Thai-Nam

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2003)

There is a distinct difference between Vietnam movies made in Thailand and those in the Philippines. The Thai ones try to be morality plays or generally don't understand the topic, the Filipino ones are disillusioned and disturbing...certainly more advanced than their counterparts. Sadly, Casualties of War is a Thai-Nam movie and not a Phi-Nam one.
Sean Penn does his best General Ripper/Turgidson impression and makes an interesting insane caricature. Michael J. Fox and the rest of the squad are cardboard cut-outs necessary to make DePalma's morality play work. Too bad half the time they are unintelligible in their reactions.
The way DePalma fixes the camera as a separate from the narrative, such as in the opening with the platoon moving through the jungle, shows moderate intelligence. When he separates the camera from the narrative--after the kidnapping for example--then thrusts it into the viewer's face by having the cast talk at it, that's brilliant. Too bad the other elements of the film aren't anywhere near as sharp.
DePalma is neither an auditory director nor an editing one. Funny, when ads ran for Femme Fatale, he was listed as "master of the erotic thriller." He'll be better known as the person who reshaped the crime genre with Scarface and the Untouchables. DePalma can't separate moods and pacing from each individual cut, Sam Raimi is already several steps ahead of him. No better example comes to mind than the climax of "Casualties" where DePalma throws every possible angle he can on the screen, but the editing is so cumbersome that the entire scene is ruined. Sound work in his films is always an afterthought.
Basic storytelling skills are further decimated by the horrendously unneeded prologue and epilogue with Fox back in America. Did we really need those scenes? Perhaps Brian should've spent more time on the script and understanding the fundamentals of film storytelling before hopping onto this project.
Overall, I'll leave it at that. Visual work alone doesn't make a good movie, but this is one of DePalma's more watchable films. Isn't that sad? (60%)