Compelling story but need grittier visual style

Rating: 5/10 (29 October 2014)

Max Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) is a Vietnam vet haunted by an incident during the war. Sgt. Tony Meserve (Sean Penn) leads a squad of five soldiers. He's hard-nosed and then his longtime friend gets hit. Eriksson is still considered cherry. PFC Diaz (John Leguizamo) is the new replacement. Along with Cpl. Clark (Don Harvey) and PFC Hatcher (John C. Reilly), the group kidnaps a village girl and rapes her.
I have some problems with the realism of the look. It's the way director Brian De Palma shoots some of the action. At least twice, he uses the background to show action while in the foreground a character looks forward. It's a very manufactured look and takes away from the realism that this movie desperately needs. MJF does the ethical naive jittery newbie but something about him strikes me unrealistic. He's not up to the drama. It's not gritty enough. I feel it would be more intense if he kept more quiet. The character needs to have some more internal conflict. On the other, Sean Penn nails it as the disturbed leader of the squad. But that just emphasized the lack of drama acting coming from MJF.