I’ve never been much of a De Palma fan, but it would be silly to deny that Casualties of War shows his talents, such as they are, at their near best—disregarding for the moment what he does with them. Several years ago, Jean-Luc Godard praised him for his “work on the image,” which I was somewhat dubious about at the time, but this work is plainly evident here in the thoughtfulness of his deep-focus, wide-screen framing, particularly unorthodox uses of the right and left edges of the frame.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
September 01, 1989