A powerful social statement

Rating: 10/10 (8 February 2010)

Two words made this movie unforgettable, in my opinion: Sean Penn. Sean Penn's performance as a young and disillusioned army Sergeant in the Viet Nam war is absolutely perfect. He is utterly believable as Sgt. Tony Meserve, basically just a kid who loses the only person he cares about fighting a war he doesn't want to be in and then just doesn't care anymore. As he says, "Sometimes you hate the enemy so badly..." He is angry at the war, he is angry at the enemy, he is angry at the army that sent him there. He is just angry. He decides to fight back and take his own little personal revenge against the enemy, focusing it all on one girl, whom he plans to rape and abuse at their discretion. Surrounded by boys no older than he and far less intelligent and dominant and one man who is obviously unbalanced and violent anyway, Meserve's act is perceived as far larger and more grand than it actually is. The only hold out is Eriksson (played brilliantly by Michael J. Fox), a young family man who has not been "in country" long enough to become so jaded. There is a pivotal scene in the movie where Eriksson believes he has found a kindred spirit in Diaz (played by John Leguizamo), only to find that Diaz is weak and will not stand against the ridicule from the other men.
Eriksson is true to his convictions and does not participate in the rape of the girl and so he is labeled a traitor and not trustworthy by the other men. He is threatened, attacked and abused by the other men but does not deviate from his course. He vows to bring the men to justice for what they have done and for what he allowed to occur, not through his action but through his INaction. There is a very moving monologue by Eriksson in which he makes a statement on whether what you do before you die matters more or less because you could die soon (paraphrase), "...everybody's acting like we can do anything. Because we might be killed at any second, maybe we gotta be extra careful what we do. Because maybe it matters more. Maybe it matters more than we even know." This film is a statement about war, yes. But it is also a hugely profound statement about people and what we can become if we are exposed to a society with no rules for too long. If we are exposed to too much violence for too long. The fact that it is based on a true story only reinforces this statement. It is also a statement on how allowing something to happen makes you just as culpable as those who actually participated. There is, perhaps no such thing as "an innocent bystander." This film also speaks about the apparent futility in righting a wrong sometimes and how it can be quite difficult to be "a good guy" in the middle of a bad business. While not quite on par with social statements such as "Platoon" or "Full Metal Jacket", "Casualties of War" has earned it's place in this genre honestly. Highly recommended.
One of this reviewers all-time favorite movies. 10/10 stars.