SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Seraherrera
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Hadrina
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Svenstadt
This movie has all the right elements in it and strikes a sympathetic tone. Colin Farrell is the kind of hero that makes movies great; he makes you want to care about the character. Also, it is a war movie but isn't set in war but rather before the war, and the stress going into the war is often greater than the war itself, so it has a kind of ' more is less ' thing going on in that sense. This movie could be described as extremely raw in nature: the sex scene is raw and very hot, the performances are raw, the fight scene between the hero and villain, Pvt. Wilson, makes you feel like you are witnessing a real fight. You will feel the stress as the characters move into and out situations of what you think you would feel in real life. In addition to having a realistic portrayal of the attitudes of the characters at this point in the war which, having studied Vietnam, I can tell you it is consistent with actual experiences.
CyberZeus67
This movie is without exception a solid 10 - higher if they allowed it. Folks may not appreciate the story nor the subject matter, but the acting is beyond quality. Farrell was OUTSTANDING and in essence, gives us all a practical class in acting. This film introduced me to several fine actors and it was self-evident that standouts Farrell, Whigham, & Shanon are complete naturals in their chosen craft. Actually it's kind of a shame that Farrell has had the better career because Wingham and Shannon are just as a good - IMHO.All that said, the story is actually pretty darn good and the art and film direction is just a solid. How folks gives this thing a 7 is just unexplainable...Anyway, I had to post this so folks realize they shouldn't gloss over this title because of the erroneously low rating...give this flick a try and I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
denryter18919
It's been awhile since I saw it and would not waste my time watching it again but as a Nam vet and NCO who went through Tigerland twice, once as a trainee and once as a training sergeant, this movie was very disappointing. Not real historically accurate on many fronts. Most importantly this whole deal about Bozz being such an individualist and non conformist is pure nonsense. The whole point of military training, especially for combat infantry is to eliminate individualism and get everyone playing on the same team. There is no room for non conformity in combat. Our combat units could not be effective if we had any doubt of what to expect from the guy or the unit next to us. Guys like the Bozz character depicted in this movie end up in the stockade or at least get run out of combat units. Although not technically a war movie because it covers only training for war, it is a movie whose central theme is about Vietnam and on that note I found it to be the second worst Vietnam genre movie behind only that miserable piece of garbage, Tunnel Rats.
dougdoepke
This appears to be a message movie, but the message gets lost in an unsteady screenplay that can't seem to decide where it's going. Too bad, because the Boz character is fascinating, while several scenes are powerfully done. One problem is that the time and place is very specific, Fort Polk, 1971. By that time, the Vietnam war had become highly politicized even among rank and file soldiers, while peace symbols sprouted everywhere. The military was facing a growing mutiny as discipline was breaking down both at home and abroad.Now the logical thing would be to connect Boz's rebelliousness to the anti-war movement. That would explain what otherwise remains vague-- his reasons for bucking the system. However, there are only passing references to the crisis then facing the military professionals. Thus, a very politicized period is de-politicized, leaving Boz's rebellion with a purely personal and unexplained attitude. So, as the rather incredible ending shows and despite his previous behavior, Boz never had anything principled against the war or even the military (though he understands its de- humanizing methods). Instead, he responds to the demands of friendship (Paxton) and an unselfish desire not to have someone else risk death in his place. Thus, he emerges at the end as something of a mythologized Christ figure which is why the script leaves his fate so uncertain. As a result, what started out as a message movie ends rather confusingly as a character study. At the same time, the anti-military message morphs abruptly into a pro-war apology to the training sergeant-- a disastrous move for the film as a whole.There's another shift that undercuts the cumulative impact. The original conflict is that between Boz and the army as he skirts regulations, disrespects his superiors, and returns recruits to civilian life who should be returned. But halfway through, the conflict morphs into a struggle between Boz and the unbalanced Wilson. The trouble is that this personal feud isolates the conflict causing the story to lose further focus such that no clear message or impact emerges at the end. This is a movie of parts, whose sum-total unfortunately undermines the whole.I suspect the movie had either limited theatrical release or went right to cable. That's too bad, because with clearer concepts the result could have been memorable. Several of the scenes are really strong, especially the personal confessions. They're movingly done and by relatively unknown actors. Also the filming techniques (staging, camera set-ups, etc.) are excellent and help compensate for the muddled script. Unfortunately, however, they can't salvage the basic flaws in how the story develops.
