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Casualties of War
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A harrowing film-fine performance from Sean Penn
Review date: 2008-01-07 Rating: 8 out of 10
sean Penn shows in this film what a good actor he has been for a long time. Both he and the supporting cast are excellent whilst Michael J Fox is at least good but he carries a little too much Back To The Future/Teenwolf baggage to be taken too seriously. His is an admirable attempt to distance himself from the light hearted genres and move into more "serious" material but it he doesn't quite manage to pull it off. Penn on the other hand and John C Reilly in an early role are excellent.
The film is a harrowing account of brutality and inhumanity in that most brutal and inhumane theatres of war Vietnam, a story which deserves to be told if only to highlight that war is hell and that some things are worth standing up to.
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Reviews
Sometimes you hate the enemy so much
Review date: 2007-09-26 Rating: 10 out of 10
Sean Penn is the best that I have ever seen him in this film. This is a film about soldiers that have gone wild in Vietnam - a law unto themselves. Yet the motivations of the individual soldiers for doing what they do (in other words becoming a law unto themselves) are very different. Having said that the one thread that brings out, or acts as a catalyst in bringing out, the different manifestations of evil in these soldiers, I felt, was the dominant suffusion of evil emitting from Sean Penn's character. This suffusion of evil is almost spell-binding and all weaker mortals can do, it seems, is follow (or in the case of the viewer is watch). It is this evil that is so strongly influencing those around him that truly makes this film a true masterpiece. The others followed as right became wrong and wrong became right. And when I watched it I felt myself swept up and transported to the Vietnam War. It didn't feel like a 'plastic' war film it felt real, as I watched the drama unfold - because the characters were so real. I would love to say more about this great film - but if I did I would spoil the plot.... A++++
a bleeding classic!
Review date: 2007-09-03 Rating: 10 out of 10
Casualties of war is a film that isnt really a war movie in the vein of saving private ryan or platoon,this is a moralistic look at the fact that even in war ,murder is still murder.When i say this isnt a war movie,i mean that battle scenes and loss of life and people dying in friends arms isnt really how this film flows,set in vietnam during the famous war,a squadroon of soldiers kidnap a young local woman and destroy her to pieces,michael j fox plays the soldier who doesnt like what he has seen and wont let it rest,morals and what would you do if? pour from this and i love it.
Brian de Palma does a fine job in his directing here,bringing the viewer into the small wars within war and how war can overtake the human in you and make one a savage.
The film flows like vintage wine,dont think i have had any vintage wine,but thats the expression that springs to mind,a real gem of a movie,certainly overlooked but brilliantly made,brilliantly acted and a masterpiece in my eyes,five stars are earnt here.
Enjoyable.
Review date: 2007-01-14 Rating: 8 out of 10
Strong performances by both Michael.J.Fox and Sean Penn(even if he does sound like he is eating a toffee when he talks)in this true story of a squad of soldiers in Vietnam who go on to rape and murder a young local girl and Private Eriksson(Fox)is so disgusted that he is forced to reported the incident and stands alone against his fellow soldiers and commanding officer Sergeant Meserve(Penn).
Not too many battle scenes to witness as this film is more about one mans quest for sanity and justice amidst the chaos of war.
Thought provoking
Review date: 2006-10-31 Rating: 8 out of 10
This is a harrowing and thought-provoking Vietnam true-story about a US platoon that kidnap, rape and murder a young Vietnamese woman during a patrol, and how one member of the platoon who refuses to comply with his Platoon Sergeant's orders seeks justice against those other members of his platoon who were responsible. The film is gripping and an indictment not only of the men who carried out the atrocities but also of the US Army whose senior Officers tried to cover up the incident to avoid a political backlash.
One of the best of the anti-Vietnam war films, with a moving Ennio Morricone score.
Product Details/Specifications
Recording label: 4-Front
Manufacturer: 4-Front
EAN: 5050582285888
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2004-10-11
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2