Going Back

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.

With the gluttony of cliche Vietnam war films to have come out in the last ten years, I was skeptical at best when i heard of Under Heavy Fire. After watching this film, though, Sidney Furie has made me a believer once again. The plot puts a nice new twist on the genre, and Casper Van Dien's inspired performance truly captures what it was like to fight in the jungles of Vietnam. In the closing scene(s), director Furie and cinematographer Cutris Peterson coordinate their efforts and vividly and beautifully capture the spirit of brotherhood and camaraderie that exists between U.S. Marine Vietnam Veterans. 9.2/10

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.

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.

Since the ending of the Vietnam War, two principal styles of feature films have been produced revolving about that baleful event, one that emphasises scenes of frantic combat activity, the second stressing off-center characterization of United States military personnel, most often encumbered with tiresome politicizing anent the evil actions of corrupted American servicemen in contrast with the apparently innate dignity and humanity manifested by Vietnamese people; within this grotesquely melodramatic piece is included the worst aspects of each, with triteness lavishly added for good measure. The film opens with a military reunion organised by cinema documentarian Kathleen Martin (Carrè Otis) who has assembled six veterans from a heavily depleted U. S. Marine Echo Company, bringing about their rendezvous held in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for the purpose of filming their impressions of erstwhile battlefields, and eventually to restage, if all agree, a controversial incident that had occurred during the war, later resulting in a court martial of the Company's leader, Captain Ramsey (Caspar Van Dien). The film wants narrative clarity, indeed even basic credibility, while plot execution is muddled; an altogether plodding and unpersuasive affair with wholesale utilisation of bromidic scenes, one even comprised of slow motion lovemaking by Van Dien and Otis. Stock footage of crowded streets in Ho Chi Minh City provide mild interest, while combat segments are largely effective, and editing is quite successful with flashbacks. However, the depiction of on-scene battle photography is unrealistically presented, and a droning score is of no assistance. It is best for this subject matter if it will be created by individuals who were there.