Casualties of War

Ghostman

A harrowing and sobering film, it puts almost every war movie to shame. De Palma deserves all the accolades and honor the film industry has. Too bad they will never give it him.

Lars Ole Kristiansen

One of the most painfully visceral war movies ever made. Not perfect, but a very underrated De Palma-opera (although it was one of Pauline Kaels favourite films) - makes a perfect double bill with the equally underappreciated, almost forgotten "Redacted". B+

Duncan Gray

A story that begs to be told, though I'm not sure that De Palma's style and obsessions are the proper lens. His baroque artifice falls in and out of sync with the material, and Sean Penn is mugging. But it gets more and more thematically intriguing as it goes. Is it wrong to try and give trauma a happy ending? Maybe—but looking at atrocities as periodic nightmares has a purpose/beauty that, charitably, is complex.

Stian Gledje Bekkvik

The flaws are obvious enough for one to look past them, besides it captures moral conflict in war like only Saló did before it.

Dave

And underrated Vietnam film. At times, the characters can be a bit too caricature-ish, but on the whole it is very good De Palma.

Renton47

Like being trapped in the nightmare of determinism - where all anyone can ever ask is "how could it be any different?" - this is a rousing if suspicious war drama. Rousing aesthetically, but morally dubious, with emphasis on Fox as a good guy trapped in bad circumstances, another victim of determinism. It's harrowing but not as effective as 'Redacted', which strips the story of stylistic sheen to hone viscerality.

Stefan Drees

A surprisingly unpredictable film with some twists. It has also a good Morricone score, although the end with the use of a choir is too much for me.

chasemiddaugh

Michael J. Fox is terrific in this role, I'm not sure what the reviewer below me was thinking. Sean Penn, on the other hand- was not yet the actor he is today. Throughout the entire film it seems like his voice is overdubbed. De Palma is however, De Palma- and therefore the usual nonsense occurs- way overdramatic scenes, strange camera angles at inappropriate times, and an overuse/reliance on a Morricone score.