Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
We are rounding things off with Brian De Palma’s 1998 effort Casualties of War, which tells us of a particularly shocking war crime on Hill 192, as told by Michael J. Fox’s PFC Max Eriksson. There’s a little time to know the protagonists before that, including Sean Penn’s Sergeant Tony Meserve, who, after the squad get into a bit of bother, risks his own life to save Eriksson, pulling him out of a VC tunnel.
However it seems that the death of his friend, played by Erik King causes something to break in Meserve’s mind, as after subsequently being denied leave, he formulates a plan to kidnap a young girl from whatever village they are next patrolling near and carry her along to rape at will. While it’s perhaps initially laughed off as a joke, he actually does it, with varying degrees of support from his squad members.
Ericsson is very much against it, but is kept in line with threats and violence. Even so, he’s still trying to help Thuy Thu Le’s Than Thi Oanh, but ultimately to no avail as this slow motion tragedy unfolds.
On return to base, he attempts to get some justice, but finds little, with most willing to sweep it under the carpet until a sympathetic Chaplain stumbles across him and his story, allowing a modicum of resolution to it all.
Now, unquestionably this, and the central event of the piece, is pretty powerful and affecting. How could it not be, unless you are a sociopath? As a film, though, I’m rather less convinced of the necessity and quality of it, certainly compared to the previous two.
It has a decent cast, and while they’re clearly all very committed performances I don’t think a lot of the characters escape the gravity well of the stereotypes they’re based on. Penn’s, in particular, while full of bluster and menace, is played so close to a working class Eastern seaboard stock character that it feels almost exploitative.
Fox is likeable enough, and shows enough mettle to get his character over the line, but ultimately this film isn’t going to challenge you, or make much of an attempt to understand why someone could convince themselves, and then others, to do something so terrible. Again, perhaps there’s no defence or understanding, but it does leave this film with no real moral conundrum to leave you with. It’s just a straightforward presentation of a horrible thing that happened that we can’t learn anything from, other than don’t rape people.
For all that, and while I’d say it’s the least of the films here, it’s still worth watching. If nothing else, just to witness the very early career performances of John Leguizamo and John C. Reilly. They got better.