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Casualties of War (1989)

Casualties of War is Brian De Palma's most focused and straight ahead film. There are no wild stylistic flourishes, there's no sequences borrowed from Potemkin (like in his previously filmed The Untouchables) and there's not a shot closely identified with Hitchcock that De Palma borrows in the entire film. Casualties of War is a moralistic drama based on a true story that appeared in the New Yorker magazine in 1969 (which became a book by Daniel Lang and was turned into a screenplay by play write David Rabe). It's not a film that is meant to be pleasant or enjoyable entertaining. It's serious minded stuff and to be quite frank De Palma doesn't screw around. He makes us stare into the headlights and dares us not to blink. The flaw of the film is there's little ambiguity, no shades of gray. Right from the start everything is drawn almost too clearly. We know who the bad guy is, and we know who's the good guy. Eventually we'll witness a brutal rape and there's no question that such an act is very wrong indeed or that such things occurred during the Vietnam War.

Michael J Fox who was known as Alex Keaton on Facts of Life on the little t.v. screen., as a High school basket player who turns into a werewolf and that Marty McFly guy in Back to the Future on the big screen, portrays Private Ericksson -- a soldier who witnesses the sadistic raping of an innocent Vietnamese woman by four members of his platoon (which include John C. Reilly, John Leguizamo, Don Harvey and Sean Penn). Sean Penn is the mean spirited Sergeant Meserve who leads the platoon and has decided all's fair in WAR and he can bend the rules. Private Ericksson is forced to take sides and it's a decision that might cost him not just the friendship of his comrades, but his life.

Penn is superb in his portrayal of a man who's been 'in country' a little longer than he should have been. The film needs a very strong performance and Penn is more up to the task. It's a Memorable performance. Fox is surprisingly good in his role as well but he gets the impossible task of giving some speeches during the film that make it impossible not to see him as a sit-com actor who's stretching himself into an almost serious actor. There's also a pretty ineffectual framing device that is used to get us into and out of the story.

De Palma tells the story without over-stylizing or pumping up the film with unnecessary camera flourishes. He works subtly and resists the opportunity to be exploitative, or over the top. His restraint is quite frankly surprising and I think the combination of the unpleasant subject matter of yet another film on the Vietnam War and De Palma's sober approach made it flop at the box office. The public didn't want to see Fox in serious roles as was evident when the more serious movies he starred in all flopped (this one, Bright Lights, Big City and Light of the Day).

De Palma doesn't flinch in showing us the ugliest side of war and our ourselves and despite its flaws the movie is definitely worth seeing at least once. Yes I'm saying it's an 'important' film but it isn't all dolled up with lots of bells and whistles or constantly reminding us of its importance. Mostly it doesn't preach to us.. Rabes' screenplay unfortunately can't resist giving the Ericcson character a couple of near soliloquoys and Fox is a bit awkward delivering them. The film however is very powerful and effective.. It's an atypical De Palma film and one of his very best.

Casualties Of War is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. Columbia has found an excellent print and their digital transfer insures the colors are solid and the black levels strong. You might spot a little edge enhancement however.

The 5.1 audio remix (there's also a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround in several languages available) doesn't take full advantage of the medium by using the various channels for the bursts of gun-fire and explosions that are in the film. Everything is clear and free from distortion but there's little re-engineering evident here.

There's a few excellent extra features on this DVD which include:

Ericksson's War: A Conversation with Michael J. Fox - a 19 minute recollection by Fox of how he felt about the script and the making of the film on location in Asia. Fox and Penn for instance purposefully avoided socializing with each other during the filming of the movie to more easily stay in character when the cameras were rolling. There are quite a few behind the scenes stills used as well.

The Making Of Casualties Of War is another informative documentary by Laurent Bouzereau. This 31 minute mini- documentary features interviews with producer Art Linson, editor Bill Pankow, director Brian De Palma and others and combines factoids and recollections about the making of the film, many production stills and behind the scenes photos and some personal stories. The story of how De Palma dodged the draft is a fascinating one indeed.

You'll also find five deleted scenes on the DVD. These scenes remain in very primitive and rough shape.. one of them is even in black and white. The scenes while of some interest deserved to be left on the cutting room floor.

Some theatrical trailers, abridged filmographies on the main members of the cast and crew and a few frames worth of production notes are tossed onto the disc as well.

Casualties of War is a powerful and disturbing film. It shows De Palma delivering a focused Film straight on without using a bag of visual tricks to pump up the film. Sean Penn delivers another Wonderful performance and Michael J. Fox is pretty good here. The DVD offers some choice extras and delivers the film in good shape. I'm not sure how many times one might want to view the film but its certainly a film very much worth seeing.

Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller. For more information visit the web site at: http://www.radiofreegallery.com/jarmicknholder.htm * * * * * *

Original portions of this review Copyright© Christopher J. Jarmick 2002. The above work is protected by international copyright law.