Strong anti-war movie that tackles the war crimes of American soldiers during the Vietnam war.

One of the most powerful, difficult war movies ever made. Not the typical war movie you watch for the pew pew and boom.

I decided to watch it after I heard about the beef between Fox and Penn at the point where, at the end of trial when Penn whispers something to Fox, according to De Palma he said: "Television Actor"

It’s solid but this kind of complex dramatic material isn’t really suited to De Palma’s sensibilities. For example, the acting and character work lack a sense of nuance, while the key rape sequences are too sugarcoated due to some of the editing and odd score choices. There’s still a lot to admire about the direction (great tracking shots and blocking as expected from De Palma, split diopter shots, memorable set pieces, etc.), but I think with someone like Scorsese at the helm this could’ve potentially been a masterpiece. The writing’s most certainly there for it, I love how it explores masculinity and the loss of human empathy within a war context. It also pays attention to what motivates these soldiers in their horrific quest, which makes the film more compelling as they’re not reduced to stupid, shallow human beings (although that’s certainly a contributing factor). Moreover, the character arcs are interesting and the dramatic moments hit hard, even if they’re somewhat neutered by the way they’re presented here. In short, this isn’t exactly a top tier war movie when compared to all the high quality work out there, but it’s well worth a shot. 6/10

A puritanical soldier refuses to rape a Vietnamese woman.