| The
Review: |
When I
think of the war in Vietnam, I think of the unrest in the
American public for answers and reasons that would explain
our country's involvement in another country's civil war.
I think of the countless soldiers who gave their lives for
something they were taught to believe in, but did not live
long through to fully understand. I think of the expansive
societal changes that took place as a result of this war,
and lastly, I think of how greatly these aspects of our history
changed this country permanently. ***
I looked
for some inkling or spark of recognition of these thoughts
in "Gardens of Stone," a movie that gleams with elements of
greatness beneath its surface, but just can't seem to find
a point at which to bring them into the light. Touted as a
film that takes place on the homefront rather than the battlefield,
it explores the lives of various military personnel and civilians,
giving them complexes relating to the various groups of the
period, though it feels as if the movie is just throwing issues
our way without giving us a reason to ponder their existence
or their relevancy to the film or history. ***
We know
from the beginning that someone is going to die (hell, even
the title refers to a graveyard, so we're bound to see at
least one burial). We get a glimpse of the ensemble cast,
with a voice-over narration of a letter from a young soldier,
perhaps the one whose funeral we bear witness to. We see honest
emotion in the faces of these people, and for a brief, flickering
moment, it looks as if director Francis Ford Coppola has crafted
something along the likes of his previous masterpieces. ***
Then we
move into the life of Sergeant Clell Hazard (James Caan),
a war veteran who strikes an unlikely friendship with Jackie
Willow (D.B. Sweeney), a young recruit who wants nothing more
than to go off to war and show his country what he is made
of. We also meet others close to Clell: there's his neighbor,
Samantha (Anjelica Huston), an anti-war activist who later
becomes his girlfriend, and his best friend and fellow veteran
Sgt. Major Goody Nelson (James Earl Jones), who dispenses
obscenities and warmheartedness in equal measure. ***
Throughout
the course of the movie, we get glimpses of their lives in
ways that make us care for them as people and not just characters.
The dynamics of Clell and Sam's relationship is made much
more involving due to their differing viewpoints on the war
("You have your job to do, and I have mine," she later tells
him); because he feels the war is unnecessary, he spends much
of his time questioning Willow why he is so anxious to take
part in it. He and Goody share a unique bond, seeing the world
through eyes that only those who have seen war can observe.
***
There's
much to like about these examinations of character and conflicting
emotion. The performances are all-around stellar, and quite
effective in bringing us into certain impacting moments in
the film. The actors do an especially wonderful job, most
notably Jones, of bringing the humor to its fullest; there
is no scene funnier in the movie than when Jones looks at
his recruit and asks, "Do you know who conceived of asexual
reproduction?" to which the recruit replies, "Perhaps it was
your wife, sir." ***
And yet,
in all of these commendable aspects, I kept searching for
something to give it a purpose for existing. Where's the hard-hitting
examination of how their lives are touched by war, other than
the fact that they are members of, or know someone from, the
United States Army? Why should we feel that Clell and Sam's
relationship is threatened by their opposing opinions, when
we hardly have a grasp on what they feel about Vietnam to
begin with? There is no tension in the piece, and while I
acknowledge that this is not a run-of-the-mill war piece,
it doesn't seem as if it's trying to say much of anything
about something that deserves so much more.
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