Casualties of War (1989)
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A Vietnam War veteran haunted by the memories of a horrific crime committed by his squad.
The story
The story is presented as a flashback of Max Eriksson, a Vietnam veteran. During a night patrol, a platoon of American soldiers led by Lieutenant Reilly is ambushed by Viet Cong. After a period of being denied leave, Sergeant Tony Meserve orders his squad to kidnap a Vietnamese girl to take with them on an extended reconnaissance patrol. Eriksson, who is part of the squad, voices his concerns to his friend Rowan before the group enters a village to kidnap Tran Thi Oanh. The film follows the harrowing journey of the soldiers as they move into the mountains, forcing Eriksson to confront the moral decay and violence of the war.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
The story is presented as a flashback of Max Eriksson, a Vietnam veteran. After a patrol is ambushed, the squad, led by Sergeant Tony Meserve, kidnaps a Vietnamese girl, Tran Thi Oanh, during a period of denied leave. As they trek into the mountains, the men engage in a planned sexual assault of the girl. Eriksson, who has grown close to her, tries to protect her but is ultimately forced to watch as the squad members commit atrocities. During a subsequent confrontation at a bridge, a firefight ensues, and the girl is killed. In the aftermath, Eriksson is initially ignored by his superiors but eventually faces a court-martial process for the men involved. Years later, in San Francisco, Eriksson encounters a woman who resembles the girl he couldn't save, and he calls out to her in Vietnamese, finding a moment of closure.
- First release year
- 1989
- Runtime (minutes)
- 113
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Brian De Palma
- Writers
- David Rabe · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Michael J. Fox · Private First Class Max Eriksson; Sean Penn · Sergeant Tony Meserve; Don Patrick Harvey · Corporal Thomas E. Clark; John C. Reilly · Private First Class Herbert Hatcher; John Leguizamo · Private First Class Antonio Dìaz; Thuy Thu Le · Tran Thi Oanh; Erik King · Specialist 4 "Brownie" Brown; Jack Gwaltney · Rowan
- Genres
- war drama; crime drama
- Themes
- war crimes; moral decay; guilt; trauma
- Tone and mood
- harrowing; somber; intense
- Premise and plot tags
- war; historical drama; legal drama; based on true events
- Source material / true-story basis
- an article written by Daniel Lang for The New Yorker in 1969, which was later published as a book.
- Content notes
- violence
- Reception
- The film received positive reviews from critics but underperformed at the box office, grossing $18.7 million against a $22.5 million budget.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 82% · scale: percentage · review count: 50
- Awards and nominations
- Political Film Society Award for Peace · Peace · 1990 · Win
- Production trivia
- The film was based on the real-life incident on Hill 192.; The bridge location was filmed in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, the same as for Bridge on the River Kwai.; Quentin Tarantino has hailed the film as "the greatest film about the Vietnam War."
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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