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100 comments in total

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38 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
Disturbing and highly compelling war/drama., 8 January 2003

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

"Casualties of War" is based on a horrifying true accident which took place in 1966.Some American soldiers abducted a teen-age Vietnamese girl and dragged her on a long-range reconnaissance mission.They tortured,raped and finally murdered her.Michael J.Fox is excellent as a the only soldier in the platoon who tries to stop the violent crime.Thuy Thu Le is also impressive as the victim-her performance is so convincing that I'm surprised that she hasn't appeared in the other movies.The rape/murder scene is among the most heart-breaking sequences ever captured on screen.The film is well-directed by Brian De Palma("Sisters","Carrie","Dressed to Kill")and it delivers the message which tells the viewer that war is hell and can turn young men into monsters.A must-see for fans of disturbing and thought-provoking cinema.

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30 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
gripping tale of war, 17 November 2000
Author: mcfly-31 from anaheim, ca

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The odd thing about this film, is that it could've taken place with any background. War, college campus, neighborhood gang. The real plot is about the affects of rape and murder on the good guy and the bad guys. The Vietnam war just happens to be where it really took place, so we are entered into that gritty world of sudden violence, if not sudden death. Fox is a rookie soldier joining Penn's squad. Penn sort of casually mentions that they're gonna find themselves a girl to "keep up morale" while they are on their journey. This involves abducting a young farm girl from her villiage in the middle of the night, not affected in the least by the girl's hysterical mother. Each man (it's a group of 5) has his different reaction, Riley as the dumb "go along with anything" soldier does exactly that, Harvey, in a terrific wacko performance, loves the idea, with Leguizamo and Fox opposed. But Leguizamo, feeling the equivalent of teen peer pressure, does not back Fox when the two want to approach Penn about his antics. So Fox is left in an awkward position the rest of his stay in the field with his squad. There is of course, a confrontation, in a drawn out scene, where toughies Penn and Harvey accuse him of being gay and not doing to the enemy what they deserve. This is the core of the film's impact, as they quarrel, the girl is raped, and then Penn demands that Fox kill her! When she becomes ill, Penn fears her coughing may give away their posistion, so he berates Fox to stab her. He refuses, and in an ensuing arguement, the girl tries to get away, which ends up leading to a chaotic scene in which she reaches a slow, painful demise. The rest of the film deals with Fox trying to bring attention about what happened to his mostly deaf and incompotent superiors. That brief summary, though, barely scratches the surface of the emotionally charged scenes you will experience in the movie. There are many sad moments even before the girl is introduced. And then audience anguish when we think that maybe these men will get away with what they did. The key to the impact is, of course, the performances. Penn is his usual out of control self, who you may feel bad for, seeing how he's such a dedicated soldier and even decent guy before the kidnapping. An underrated and hardly known Don Harvey, I think somewhat outshines Penn with his always angry, scary corporal whose dark eyes and contant scowl give him a great intimidation factor. Riley makes you roll your eyes with his convincing moron, a guy who baffles as to why he'd get into the army, with his I.Q. seeming to be below 40. Leguizamo you try to forgive because of how he's afraid of being attacked verbally, or even physically, by his partners. You can understand his dilemma. Le, as the girl, as expected has little to say, but in her facial expressions, shows us the fright and terror that's enough to jar us. And as far as Fox is concerned, a PERFECT performance and choice for him to show us his dramatic side. He did so sometimes on "Family Ties" and in a couple of cinematic bombs (i.e. "Light of Day", "Bright Lights, Big City") but those works did not nearly approach the powerful scope that this film exhibits. And he puts his dramatic talent on full blast, displaying the mental exhaustion so well, from the disturbing events he went through. It was a very big key to his career when he decided to take this. Some might say how can you make entertainment out of rape, but the one scene of it is only 2 minutes long, with the real story here of how people handle themselves in crisis. The only mis-steps were the sometimes overly violin-ey score, getting a little too weepy here and there. And also the fact that even though Fox is the one good guy of the film, we never find out his first name! But there are too many hard hitting moments of realism to sink this, with the best highlight being the strong acting.

