Interesting

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2003)

'Tigerland' is an interesting movie. A lot of what we see looks familiar but most things are a little different. The movie is set in 1971 and we follow a group of soldiers that is about to go to Vietnam. One person seems to be a troublemaker. His name is Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell). Slowly we begin to realize that he is not a troublemaker to make trouble but he is one because he wants to live in his own life, he is against war and violence, he is actually very scared and he just wants to survive. Not only we realize it, the group of soldiers does that too and although some do not like him they do follow him when he becomes their platoon leader. One of the soldiers becomes a good friend, Jim Paxton (Matthew Davis). Another of them becomes his worst enemy, Private Wilson (Shea Whigham), and it looks like he really wants to kill Bozz. The last part of the movie is set on the infamous Tigerland, where the soldiers have their last week of heavy training. The scenes on Tigerland reminded me a lot of 'The Thin Red Line', especially the river where the climax is set.
All this probably sounds a little familiar but there are just little differences. In other movies Bozz would never make it to platoon leader. He had to prove himself in actual battle. Here they realize is a natural born leader and although they can't stand him they make him platoon leader, what is the best for the entire group. In another scene you expect that Bozz will get beaten up by one of his superiors, something that would happen in most other movies, but here Bozz asks for his superiors first name, he gives it, and they have a talk.
With mostly hand-held cameras the movie looks the way a story like should look. Colin Farrell, not very known when the movie was made, gives a very fine performance. The movie is not great but it is definitely good and interesting to watch.