Interesting and enjoyable

Rating: Null/10 (13 March 2002)

I enjoyed this film. Most of my reasons for doing so have been
canvassed by other reviewers, so I'd like to add a few observations
of my own that I haven't read elsewhere.
Firstly, this didn't seem to me to be a film specifically about the
Vietnam War, though it is anti-war in the final analysis. I saw this
film as being about the brutalising at home of decent young men
by our military so as to create efficient, disciplined & uniformed
killers. The setting is 1971, but we it might just as well be 1941 or
2001, just as much a preface to "Saving Private Ryan" or "Black
Hawk Down". Several of the characters in this ensemble piece do
not make it through the training; some manage to find the legal
means to opt out, while others are terminally warped by the vision
of cold humanity taught by their trainers.
Secondly, it seems to me to be also a film about the survival of
humane spirit despite this process. The lead character, Bozz,
knows how to escape, legally or otherwise, but he discovers a
reason for staying that has nothing to do with any flag-waving
notion of glory; but rather to share with and not shirk from whatever
might happen to his comrades, his fellow trainees.
Thirdly, the cast lacks a high-profile lead and this helps avoid any
of the characters being imbued with a star actor's personality.
This helps the film achieve its aim of allowing us to look
disinterestedly at this diverse group of young men, and observe
the different ways they react to training. The even distribution of so
many roles (as in "Black Hawk Down" or "Gosford Park" or
"Amelie"), incidentally, will hopefully help dispel Hollywood
scriptwriter William Goldman's strange theory that there can't be
more than 6 chief characters in any good script.
Fourthly, and finally, it intrigues me to see yet another example of a
non-native actor playing a character from another culture. Colin
Farrell possesses a George Clooney-like half-charm, half-cheekiness about him that endears him to the audience,
although I'm not sure how good a Texan identity his performance
might be. I don't doubt the talent and brilliance of Englishmen like
Tim Roth and Gary Oldman playing Americans, or Americans like
Renee Zellwegger and Julianne Moore playing Brits, or Australian
Cate Blanchett playing both, and similarly, Colin Farrell here; but
are we seeing the internationalising of character performances in
this most international of artforms? How differently would an
American actor such as Matthew McConaughey, for instance,
have handled the scene in the mess kitchen? The sense of locale
that was significant in "Fargo" or "The Straight Story" can be lost by
a different casting choice. Every character "lives" in a specific place
and for an actor to take us, the audience, there needs more than
just a good accent.