
During the Vietnam war, a girl is taken from her village by five American soldiers. Four of the soldiers rape her, but the fifth refuses. The young girl is killed. The fifth soldier is determined that justice will be done. The film is more about the realities of war, rather than this single event.... (Full plot summary below)
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During the Vietnam war, a girl is taken from her village by five American soldiers. Four of the soldiers rape her, but the fifth refuses. The young girl is killed. The fifth soldier is determined that justice will be done. The film is more about the realities of war, rather than this single event.
Leave your thoughts about Casualties of War.
| Washington PostHal HinsonEven at their most disturbing, Brian De Palma's films have always seemed like brilliant abstractions, sinister theorems from a bloody virtuoso. But Casualties of War, the director's rigorous, unflinching, masterly new film, is something else altogether. It is a film of great emotional power and great seriousness in which all of the filmmaker's talents and interests are in balance. It is a breakthrough work, a signal of an artist's blossoming maturity, and one of the most punishing, morally complex movies about men at war ever made. |
| MovieMartyr.comJeremy HeilmanThe equation of sanctioned and unsanctioned barbarism in the climactic moments of Casualties is about as damning an indictment of the way that humanity justifies immoral acts during war as I've seen. |
| New TimesLuke Y. ThompsonMichael J. Fox is a little hard to buy in this one. |
| VarietyVariety StaffA powerful metaphor of the national shame that was America's orgy of destruction in Vietnam, Brian De Palma's film deals directly with the harrowing rape and murder of a Vietnamese woman by four GIs. |
| Rolling StonePeter TraversWhat makes the film distinctive, devastating and unforget-table is the way De Palma lets the actions of the characters speak volumes. There is no conflict between what De Palma and Rabe are trying to say. But their methods are different. De Palma shows; Rabe tells...This is a portrait of hell so harrowing it’s impossible to shake. |
| The New YorkerPauline KaelGiven the seriousness of the subject matter, it's surprising—and ballsy—that De Palma makes Casualties Of War a full-on De Palma movie, with stylishly suspenseful action scenes, heightened performances, and plenty of moments where Fox takes on the role of a typically impotent De Palma voyeur. |
| Slant MagazineEric HendersonIt stands as maybe the only great film by the director that I feel an unconscious crisis of conscience that makes me want to view it without an auteurist context. |
| BrianOrndorf.comBrian OrndorfIt's a fat glop of obvious screen manipulation that preserves a frightening human core, making the life and death struggle all the more shocking. |
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenMichael J. Fox is a revelation as the mouse that roared, whilst the score, the direction, and the rest of the cast turn a risky film into a solid addition to the Nam canon. |
| EmanuelLevy.ComEmanuel LevyThis Vietnam War saga, inspired by a true story, is among De Palma's better pictures, devoid of his usual gimmicry and cynicism. |