Film Review: Casualties of War (1989)

One of many destructive aspects of war is its ability to shatter peoples’ moral anchors and allow them to indulge in atrocities they couldn’t have done during peace. Vietnam War, conflict infamous for the words “we must burn this village in order to save it”, provided plenty of opportunities to observe such phenomena. One of such episodes is the subject of Casualties of War, 1989 war film directed by Brian De Palma.

The plot of the film is based on the eponymous book by journalist Daniel Lang, expanded 1969 magazine article depicting real life events that had happened in 1966, known as Incident on Hill 192. The protagonist, played by Michael J. Fox, is Max Eriksson, and the film begins with prologue set in 1974 San Francisco, where accidental sight of young Vietnamese American brings back memories from his wartime past. Flashback introduces Eriksson as young and inexperienced soldier whose unit in Vietnamese jungles is fighting Viet Cong guerillas. During one of the nighttime skirmishes, Eriksson’s life is saved by experienced veteran Sergeant Tony Meserve (played by Sean Penn) who would later be tasked of leading five-men reconnaissance patrol. Meserve gets an idea of entering one of Vietnamese villages, and abducting a local girl who would serve as “portable R & R” for him and his men abused during the mission. Eriksson gets horrified when realises that Meserve really intends to do it. His unit kidnaps girl (played by Thuy Thu Le) and later starts raping her. Eriksson is the only one who refuses to do so and instead tries to help her, but his efforts are in vain and girl gets brutally murdered. Troubled by his failure to stop horrible crime, Eriksson reports it to his superiors who, at first, advise him to forget the whole affair, while his former comrades try to kill him.

Casualties of the War actually isn’t the first film depicting Incident on Hill 192. In 1970 it was reconstructed by West German film maker Michael Verhoeven in o.k., film made while the Vietnam War was still raging and later created major scandal at Berlin Film Festival over alleged anti-Americanism. The same festival was attended by De Palma who spent almost two decades trying to make his version. Those efforts finally succeeded in late 1980s, with Hollywood and American public trying to come to terms with Vietnam War, including some of its darkest and most shameful aspects. By that time, De Palma has developed reputation as one of the most talented American directors and his skill is again at great display. Forced to compete with his famous colleagues, like Coppola, Kubrick and Oliver Stone, who had covered the same subject and used same setting, he puts large budget and Thailand locations to good use, although the whole story looks somewhat less spectacular than in Platoon or Hamburger Hill. De Palma nevertheless creates couple of interesting and emotionally charged scenes, although some – like Eriksson getting stuck in Viet Cong during firefight and being threatened by fragging – seem like an artificial attempt to add some Hitchcockian suspense into what would be much more simpler and focused story.

The cast is mostly good. Michael J. Fox, at the time almost exclusively known as stars of popular sitcoms and film comedies, tried very hard to prove himself as a serious dramatic actor. His efforts are solid and his role of angry, confused and conscience-stricken man is much better than Sean Penn as intense, over-the-top sadistic villain. Very good impression is given by supporting players that include John C. Reilly in his first film role as one of members of squads, as well as John Leguizamo as another squad member in one of first major roles of his career.

Although mostly hailed by critics, Casualties of War failed at the box office and later suffered when compared by Platoon and other Vietnam War classics. Its major problem is the script by David Rabe who had reached fame as playwright with works inspired by his own Vietnam War experience. His work in Casualties of War delivers very poor dialogue which sounds incredibly preachy, especially in case of Eriksson. The final segment of the film, which chronicles protagonist’s attempts to seek justice, is too fast and somewhat confusing. But the worst is misplaced ending in San Francisco which looks like a lame attempt to provide some sort of happy ending what would otherwise be rather depressing story. In 2007 De Palma returned to frighteningly similar subject by chronicling another US military atrocity in Redacted, this time dealing with Iraq War. Certain lessons apparently weren’t learned and history sadly repeated itself.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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