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The Vietnam war may not have endeared America to the rest of the world
nor some of its own people but Hollywood has made big bucks out of it. Yet
another film based on or around the war in South East Asia has been
released and in the process discovered a young (25yo)talented Irish actor.
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Colin Farrell who also starred in Ordinary Decent criminal and
Ballykissangel plays the lead role in this predictable at times film. |
Directed by Joel Schumacher,... he of the Batman series fame. Whilst
the story may not have been gripping, Schumachers experience enhanced the
film through the use of 16mm film footage of the training scenes, which gave
the viewer a sense of reality and pre 70's era (16mm film gives a grainey
appearance like high speed 400ASA camera film of today).
The film tells the story of Roland Bozz (Farrell) and a bunch of
recruits in an infantary training camp at Fort Polk in Louisiana - which exists in
reality. Most of the film was actually shot in florida. Some of them
enlisted, but most, including Bozz were conscripted. He had done
everything to try and get out of the army including the final destination of all
the troops, Vietnam.
So the film is quite predictable, in the sense that there is a lot of
loud mouth american boot camp lingo and tactics which frankly bore me to
tears. I mean, I'm no saint but every second word was either fu*k or ass!
needless to say Bozz spends a lot of his time in the 'cooler' for stunts he pulls,
while at the same time gaining the respect of some of the men in his
company. As his commander said, "he is a born leader, but is scared to lead". He
doesnt tolerate the brutality of army life either against him or his
collegues.
He was forced into a position of responsibility (company sargent),
having to make decisions, whilst at the same time having to deal with a lunaticamongst his men, bent on blowing him away. His ties with his men
proved greater than that of his plans to escape to Mexico, but he succeeded
in getting two men discharaged and of their assured death in S.E.Asia
The final scene was dredful and I felt like asking for my money back.
What a disappointment. Couldnt believe the film was over. We never got to see
him in real action or what happened him as he departed from the final
pre-nam training camp called "Tigerland"
Normally I like war films but this effort didnt inspire me much. Its
over 18's for reasons of nude sex scenes with local prostitutes (which
actually were quiet raunchy) rather than underwear clad soldiers in the dorm at
night! :-(
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