Review of Casualties of War (1989) by Average M — 26 Jun 2011

Why does every movie about Vietnam have to be about a group of assholes?

Casualties of War is an overlooked war movie from veteran director, Brian DePalma. It's based on an actual event during Vietnam when a squad kidnaps a local girl and how one squad member stands up for her. Easily the biggest problem with this movie is the characters...I HATED every single one of them, except of course the hero, who was surprisingly casted as Michael J. Fox. None of the other characters have one redeeming quality. This is a very uncomfortable movie to watch. You hate everyone, the plot is very dark, and the ending doesn't give you nearly enough hope for the torture you were just put through.

This movie isn't all bad, the acting was good, Sean Penn was fantastic as always, and the movie doesn't get very entertaining until like the last 45 minutes. Just once I would like to see a war movie set in Vietnam that isn't depressing, full of assholes, and just overall bad...not in quality, just in characters. Even Platoon, one of the greatest war movies ever made, suffered from the asshole gene.

Casualties of War is a pretty good war flick that is kind of like sticking Scarface into 'Nam...a lot of F words, and very little redemption. Go see this if you like war movies, or are a sadist.