Brian DePalma’s Vietnam War classic: ‘Casualties of War’

Editor’s Note: This is the second of three posts on films of Brian DePalma.

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

CASUALTIES OF WAR (1989)

Brian DePalma has spent a good bit of his film making career mimicking the work and style of Alfred Hitchcock and occasionally dabbling in comedy and crime films with mixed results.

After experiencing success in 1976 with “Carrie,” DePalma bombed with his next film – the thriller “The Fury.” The same thing happened in 1989 when he bombed with  “Casualties of War,” his first film after the hit thriller “The Untouchables” in 1987.

But while “The Fury” was a stylish horror thriller with plot elements similar to “Carrie” (the main characters in both were telekinetic), “Casualties of War” was drastically different from “The Untouchables.” Here, DePalma jumped head-first into the Vietnam War with powerful results.

The tag line was catchy: “The first casualty of war is innocence.” The cast was impressive: A young Michael J. Fox trying to branch out from comedy and Sean Penn adding to his long list of admirable screen performances.

Fresh off “The Untouchables,” DePalma wanted to use his new clout to make a deeply personal film. He chose to dramatize a morally reprehensible act from the Vietnam War. Unfortunately for DePalma, the timing of his film was bad.

“Casualties of Wars” hit the big screen at the end of a sudden rush of Vietnam War movies in the mid-1980s, a spurt that began three years earlier with “Platoon” in 1986 and included the Stanley Kubrick classic “Full Metal Jacket” in 1987. Audiences were growing tired of Vietnam.

Based on an article Daniel Lang wrote for The New Yorker, “Casualties of War” tells the shocking story of U.S. Army soldiers who kidnapped, gang-raped and killed an innocent Vietnamese peasant girl simply because they could.

Fox, who does a great job of shaking his TV persona, plays a young soldier who tries to stop the madness. But he can’t – not under the leadership of a charismatic, hard-nosed Army sergeant played by Penn in a brilliant, hard-edged performance.

Despite underperforming at the box office and quickly disappearing from theaters, DePalma’s film is infinitely better than Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” – a much more powerful indictment of the Vietnam War and an effective depiction of how war dehumanizes people.

DePalma relies on a well-written script and a talented stable of actors to tell a compelling, true-life story. DePalma refuses to resort to heavy-handed theatrics and blatant, over-the-top symbolism that so often plagues “Platoon” and so many of Stone’s other films.

While not available at this time on high-definition Blu-ray disc, “Casualties of War” is available for purchase or rental on DVD. You can often find copies of the film in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart SuperCenter and other retailers. You also can rent the film through Netflix. The film is rated R for violence, nudity and profanity.

# # #