When the girl eventually threatens to expose them in their real mission, Eriksson fires off a few rounds to prevent her from being killed, and in the melee, she's killed anyway.  He returns to basecamp, and reports the matter to his superiors, Lt. Reilly (Ving Rhames) and Capt. Hill (Dale Dye.)  The system doesn't do anything, and after being nearly fragged by the squad, he eventually tells his tale to a nosy chaplain, who apparently escalates the matter up the chain of command.  Hollywood military adviser Dale Dye takes on a more prominent role than his usual cameo here as the representative of the military status quo.

The squad is convicted and sentenced.  But the true redemption of Eriksson happens sometime latter as he helps a young Vietnamese student much later in life, and she tells him "its over now."

Casualties of War isn't exactly one of those movies you enjoy watching, at least not for the usual reasons.  As the typical morality-play it succeeds and surpasses.  The sole voice of justice and decency prevails, and there are some choice quotes by Eriksson that define the essence of what this picture is about, such as "Everybody's acting like we can do anything and it don't matter what we do. Maybe we gotta' be extra careful because maybe it matters more than we even know."

The performances are just stellar, from Fox's character, to Penn's madman, Reilly's typical dipstick, Harvey's psycho, and Leguizamo's floundering....  They each represent aspects of the fog and character of war that exist, whether we like it or not.  The resulting attempt by the system to suppress these evil deeds, and the obvious oxymorons (we're supposed to be killers!) that present themselves in the trial....  all make Casualties of War a top-notch example of what an anti-war movie should be about.  From a film standpoint and a classical storytelling standpoint.

It's plain to see that Redacted is nothing more than an ugly re-hash of Casualties of War.  Yes they are both based on true stories, and its unfortunate that nothing's changed as it relates to the awfulness of war.  Where Casualties differs though is in the ultimate triumph of good over evil, and in the redemption of the main character.  Where Redacted ends with the one "good guy" crying in his beer and a slideshow of bloody corpses.  How the mighty have fallen.

Casualties of War is also available through Amazon's Unbox online video store, but I recommend the DVD or catching it on HDNet Movies instead for the full effect.


Technorati Tags: war movie review, casualties of war, 1989, vietnam, brian depalma, redacted, michael j. fox, sean penn, john c. reilly, don harvey, john leguizamo, dale dye, thuy thu le, ving rhames