Product: Casualties of War [UMD for PSP] (1989)
Rating: 4.0
Not without its flaws...
Casualties of War came out towards the end of the trend of Vietnam War movies in the 1980s after the likes of Oliver Stone, Stanley Rubric and others had tried their hand at it. By the time Brian De Palma's film came out the public had grown tired of this sub-genre and, despite glowing reviews from critics, Casualties did not perform as well as hoped at the box office. The theatrical version wasn't quite the cut that De Palma would have preferred and this new "Extended Cut" presents his original intentions.Michael J. Fox was primarily known as a sitcom actor and for a string of lightweight comedies (Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success, et al) but the underrated (if not flawed) Bright Lights, Big City hinted at a capacity for drama that he showcased to greater effect in Casualties. Fox does a nice job of conveying the moral dilemma that his character faces. He is the film's moral centre and the one we are meant to identify with. His scenes with Penn have the requisite intensity with Fox wisely underplaying to Sean Penn's over-the-top Sergeant.Penn plays the obvious villain of the film and is a real monster. You can see it often in the psychotic gleam in his eyes. At times, his performance veers into caricature as he lays on the New York accent a little too thick and his grotesque facial expressions are a little too garish to be believable. That being said, one has to admire his fearlessness as an actor to play such a truly unlikable character.Penn (and the rest of the cast) are let down by David Rabe's screenplay. He has essentially written a morality play but it resorts to broad strokes when shades of gray would have been much more effective (as in Mystic River which showcased Penn's talents much more effectively). Rabe does a good job with the relationships between the soldiers and how the younger, more inexperienced ones are subservient to the veterans because that is their right - they've earned it due to their experience in combat. Casualties of War is a flawed film but a visually interesting one as is customary with De Palma's body of work. He expertly uses the entire widescreen frame in many scenes showing off his command of composition. It's a shame that the content of the film wasn't up to the same quality as the style.This new "Extended Cut" runs six minutes longer than the previous edition and mixes some of the deleted scenes from that DVD and some original footage never seen before.New to this edition is "Eriksson's War - A Conversation with Michael J. Fox," an interview where Fox talks about how he got involved in the film and what attracted him to it. This is an excellent interview with the actor as he recounts several good anecdotes."The Making of Casualties of War" largely features De Palma talking about the movie. He had wanted to make it since he read the original article in 1969 but the opportunity to film it did not present itself until he was able to parlay the success of The Untouchables.