Casualties of War (1989)

Director:

Brian De Palma

Writers (WGA):

Daniel Lang (book)
David Rabe (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 August 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | War

Tagline:

Even in war... murder is murder.

Plot:

During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.

Plot Keywords:

Patrol | Wartime Rape | Hut | War | Vietnam War

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Michael J. Fox	...	PFC. Eriksson
Sean Penn	...	Sgt. Tony Meserve
Don Harvey	...	Cpl. Thomas E. Clark
John C. Reilly	...	PFC. Herbert Hatcher
John Leguizamo	...	PFC. Antonio Diaz
Thuy Thu Le	...	Tran Thi Oanh / Girl on Train
Erik King	...	Cpl. Brown
Jack Gwaltney	...	PFC. Rowan
Ving Rhames	...	Lt. Reilly
Dan Martin	...	Hawthorne
Dale Dye	...	Capt. Hill
Steve Larson	...	Agent #1
John Linton	...	Agent #2
Vyto Ruginis	...	Prosecutor
Al Shannon	...	Wilkins

Runtime:

113 min | USA:121 min (extended version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Australia:MA (extended version) | Iceland:16 | Brazil:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Norway:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Philippines:PG-13 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

For Michael J. Fox's shots, Sean Penn would be telling him that he was just a little TV actor and nothing more, to get genuine reactions for director Brian De Palma.

Goofs:

Continuity: When a soldier steps on a landmine, other soldiers takes a picture of his corpse. Erikkson and one soldier goes to look that corpse which now lies on an opposite side of the road.

Quotes:

Clark: The army don't wanna surprise us.
Meserve: Leave it to the dinks for that, huh?

Movie Connections:

Version of O.K. (1970)

Soundtrack:

Hold On I'm Coming

Tragic and haunting

While not as good a Vietnam movie as Platoon or Apocalypse Now, Casualties of War nevertheless delivers the emotional punch through DePalma's depiction of how war can truly bring out the worst in people. Similar in content to the village massacre scene of Platoon, Casualties actually hits home with greater force the horrific conduct and depravity of how low these GIs had been morally reduced to. You almost cringe at certain scenes such as Corporal Clark's callous crooning of The Door's "Hello, I love you" while escorting their victim on the march. By being able to fully empathize with Erikson, we feel appauled and helpless as we witness his uncontrolable situation, and can't but help feel a bitter satisfaction when he lays into one of the soldiers with a shovel back at base camp. I felt angry and depressed at how any human being could act the way these soldiers did, and was haunted long after the movie's conclusion. Based on a true story, we realize the true tragedy of what has occurred at the movie's end, when Erikson returns to the present from his flashback and the girl suggets that he had had a "bad dream". The painful reality is that it wasn't just a dream, anymore than the whole Vietnam War was. DePalma examines in great depth not just the ethics concerning warfare, but the values of right and wrong & good and evil, which every single one of us on this planet faces. Just as in Platoon with Charlie Sheen's concluding helicopter voiceover, and Saving Private Ryan's portrayal of the aged Ryan asking his wife "have I been a good man, have I led a good life?", Casualties of War highlights a similar concept when Erikson states that one should never abandon their sense of morality-to cease caring- just because they are surrounded by the possibility of death. Overall you are left with a harrowing feeling that is akin to the likes of having watched Schindler's List or The Killing Fields.