Casualties of War (1989)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Brian De Palma

Writers (WGA):

Daniel Lang (book)
David Rabe (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 August 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | War

Tagline:

Even in war... murder is murder.

Plot:

During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.

Plot Keywords:

Vietnam | Vietnam War | Rape | Village | 1960s

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Michael J. Fox	...	Eriksson
Sean Penn	...	Meserve
Don Harvey	...	Clark
John C. Reilly	...	Hatcher
John Leguizamo	...	Diaz
Thuy Thu Le	...	Oanh
Erik King	...	Brown
Jack Gwaltney	...	Rowan
Ving Rhames	...	Lt. Reilly
Dan Martin	...	Hawthorne
Dale Dye	...	Capt. Hill
Steve Larson	...	Agent #1
John Linton	...	Agent #2
Vyto Ruginis	...	Prosecutor
Al Shannon	...	Wilkins

Runtime:

113 min | USA:121 min (extended version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:MA (extended version) | Brazil:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Norway:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Philippines:PG-13 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The voice of "The Girl on the Train" voice was dubbed by Amy Irving, onetime wife of De Palma's friend Steven Spielberg.

Goofs:

Continuity: Meserve's arm position changes when confronting the MP who will not let the group go into town.

Quotes:

[the squad watches the storm after raping the girl]
Clark: When's the last time you had a real woman, Sarge?
Meserve: She was real. I think she was real.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The 13th Annual Young Comedians Special (1989) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Everybody Loves Somebody

"Nobody cares"

This is a true story of what happens in war when morality and ethics are tossed aside. The killing that is involved in war gets mixed up with murder, bigotry, and revenge in this factual horror story.

Fox is excellent as the naive but ethical young man exposed to a "Nobody cares" atmosphere in the midst of war. The film not only shows what can happen to human beings when they let go of any sense of conscience, but it is also a metaphor of the amoral mentality that was behind the Viet Nam conflict and its aftermath.

The struggle depicted here is between going along with the group or maintaining one's own integrity. Are there rules of war? Are there rules of living? These are the profound questions which underlie the action in this disturbing film.