True "anti" war film

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2007)

This semi-autobiographical account of Oliver Stone's time serving in the Viet Nam war remains as powerful now as it ever was. Essentially a filmed journal, it is narrated by Chris (Charlie Sheen), a young volunteer recruit just starting his first tour, and viewed mostly through his "grunt" perspective we see the nitty gritty of daily life for the "grunts" who paid so dearly for their government's folly during this terrible conflict. It also illustrates with devastating realism the attitude many American GI's were forced (or chose) to adopt: that ANYONE could be the enemy, even seemingly innocent, benign villagers. This was very true during that war, and resulted in horrendous civilian casualties.
Chris encounters two "father figures" in Sgt Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Sgt Elias (Willem Dafoe). Barnes plays the cynical, hardened vet, Elias the more humane and less psychotic voice of reason and truth. No more is this division evident than in the "underground" scenes, where the two groups (those loyal to Barnes, the others to Elias) split up, one partaking in cards, whiskey and prayer, while the others retreat to an underground bunker to indulge in the harder side of Viet Nam life: heroin, weed, and everything "white rabbit". Chris takes up with the underground crowd, headed up by Elias, and including a young Johnny Depp in a role that unfortunately was mostly cut from the final release.
After a vicious attack on an alleged "Viet Cong" village, the two groups are inexorably pulled apart and towards conflict from within, which proves to be far more destructive than the enemies they are supposed to be fighting against. The real war becomes a personal one, raging inside them all, and illustrated through Chris' experiences.
The final battle scene perfectly captures the absolute chaos and confusion, noise and terror of war. You can't really tell where the enemies are, you just know they are there by the bullets whizzing by your head...
Another thing illustrated with realism is the tunnel rat sequence with Willem Dafoe infiltrating a Viet Cong tunnel. While I would have liked to have seen more of this (as it was a HUGE part of the initial stages of that war) it was good to at least see it presented once.
(As a side note, the Viet Cong tunnel system was INCREDIBLE. If you are keen to find out more, track down the book "The Tunnels of Cu Chi" can't remember the authors' names but it's a great story, told from both sides, about the extensive network of tunnels the Viet Cong dug, even right UNDER some American army camps!) The "Gold Edition" contains a Director's Commentary and also a commentary track from military adviser Dale Dye (USMC Ret) who also served in Viet Nam.
While budget and resources limited the scope of what could be done here (no CGI), Oliver Stone dispenses with big spectacle battle scenes and instead focuses on a riveting, engaging and indeed very moving storyline, complemented by great actors and some really nice photography and production design of the Vietnamese jungle and villages, American camps etc.
Now while I haven't seen EVERY war movie out there, this one certainly struck me as a definitive "anti-war" message (with its bloody, brutally realistic portrayal of the violence and insanity that goes hand in hand with war), the only recent war movie to match it, I believe, is "The Thin Red Line".