Casualties of War: Extended Cut

Director: Brian De Palma,
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn, John C. Reilly, John Leguizamo, Don Harvey, Erik King, Jack Gwaltney, Dan Martin, Thuy Thu Le, Ving Rhames, Dale Dye, Sam Robards, ,

Rate Casualties of War: Extended Cut DVD Release:

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

DVD Review

Casualties of War (1989) came out towards the end of the trend of Vietnam War movies in the 1980s after the likes of Oliver Stone, Stanley Rubric and others had tried their hand at it. By the time Brian De Palma’s film came out the public had grown tired of this sub-genre and, despite glowing reviews from critics, Casualties did not perform as well as hoped at the box office. The theatrical version wasn’t quite the cut that De Palma would have preferred and this new “Extended Cut” presents his original intentions.

Based on an actual incident that was later reported in The New Yorker, Casualties focuses on a group of American soldiers who rape and kill a young Vietnamese woman and how one of them tries to do something about it. Private Eriksson (Fox) has only been in country for three weeks and is the quintessential inexperienced recruit. He looks up to (as do most of the men) Sergeant Meserve (Penn), a battle-hardened veteran whose tour of duty is almost up.

It quickly becomes apparent that Meserve fits in perfectly with the madness of the war and that he enjoys killing because it makes him feel powerful – he gets off on it. If there were any last bits of humanity left in him, they are gone when his fellow long-timer is killed by a sniper. We actually see the humanity dissipate in Meserve’s sad expression as he watches his friend taken away in a medical helicopter. It’s a beautifully acted moment by Sean Penn.

The man’s death puts Meserve and his men in a mean, vengeful mood. They are subsequently ordered to go on a long-range recon patrol and this provides them with an outlet for their aggression. Meserve makes it clear that they are going on an unplanned detour to a village and find a girl that they can have their way with. In private, Eriksson voices his concerns but goes along with it. Even though he doesn’t actually participate in the act, he is complicit because he doesn’t actually try to stop it.

Michael J. Fox was primarily known as a sitcom actor and for a string of lightweight comedies (Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success, et al) but the underrated (if not flawed) Bright Lights, Big City (1988) hinted at a capacity for drama that he showcased to greater effect in Casualties. Fox does a nice job of conveying the moral dilemma that his character faces. He is the film’s moral centre and the one we are meant to identify with. His scenes with Penn have the requisite intensity with Fox wisely underplaying to Sean Penn’s over-the-top Sergeant.

Penn plays the obvious villain of the film and is a real monster. You can see it often in the psychotic gleam in his eyes. At times, his performance veers into caricature as he lays on the New York accent a little too thick and his grotesque facial expressions are a little too garish to be believable. That being said, one has to admire his fearlessness as an actor to play such a truly unlikable character.

Penn (and the rest of the cast) are let down by David Rabe’s screenplay. He has essentially written a morality play but it resorts to broad strokes when shades of gray would have been much more effective (as in Mystic River which showcased Penn’s talents much more effectively). Rabe does a good job with the relationships between the soldiers and how the younger, more inexperienced ones are subservient to the veterans because that is their right – they’ve earned it due to their experience in combat. Casualties of War is a flawed film but a visually interesting one as is customary with De Palma’s body of work. He expertly uses the entire widescreen frame in many scenes showing off his command of composition. It’s a shame that the content of the film wasn’t up to the same quality as the style.

Special Features:

This new “Extended Cut” runs six minutes longer than the previous edition and mixes some of the deleted scenes from that DVD and some original footage never seen before.

New to this edition is “Eriksson’s War – A Conversation with Michael J. Fox,” an interview where Fox talks about how he got involved in the film and what attracted him to it. He gives his impressions of what it was like to shoot in Thailand and how the experience changed him. This is an excellent interview with the actor as he recounts several good anecdotes.

“The Making of Casualties of War” largely features De Palma talking about the movie. He had wanted to make it since he read the original article in 1969 but the opportunity to film it did not present itself until he was able to parlay the success of The Untouchables (1987). De Palma praises the performances of the cast and what they brought to the movie while also discussing the challenges of shooting in the jungle.

J.D. Lafrance

J.D. is a freelance writer who is currently doing research for a book on the films of Michael Mann. He likes reading anything written by Jack Kerouac, James Ellroy, J.D. Salinger, Harlan Ellison or Thomas Pynchon. J.D. is currently addicted to the T.V. series 24 and enjoys drinking a lot of Sprite. This is not a blatant plug for the beverage but if they ever decided to give him a lifetime supply he certainly wouldn’t turn them down.
view all DVD reviews by JD Lafrance

 

Rating: 79%

Website: