Summary

  • A military history expert gives low realism marks to Michael J. Fox's Vietnam War movie.
  • The depiction of bridge guarding in the film lacks accuracy, scoring just 4 out of 10 for realism.
  • A real incident of mistreatment of noncombatants in Vietnam is highlighted in the film.

A military history expert gives low marks for realism to Michael J. Fox’s Vietnam War movie. Fox starred opposite Sean Penn in Brian De Palma’s Vietnam epic, which told the harrowing true story of an incident in which a Vietnamese woman was raped and murdered by a squad of American soldiers. Released amid the Vietnam War movie boom of the late ‘80s, the intensely dramatic film was a box office failure, grossing just $18 million on a budget of $22 million.

Fox’s Casualties of War may indeed have been too harrowing for audiences in 1989, and according to an expert, it isn’t particularly realistic either. In a video for Insider, military history professor Bill Allison broke down a sequence from De Palma’s movie, with an eye toward its depiction of bridge guarding, and found the film lacking, giving it just 4-out-of-10 for realism. Check out his remarks below (around 13:20 of the clip):

Guarding bridges, very common. You often had US, ARVN [The Army of the Republic of Vietnam] forces on either side of a bridge over a river or a railroad bridge to protect it. Unless you wanted that bridge destroyed. I'm not sure you could be much more exposed than being on a railroad bridge.

This is based on a real incident. A unit murdered a young woman who they had kidnapped and raped. Unfortunately in Vietnam, as is the case in pretty much all wars, soldiers do mistreat noncombatants. There are a few units that were notorious for their treatment of noncombatants.

And right on cue, here comes your air power, which, I'm not sure those explosions would've been that way. Now, there you see an American river patrol boat gets in the way and gets hit by collateral damage there. That would've been pretty common for a river patrol boat. We had what we called riverine forces. So these patrol boats would've been going up and down the major waterways.

I don't think it's the best duty to have because you're out there and you're exposed. Now, these things are armored-plate. They've got some protection, but you're really exposed out there, open to ambush from either side of the river and things like that. So it was pretty dangerous duty.

I gotta rate this one probably a four, because there's just so much of it that's just not right.

Casualties Of War Took Fox Out Of His Comfort Zone (And Audiences Didn’t Like It)

Michael J Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future and Casualties of War cast

Fox rose to fame playing Alex P. Keaton on the hit sitcom Family Ties, then became a movie star thanks to Teen Wolf and Back to the Future. Having established himself as a bankable name in movies, Fox tested his range by g on for De Palma’s long-gestating Casualties of War, which gained momentum after Platoon and Full Metal Jacket had opened the door for Vietnam films to succeed at the box office.

Fox’s play for prestige film legitimacy didn’t work out, however. Critics said he was miscast in Casualties of War, playing opposite a heavy-hitter like Penn. Audiences weren’t any more eager than critics to embrace the Marty McFly actor taking on meatier dramatic roles, and Fox seemed to get the message, as he quickly looped back to doing comedies, family films and generally lighter fare.

Casualties of War is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.

Though Casualties of War was a failure at the box office, it does have its champions, especially among those who ire De Palma and his cinematic style. When it comes to realistically depicting the dangers of war, at least one expert believes the film fell short.

Source: Insider/YouTube