Hollywood's debt to Lars von Trier

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2002)

Because he's give the American overrated hacks an excuse to call themselves artists, Spielberg and Mike Figgis jumped on the dogme-style bandwagon with Saving Private Ryan (1999) and Leaving Las Vegas (1996) respectably, now it's Batman and Robin "helmer" Joel Schumacher's turn to wield the hand-held camera. Now when Von Trier shoots in his typical, no glamour style that he made famous to the world with Breaking the Waves (1996) it comes off as a serious artist, trying to express himself in a new way, when Hollywood picks up on something it's purely because they can milk it's popularity and introduce something new to "Joe Six-Pack" and the family, then THEY look like the artist. Hollywood banality aside, Tigerland is a honourable attempt by Schumacher to shake off the backlash of the bat franchise and even the pompous 8mm, and to be honest he doesn't do that bad a job with it. If the film fails it's down to the script, no matter how much Schumacher tries to inject his film with a documentary realism, the script keeps throwing us more of the same character clichÃ©s and overtly profound dialog that we've seen in a million other war movies over the years, most noticeably Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). Tigerland resembles the first half of Full Metal Jacket almost identically; we have the typical cast of characters (Likable rough, tough drill-sergeant, trouble maker). But whereas Full Metal Jacket devoted only thirty minutes of it's running time to it's "Paris Island" set scenes, Tigerland devotes almost as much time on basic training. Still, that said Tigerland isn't too bad a movie, to be completely honest it's pretty good and it shows Schumacher's willingness to grow as a director, and that he isn't afraid to take a risk. A very honourable 7/10