Sean Penn, Enunciate

Rating: 6/10 (23 February 2006)

Casualties of War is a film set in the Vietnam War. As such, I was afraid it would be redundant to watch after recently watching both "Platoon" and "Hamburger Hill". In some ways, I was correct - the same themes are here about Americans terrorizing the Vietnamese and teamwork failing under pressure. But there is a difference. Back to that in a moment.
This film has Michael J. Fox as a college-educated soldier in a team full of heartless, hardened soldiers. Many scenes are similar to "Platoon", where Charlie Sheen entered the war with no experience in combat. Another parallel is with "Full Metal Jacket", even using the whole rifle/gun dichotomy... in reverse.
But where this film is different is that it does not show bits and pieces of mistreatment: it focuses on the mistreatment of one Vietnamese woman and carries it for over an hour. You never have time to escape the brutal reality of rape and torture that this film shows you. If the point was to humanize foreign peoples (in times of war or otherwise) it succeeded. This is not your "family film"...
Sean Penn is also decent as the commanding officer, a psychotic madman. He is quite believable as a controlling sadist. However, I found Penn's acting to be a bit over the top sometimes and his non-stop mumbling was very annoying for me (is that how Penn talks, or is he obsessed with playing characters who don't know how to articulate?). All in all, this film was better than I expected and not just another war movie. Also, Michael J. Fox is really short. He must be like 5'2"... Recommended.