Casualties of War (1989)
 
Brief: When his patrol is sent on a long term recon, Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) jokingly suggests that they get a girl.  He means a hooker.  Unfortunately, the rest of his patrol decides to kidnap a young Vietnamese girl (Thuy Thu Le) from the village and take her with them.  When Eriksson refuses to rape her as well, he lands himself in a death match with Meserve (Sean Penn), Clark (Don Harvey), Hatcher (John C. Reilly), and Diaz (John Leguizamo).  Based on a true story. 
 
Can I honestly tell you what I get out of movies like these?  I hate war.  I mean it.  I know that sounds simplistic and prosaic and I’m not saying that I am going to start joining every protest from here to Kingdom.  I’m just saying that they infuriate me. 
 
And nothing, nothing infuriates me more than wars as useless as the Vietnam “conflict”.  I don’t know who came up with that term, but, frankly, I’m none too pleased with him either.  They left all these angry, frustrated, violent young men out there in the jungle with no direction or purpose and sat by while they committed atrocious war crimes. 
 
So this movie, eh?  It didn’t do it for me.  I mean, I was distracted in the beginning by the really bad sets, but then they moved onto some location, and things were looking up.  Plus, I knew what was going to happen plotwise, so you can’t say that’s what turned me off. 
 
Maybe I was turned off by them trying to pass off Sean Penn as a 20 year-old.  Maybe I was turned off by the fact that this is possibly Brian DePalma’s (director) worst movie.  On the other hand, he did do Femme Fatale (2002). 
 
It must have been David Rabe’s screenplay.  There’s nothing to watch in it. I mean it, there’s no focus.  The only thing I was focused on was when they were going to kill the girl.  Not because I wanted her to die, but I knew they would.  I just wished they would have done it sooner. 
 
I bet you thought I was going to say Fox.  Well, you’d be wrong.  He was really good in this movie.  I like him.  I wish he could do more stuff. 
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