Michael J. Fox's finest hour!!! (and one of DePalma's best too)

Rating: Null/10 (25 January 2004)

This stunning film is unquestionably Michael J. Fox's finest hour and proved there was more to him than Marty McFly. His scene with the chaplain when he tells him that he had helped kidnap the Vietnamese girl from the village and stood by while his comrades raped her is especially heartbreaking. Sean Penn, always a great actor, provides another good performance here as the sneering Meserve, instigator of the rape. The film's other "star" is former model Thuy Thu Le, who without the benefit of any dialogue manages to convey the horror and anguish of the situation she is in and in fact the film would be that much less effective without it. With Brian DePalma still at the height of his powers here (this probably being one of the very best films he has ever done, ranking alongside "The Untouchables", "Blow Out", "Carlito's Way" and "Obsession", and just before the debacle that was "The Bonfire of the Vanities"), this is also arguably the best Vietnam film ever made (definitely better than the overrated "Deer Hunter" and "Platoon" and certainly the equal of "Apocalypse Now"), certainly the most moving. Ennio Morricone's grand sweeping score (complete with pan pipes) is also a big contributor to the film's emotional heart. With early roles for Ving Rhames, John Leguizamo and John C. Reilly and the customary excellent photography from DePalma regular Stephen Burum, this is a film not to be missed!!