to convince a new generation that this ugly, horrible war was somehow noble. Perhaps some of those who pick up this video expecting a gung ho war movie will be persuaded by its tone to see that this was not a victory to be celebrated, but a hard lesson in the limits of our power. This is a lesson our current president sorely needs to learn.

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

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.