Props for Michael J Fox trying to expand his range the moment he became a star - he went into Light of Day, Bright Lights Big City and this. The public liked none of them.
Props also to Brian de Palma for blowing his Untouchables chits on this. Just think maybe he should've made it for less money - pulled back on the battle sequences.
Gosh this is full on. American soldiers lose a man, so kidnap a Vietnamese girl for their sex slave, repeatedly rape her, then go to execute her... it seems several times she might escape but she doesn't get there... and she dies.
Sean Penn is excellent as an all too believable hill billy thug as is Don Harvey as his sidekick and John C Reilly and John Leguizmo as the easily influenced. Fox is very fine as well. All the acting is good. Thu Thuy Le is mostly required to scream and look scared but she's very effective. The rest of the Vietnamese are the standard Hollywood Vietnam War extras, either screaming or wailing.
I remember not liking this movie at all when I first saw it. My opinion is higher now - I guess I know more people like the characters, I certainly met enough at school. Ditto the officers whose instant reaction is to cover things up. This was all too believable.
The speech Fox gives after Cherry is killed is whiffy. The scene where Fox smacks Harvey in the face with a shovel is very satisfactory.
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