carlson_7 What a movie!!!Not for the faint- hearted.It depicts the ultimate inhumanity of war.Michael J Fox is superb of the supreme cast.I believe such incidents unfortunately occurred.After watching the film,I was revolted by the way the Vietnamese young woman was treated by the American soldiers.May there never be another war.It was a relief to see the soldiers involved received the punishment they so rightly deserved.One realizes the complications of being in the armed forces.It is no wonder that so many returning soldiers suffer from Post Traumatic Depression.It makes the issue of being drafted deplorable.Soldiers should only be involved in a war by volunteering,not being drafted.

crendine I have to agree with the other reviewers who asked : "How could this movie have possibly been made?". This piece of absolute trash really says a lot for the many brave American soldiers (men and women) who faithfully served our country throughout the Viet Nam war. The story centers on the rape and eventual murder of an innocent Vietnamese child by 4 American soldiers who were refused leave. Who in their right mind would want to make a movie like this? The performances are just awful and totally unrealistic. Sean Penn is his usual unconvincingly terrible and casting Michael J Foxx in a war film is about as convincing as casting Stan Laurel in the lead role of Rocky ! I just fail to see how portraying American GIs as low-life rapists and murderers serves as quality entertainment. Very unconvincing acting, an awful plot, and totally off-center directing make this film the very bottom of the heap for me. One I would never recommend nor want to see again. Very disturbing junk. DePalma was really out of his element on this one and should have been court-martial-ed for this movie. It makes our Viet Nam GIs look like the Russian soldiers who served under Stalin during World War 2.

phd_travel Kudos to Brian de Palma for making this brave movie. There aren't many movies that show war crimes by U.S. soldiers. Most Vietnam war movies focus on the impact of the war on the U.S. soldiers. The effect on civilians in Vietnam is often too painful and unpopular to deal with. It is a movie that shows Vietnam as tragedy for everyone involved not just the combatants. The true story of the rape and murder of a Vietnamese farm girl and it's exposure by a soldier who refused to take part is shown in a straightforward and unflinchingly direct way. The rape and murder itself is beyond heartbreaking. Yet the story isn't one sided. It shows the perpetrators being in such a horrid situation that allowed something like this to happen. The movie shows the difficulties and consequences of being a whistle blower - how relevant today.Michael J Fox gives a very moving and sympathetic performance showing he is a fine dramatic actor. My initial misgivings of him as being mainly a comedic actor were quickly dispelled. Sean Penn gives a totally believable performance as the idiotic sergeant in charge. The Vietnamese actress Thuy Thu Le's performance is so good that it's almost too painful to watch.This movie isn't as famous as it should be and deserves a place among the most powerful and well acted war movies of all time.

dumsumdumfai This is heart breaking to watch. Because it is so brutal and Sean Penn is so evil here, while MJ Fox so .. MJ Fox.And if you read about the details, the original story in the paper, the real sentences, the journalist and what he stood for all his career, all the more heart breaking.I think DePalma got a lot of slack for this. His 2 movies that opens the 80s --> Blow out and closing it --> this one are similarly in ending, however so that one is based on a true story the other not.This is what you get when a great technician with great material with great actors. It just clicks like clockworks. Every scene is a show stopper, every expression is intensified, every action perilous and full of scruples.