Too Many Flaws to Be a Success

Rating: Null/10 (14 September 2016)

Casualties of War (1989)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
During the Vietnam War a solder, Eriksson (Michael J. Fox), goes out with a crew of four led by a rather psychotic Sgt. Meserve (Sean Penn). After the five are rejected on a leave Meserve kidnaps a Vietnemese woman who they plan on raping. Eriksson is against their action and soon finds himself at the four's wrath but things get even more heated once he plans to help press charges against them.
Brian De Palma's CASUALTIES OF WAR was just one of many Vietnam movies from about an eleven year period where all sorts of them were coming out. COMING HOME and THE DEER HUNTER kicked things off and then you got stuff like APOLALYPSE NOW, PLATOON and Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET. De Palma has stated that he believes his film is among the best made but I'd argue that it's the least entertaining.
There are all sorts of issues that I have with this film but the biggest is that De Palma just isn't working too well in the drama department. One of my issues with the film was the music score that is just over-bearing at times as it's often very loud as if they're trying to put certain emotions into the viewer. The track is just too intrusive and I'd argue that it does more damage than good as it pretty much beats the viewer over the head trying to get them to "feel" a certain way.
Another problem I had with the picture was the performance by Fox. He gives a good performance but at the same time I just didn't believe him in the role and I didn't think he was strong enough to carry the picture. It's been said that him being cast is the only thing that got the movie made, which I believe but I just don't think he helped the movie. Penn is also quite good here, although I do think his character gets a bit too cartoonish at times. The supporting cast includes fine performances by Don Harvey, John Leguizamo, John C. Reilly, Ving Rhames and Dale Dye.
De Palma certainly knows how to film a movie so the cinematography is top-notch and I'd argue that the rape sequence as well as the trial sequences in the Extended Version are well-done and tense. With that said, a lot of the movie just comes across as flat and that includes the battle sequences, which just aren't all that memorable. CASUALTIES OF WAR was made to show what horrors were in Vietnam but on the whole it isn't nearly as good as it thinks it is.