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22 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
De Palma goes to war, 7 June 2005

Author: Hal-900 from WA, USA

The leader of a small platoon (Sean Penn) kidnaps an innocent Vietnamese girl (he plans to use her as a prostitute), over the objections of one of the soldiers (Michael J. Fox). I have never been able to figure out why this movie has never gotten much attention. It is based on an incident that (allegedly) took place during the Vietnam conflict, and was later reported by "The New Yorker". I have no idea how accurate the film is (I'm sure the film takes more than a few liberties with the facts), but the truth is that this movie is an emotional powerhouse. The film is not perfect (for example, Fox's role is too good to be true), but this is a De Palma movie, so people familiar with his work know that De Palma's movies are known for an incredible sense of style, not for a strong narrative. From a technical standpoint, this is a brilliant example of the director's amazing command of the film medium. I think De Palma is one of the great American directors, and many of his films (Sisters, Blow Out, etc.) are in desperate need of reevaluation (yes, I'm a fan boy!). This is not one of his masterpieces, but it is something he should be proud of. The film has a very anti-war message, but the content should not distract from the skillful way in which this movie is presented. Stephen H. Burum's camera work is great, and Ennio Morricone's music score is magnificent. A little too graphic, but an absorbing, rewarding movie experience.

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18 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Tragic and haunting, 29 January 2001

Author: Lupin-9

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

While not as good a Vietnam movie as Platoon or Apocalypse Now, Casualties of War nevertheless delivers the emotional punch through DePalma's depiction of how war can truly bring out the worst in people. Similar in content to the village massacre scene of Platoon, Casualties actually hits home with greater force the horrific conduct and depravity of how low these GIs had been morally reduced to. You almost cringe at certain scenes such as Corporal Clark's callous crooning of The Door's "Hello, I love you" while escorting their victim on the march. By being able to fully empathize with Erikson, we feel appauled and helpless as we witness his uncontrolable situation, and can't but help feel a bitter satisfaction when he lays into one of the soldiers with a shovel back at base camp. I felt angry and depressed at how any human being could act the way these soldiers did, and was haunted long after the movie's conclusion. Based on a true story, we realize the true tragedy of what has occurred at the movie's end, when Erikson returns to the present from his flashback and the girl suggets that he had had a "bad dream". The painful reality is that it wasn't just a dream, anymore than the whole Vietnam War was. DePalma examines in great depth not just the ethics concerning warfare, but the values of right and wrong & good and evil, which every single one of us on this planet faces. Just as in Platoon with Charlie Sheen's concluding helicopter voiceover, and Saving Private Ryan's portrayal of the aged Ryan asking his wife "have I been a good man, have I led a good life?", Casualties of War highlights a similar concept when Erikson states that one should never abandon their sense of morality-to cease caring- just because they are surrounded by the possibility of death. Overall you are left with a harrowing feeling that is akin to the likes of having watched Schindler's List or The Killing Fields.

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21 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
"Nobody cares", 19 August 2001
Author: Matthew Ignoffo (mermatt@webtv.net) from Eatontown, NJ, USA

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.

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18 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Maybe De Palma's Best, 7 May 2004
Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It's the only film of De Palma's that I've seen that doesn't imitate Hitchcock, engage in shameless self indulgence, or pander to its audience. ("Pander." Interesting word, from a character in Chaucer who acted as a sexual intermediary.)

This is structured more like a three-act play than a traditional movie. (1) Fox is introduced to the other members of his squad and gets in a fire fight. (2) The squad kidnap a girl, take her into the bush, rape her and kill her, and engaged in another fire fight. (3) Fox tries to blow the whistle but the higher up the ladder he goes, the more angry the resistance becomes, until he finally sees the four criminals brought to trial.

It is not an epic war movie full of majestic music and heroic acts and a cast of thousands, but it belongs up there with "Platoon" and the others. It's quite well done.

