Don Johnson has a certain presence that makes him watchable in most of his projects. It's a sort of a gravitas combined with the cool alpha southern guy. He does not possess a huge range, as evidenced by this performance and most others, but in the final courtroom scene, he gives a fine emotional yet understated performance.
I was convinced that this was going to be another movie depicting American soldiers as sadistic, maniacal murderers and rapists. It basically was, but Johnson's speech at the end balances things out with an interesting and original use of logic.
He admits that his fellow soldiers did something terrible, but suggests that their acts were crimes of passion during an otherwise honorable period of service and subsequent honorable lifetimes.
The only way the movie can exist is if we don't get to hear Johnson's account of the key event in Vietnam until the end of the movie. Everything hinged on this suspense. Therefore he awkwardly refuses to tell his own wife and kid what happened, and we don't hear him tell his own lawyer.
One reviewer already mentioned that the key witness, a French nun, became black over the 30 year period since the war. She was a missionary, but perhaps we are supposed to assume that she went through a skin pigmentation darkening process. Michael Jackson was a missionary too.
I usually love Jeanne Tripplehorn, but she was wooden in this one. I usually love John Heard too. I guess he was OK, but I really didn't get a feel for who the hell he was.
More importantly, I still don't understand why the soldiers massacred everyone. I guess Johnson's speech about temporary insanity explains it. They were distraught over the deaths of their fellow soldiers and suspicious of everyone, they were fatigued, and they just lost it.
There is one born again Christian in the adult version of the platoon whom we see when they reunite in D.C. But it would have been nice to see Don Johnson's character consult with a clergyman.
Also, as one other reviewer cleverly mentioned, I saw no evidence that the Johnson character's marriage was so sacred. He tells his lawyer that his wife and kid are everything to him, but it seems like his wife is just a sexy blonde with whom he has a lukewarm relationship.
This picture is slow, has low budget production values, is filled with clichés, and makes little sense. The Vietnam sequences are totally unrealistic and clichéd too. One soldier even says, "Don't die on me man," while he holds his bloodied friend. I've never heard that one before.
Stay away from this stinker, unless you are a Johnson fan, or just have a penchant for anything to do with Vietnam. It includes Arliss Howard, a pleasing actor from the 80s as well.
I was convinced that this was going to be another movie depicting American soldiers as sadistic, maniacal murderers and rapists. It basically was, but Johnson's speech at the end balances things out with an interesting and original use of logic.
He admits that his fellow soldiers did something terrible, but suggests that their acts were crimes of passion during an otherwise honorable period of service and subsequent honorable lifetimes.
The only way the movie can exist is if we don't get to hear Johnson's account of the key event in Vietnam until the end of the movie. Everything hinged on this suspense. Therefore he awkwardly refuses to tell his own wife and kid what happened, and we don't hear him tell his own lawyer.
One reviewer already mentioned that the key witness, a French nun, became black over the 30 year period since the war. She was a missionary, but perhaps we are supposed to assume that she went through a skin pigmentation darkening process. Michael Jackson was a missionary too.
I usually love Jeanne Tripplehorn, but she was wooden in this one. I usually love John Heard too. I guess he was OK, but I really didn't get a feel for who the hell he was.
More importantly, I still don't understand why the soldiers massacred everyone. I guess Johnson's speech about temporary insanity explains it. They were distraught over the deaths of their fellow soldiers and suspicious of everyone, they were fatigued, and they just lost it.
There is one born again Christian in the adult version of the platoon whom we see when they reunite in D.C. But it would have been nice to see Don Johnson's character consult with a clergyman.
Also, as one other reviewer cleverly mentioned, I saw no evidence that the Johnson character's marriage was so sacred. He tells his lawyer that his wife and kid are everything to him, but it seems like his wife is just a sexy blonde with whom he has a lukewarm relationship.
This picture is slow, has low budget production values, is filled with clichés, and makes little sense. The Vietnam sequences are totally unrealistic and clichéd too. One soldier even says, "Don't die on me man," while he holds his bloodied friend. I've never heard that one before.
Stay away from this stinker, unless you are a Johnson fan, or just have a penchant for anything to do with Vietnam. It includes Arliss Howard, a pleasing actor from the 80s as well.