Training for Viet Nam

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2007)

Colin Farrell stars in a film by Joel Schumacher. This is a large, talented cast composed mainly of men because it's a story about Infantry training specifically for Viet Nam, in an isolated U.S. location called "Tigerland". It reminds me of the first half of Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket", which is also set in a training environment, and filled with stress. The story is driven by the interactions of the men, and their willingness or unwillingness to "go with the program". Most interesting is the complexity of the lead character "Bozz" (played by Farrell) who looks for trouble, causes lots of friction, brings excessive problems upon himself, yet manages to get many of the men behind him in a time when that war was no longer a "gung ho" effort. The look of the film is "period documentary"  as though it was shot on 8mm film, stored in cans, and has discolored in various ways over the years. It also added "other worldliness" to the imagery.