Still potent after all these years

Rating: 8/10 (16 October 2003)

This is one of the most effectively disturbing war films, (I dare say) ever. De Palma's use of violence, once again, is at once completely too much, --and necessary. And so far its impact has withstood the test of time better than PLATOON, HAMBURGER HILL, or even De Palma's other works (the overrated SCARFACE comes to mind).
I've never been a fan of Michael J. Fox on film (he has that one good trademark, I'm-out-of-my-element-frustration in every single role he plays), but in this one he is very well cast. And that goes without saying for the rest of the skilled cast. Sean Penn's Meserve is evil-incarnate, but one for which the audience feels a certain pathos. You get a sense he would be an upright citizen in another life, were it not for the trauma of war in this one that has turned him into a genuine psychopath. In a lesser film, the supporting cast would have either been caricature or less. But each support performance is sincerely memorable. They range distinctly from complete reluctance, to ambivalence, to complete indifference; it's an accurate study in group mentality as any ever depicted on film.

The ending has been criticized as being too tidy. I don't believe it to be so, though. Sentimental? A little. But it's still done just right, IMO. Notable: Ving Rhames in his minor part delivers what is effectively a very memorable monologue.