For a filmmaker associated with operatic action films, Francis Ford Coppola made a lot of slow moving, well acted dramas which sort of amble along. This is one. It's about the guard unit of the army, the ones who do the funerals at Arlington. Sergeant James Caan wants to train troops for Vietnam, DB Sweeney is a young soldier who wants to transfer to Vietnam.
The cast is great. There's Mary Stuart Masterson as the girl Sweeney marries, Masterson's parents IRL Pete and Carlin Glynn as her on screen parents, James Earl Jones is one of this earliest "black military man" roles, fellow Some Kind of Wonderful alumni Elias Koteas as a clerk, Dean Stockwell as an officer, Angelica Huston as Caan's new girlfriend, Larry Fishburne as a sergeant, Lonette McKee as Mrs Jones, Sam Bottoms as a soldie.
Caan is particularly excellent. Sweeney is fine - there was a ten year period where Hollywood tried him as a leading man in films and then TV but it didn't work out apart from some minor hits (The Cutting Edge, Fire in the Sky)... Fishburne should probably have played this role.
There's some 80s boomer dialogue about Vietnam ("we'll never win"). Actually come to think of it a lot of the dialogue felt off.
The music drones and feels odd. It's dull. I didn't care about Sweeney's romance with Masteron. I think Sweeney just should've played Caan's actual son instead of Sweeney having an unseen dad and Caan an unseen son.
The turmoil Coppola went through on this film - losing his own son - is a compelling story, more moving that what is on screen. I found the movie dull.
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