Excellent and suprisingly entertaining

Rating: Null/10 (9 December 2001)

Im not a fan of war films as a rule, Full Metal Jacket I liked a lot, and platoon, and for different reasons Apocalypse Now and Casualties of War, but I wouldnt necessarily label the last two as war movies, it was more that they had a wartime setting. The same I guess can be said of Tigerland, its not a war film, literally because its actually set in a boot camp, but more so its a tale of bravery and belief, of individuality, kindness and human spirit. Which is not to say thats its in any way sentimental or nice, its as gritty as they come.
There is no glitzy photography here, no soldiers on their knees arms in the air as bullets pass through them or lush forests torn apart by human savagery. Just grainy camera work, sometimes moving so fast or in lighting so dark its hard to keep up with, raw powerfull acting from a cast of generally unknown young men and a kind of documentary feel to it.

Joel Schumacher breaks all the rules he laid down in his previous movies and gives us something totally different, brutally honest in its damnation of the army and the way it tries to dehumanize its soldiers, very real feeling, and thought provoking and lacking completely in special effects. Its often a very funny movie, but in the kind of dark humour often associated with such macabre subject matter.
Although It does bring up a lot of interesting ideas and really gets you questioning the morality of war - the main character outstandingly played by Farrel is an anti-war young draft who seems intent on breaking rank, pulling crazy stunts and generally upsetting every senior official in boot camp in protest at the war, more importantly Bozz just wants to stay alive.. not in the physical sense but the spiritual, he is determined not to become desensitized and machine-like as the rest of his platoon, and the story shows how Bozz's thirst for freedom and his belief in the human spirit affects those around him.
Its hard to ignore also that its just as good a piece of entertainment because it never gets boring or drawn out with set pieces and loud bangs as movies about vietnam often are. So dont go assuming its one for the intellectuals and see it as a piece of entertainment as i did and even if it doesn't really impress and suprise you as it did me, you wont have lost anything in seeing it.
The soundtrack is haunting in the way that these kind of movies always are, and as ever its fitting. The photography is very good and really does give it that raw and real feel as i mentioned previously.
Where this movie really comes into its own is in the storyline and the acting. A very strong script, and suprisingly in a done to death genre very original helps but the young actors really do give it their all too. Colin Farrel is a name to watch out for his performance here is outstanding. Matthew Davies is also very good and Shea Whigham gives a plausible if not quite Brando performance as the platoon psychopath, driven mad with jealousy and rage before the war even begins.
I think this is another part of the story that provokes idea, we never actually see the recruits during the war, and somehow we know as bad as things are, theyre going to get even worse, and thats a very clever anti-war message wether intentional or not, because if the viewer is even remotely turned off by the idea of being dragged into war by their country by the end of the movie then the thought of what they havent seen and what is still to come will terrify them.
I recognise that a lot of films set out to make you think, and I believe thats a good thing, but when a film becomes too pretentious and second year college kids are talking about the hidden meaning and beauty of it all it kinda ruins the effect, (i know i know ive been saying how meaningfull this movie is, but this is just a review and i dont intend to base my life on it and i dont intend to try and impress people talking about it, im just going to tell them it was excellent :P). Thankfully this movie isnt like that at all. Wether your looking for an intelligent social commentary or just plain good old fashioned entertainment without being too preachy or pretentious then this movie is excellent and I urge you to give it a view.
Its witty, exciting, intelligent and theres just enough sh*t being blown up to please everyone ;)
10/10