The acting is uniformly good. Fox is fine as a short, shiny faced, humanitarian newbie who answers to a higher authority than he can find easily in the military chain of command. Penn adopts a New York accent that is so thick that it's sometimes hard to follow, but he puts a lot of energy into the role of sergeant, almost to the point of hamminess. His men are well-differentiated by the script -- one a savage and stupid killer, one a remorseful Hispanic, and another newly arrived grunt who goes along willingly because he's been led to believe that this is the way things are done. The Vietnamese girl is as good as any of the men. She appears in two roles, as the victim and, later, as a college student who has a brief, understanding exchange with Fox.

In many ways this is a far more shocking movie than any that De Palma has come up with, before or since. The girl is beautiful, fine-boned, and has long black Asian hair with reddish highlights. Her suffering during the trek into the bush, in her bare feet, carrying the men's gear on her bleeding back, is palpable. After being gang banged she huddles in a dark corner and sobs abjectly. Fox approaches her and she is jolted upward with fear. And we see not the face of the pretty young girl but a battered bloody swollen toothless mask. The scene is light years away from Angie Dickinson getting slashed with a razor in an elevator while the audience thrills.

There is another scene that is outstanding, a kind of denouement. Fox is drunk and is queried by a friendly chaplain. Having been ignored before, he spills out his hopeless story once again. De Palma dissolves from Fox's stricken face to the court martial of the four men. It's another shocker, the more effective for not being underlined. Instead of the four men we have seen before, sweating and unkempt, in dirty fatigues, swearing abominably and threatening Fox, we see them cleaned up in starched kakhis, wearing their campaign ribbons and insignia. And we are forced to the realization that these murderers and rapists, whom we have taken to be nothing more than an anarchic group of bums, are in fact representatives of the U. S. Army and are subject to its laws. (De Palma doesn't show the court itself, just the defendants responding to questions.) They have changed, and yet not changed. The uncomprehending stupdity remains, and the simmering desperation. Penn's sergeant is only twenty years old.

The scene with the Vietnamese student at the end is a necessary catharsis. Fox is on a train and after she gets off, he notices that she has left a scarf behind. He retrieves the scarf and hurries after her, calling out in Vietnamese. She smiles and asks him, "Do I remind you of someone?" His distress becomes plain, and she guesses its source and asks, "Did you have a bad dream? I think it's over now." Brief but touching.

De Palma should get a decoration too because he has disregarded his cheesier tendencies as a director. Another De Palma might have handled that rape scene quite differently, as an opportunity for the audience to identify with the rapists and a chance to display some succulent female flesh. (Here are her nipples. See how purple they look?) But not here. It's a movie made by a grown up, for grown ups.

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14 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Blistering assault on the degrading effects of warfare, 5 May 2005

Author: Libretio

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.

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18 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
<< Thuy Thu Le is central to its success >>, 31 October 2001
Author: Keith F. Hatcher from La Rioja, Spain

`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?

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Love it, 20 September 2006

Author: jed-estes from United States Kentucky Hancock

Masterpiece! This movie is magic and makes me sad that our country was ever involved with that vile war of nothingness, and no I am not against the troops. I think Johnson was an idiot and that he should never have sent the soldiers they did not know what they were doing they were just doing what they were told. At that time the vast majority of the people over their could not even vote, how sick is that. What makes it even sicker is the way the American public treated these heroes upon their return, and yes they were heroes even though it was an unjust war they are still our soldiers and they were fighting for us, and they should have been respected as such. Michael J. Fox does a great job in this showing the naiveness among the soldiers at the time and Sean Penn does a good job showing how bad a persons psyche can go when pushed to the limit for something they don't believe in. I do not condone what Sean Penn's character does in the film and he was rightfully punished but I can see what drove him to it. Brian De Palma does another stellar job with his visual style that will never be toped and the lighting is great in this movie. I hate that it bombed at the box office, because everyone should see this. Great movie.

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
De Palma on top of his game., 21 November 1998

Author: Rick Peach from USA

Casualties Of War is a great Brian De Palma film. Sure it's not his best work but it is intense and suspenseful storytelling. The cast is good. Michael J. Fox was a surprise to say the least in this movie. I didn't think he would hold his own with Sean Penn. Fox more than holds his own, I believe he overshadows Penn. This would not be the case if Sean Penn wasn't overacting so much. He is all over the place with his character. De Palma continues to be one of the great stylist of modern cinema.

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