Casualties of War
Casualties of War is a 1989 American war drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Rabe, based primarily on an article written by Daniel Lang for The New Yorker in 1969, which was later published as a book.[3] The film stars Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn and is based on the events of the 1966 incident on Hill 192 during the Vietnam War, in which a Vietnamese woman was kidnapped from her village by a squad of American soldiers, who raped and murdered her. For the film, all names and some details of the true story were altered.
For other uses, see Casualties of War (disambiguation).Plot[edit]
The story is presented as a flashback of Max Eriksson, a Vietnam veteran.
Lieutenant Reilly leads his platoon of American soldiers on a nighttime patrol. They are attacked by the Viet Cong (VC) after a panicked soldier exposes their position. While guarding the platoon's flank, Eriksson falls as the top of a VC tunnel gives way beneath him. Eriksson's squad leader, Sergeant Tony Meserve, pulls Eriksson out of the hole and eventually, the platoon retreats out of the jungle.
The platoon takes a break outside a river village in the Central Highlands. While relaxing and joking around, one of Meserve's friends, Specialist 4 "Brownie" Brown, is killed when the Viet Cong ambushes them. Brownie's death has a major impact on Meserve. The platoon is sent back to their base. Private First Class Antonio Dìaz arrives as the replacement radio operator.
Frustrated because his squad has been denied leave for an extended period, Meserve orders the squad to kidnap a Vietnamese girl. Eriksson strenuously objects, but Meserve, Corporal Thomas E. Clark, and Private First Class Herbert Hatcher ignore him. Before the quintet disembarks, Eriksson voices his concerns to his closest friend, Rowan. At nightfall, the squad enters a village and kidnaps a Vietnamese girl, Tran Thi Oanh.
As the squad treks through the mountains, Dìaz begins to reconsider raping Tran and begs Eriksson to back him up. The squad and Tran eventually take refuge in an abandoned hooch, where Eriksson is confronted and threatened by Meserve, Clark, and Hatcher. Dìaz suddenly gives in to the pressure, leaving Eriksson alone in opposing the act. Meserve forces Eriksson to stand guard outside while the other men sequentially rape Tran.
At daybreak, Eriksson is ordered to guard Tran while the rest of the squad takes up a position near a railroad bridge overlooking a Viet Cong river supply depot. Through his acts of kindness, Eriksson manages to earn Tran's trust and prepares to go AWOL and return Tran to her family. However, Meserve sends Clark to get Eriksson and Tran to go to the bridge before Eriksson can carry out his plan.
Meserve has Dìaz order close air support for an assault on the depot and then orders Dìaz to kill Tran with a knife. Before Dìaz can kill her, Eriksson fires his rifle into the air, exposing them to the nearby Viet Cong. Amidst the firefight, Tran tries to escape, despite being repeatedly stabbed by Clark. Eriksson tries to save her, but Meserve stops him and knocks him down with the butt of his gun. Eriksson watches helplessly as the entire squad shoots Tran numerous times until she falls off the bridge to her death.
After the battle, Eriksson wakes up in a field hospital at the base. He eventually bumps into Rowan and tells him everything that happened. Rowan suggests that Eriksson see Reilly and company commander Captain Hill. Reilly and Hill both prefer to bury the matter but Hill, infuriated at Eriksson's determination to press the issue, resolves to get rid of Eriksson and orders him transferred to a tunnel rat unit. The other men in Meserve's squad will all be reassigned as well.
After narrowly escaping an attempt to kill him in the latrine with a grenade (made by Clark), Eriksson storms into a tent and smacks Clark in the face with a shovel, reminding Meserve that killing him is unnecessary because no one cares about what they did. Meserve shakily derides Eriksson, saying he's crazy, and Eriksson leaves.
Eriksson then meets an Army chaplain at a bar and describes what happened during the patrol. The chaplain in turn reports it, launching an investigation. The four men who participated in the rape and murder are court martialed: Meserve receives 10 years hard labor and a dishonorable discharge, Clark receives life in prison, and Hatcher and Diaz receive 15 and 8 years of hard labor, respectively.
At the end of the film, Eriksson wakens from a nightmare to find himself on a J-Church transit line in San Francisco, just a few seats from a Vietnamese-American student who resembles Tran. She disembarks at Dolores Park and forgets her scarf, prompting Eriksson to run after her to return it. As she thanks him and turns away, he calls after her in Vietnamese. She surmises that she reminds him of someone and that he has had a bad dream. They go their separate ways, and Eriksson is somewhat comforted.
The film continued the pseudonyms Lang used in his article, even though the soldiers' real names had since become public.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
The film was based on the real-life incident on Hill 192, and on Daniel Lang's lengthy New Yorker article, "Casualties of War," published in October 1969 and released as a book, with the same title, a month later.[5] Film rights were bought by David Susskind who was to produce the film for Warner Bros.[6] Pete Hamill wrote a script and Jack Clayton was to direct.[7] However the film was not made. In the meantime, Michael Verhoeven made his film based on the incident, titled o.k.. Verhoeven's film was entered to the Berlin Film Festival in 1970, causing so much controversy among the judges, that the festival was shut down for that year with no awards given. De Palma was at that festival with his film Dionysus in '69.
In the late 1970s Susskind announced he would make the film for ABC.[8] This did not happen.
In 1979 David Rabe mentioned the project to Brian De Palma, who was interested but was unable to raise the money to finance it. Some years later Rabe had written a script, and De Palma attached Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn as actors. They almost succeeded in getting the film financed at Paramount Pictures, but ultimately decided not to proceed when the budget went from $17 million to $20 million. De Palma then went on to make The Untouchables which was a big hit; Dawn Steel had liked the project at Paramount, and when she became head of production at Columbia Pictures, Casualties of War was the first film she green-lit.[1][9][10]
"Historically Vietnam War movies have been very profitable," said Steel. "All of them. Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter. You're looking at movies that have never been not pretty successful, but very successful. The foreign numbers have been extraordinary."[1]
Shooting[edit]
The film was shot in April–May 1988, mostly on location in Thailand, with some filming in San Francisco.[11] The bridge location was filmed in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, which was the same as the famous Bridge on the River Kwai.
This film was Fox's third major dramatic role. He had previously starred in Light of Day and Bright Lights, Big City. John C. Reilly makes his screen debut in the film; he would work with Penn again in We're No Angels and State of Grace. John Leguizamo, who appeared in his first major film role, would again star with Penn in another picture by De Palma, 1993's Carlito's Way.
"Let's be honest," said Fox at the time. "If this movie makes a buck and a half it's going to be things like Bikini's Away for me. But to fail doing something unexpected is no disgrace. To fail doing the ordinary is a disaster. This movie is about how much you will risk if you have nothing to gain."[11]