Spring Break
I like to watch: Gibson is a good soldier
Timothy Friend
Issue date: 3/4/02 Section: Culture
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War is still Hell, but it's a bit cooler there with Mel Gibson and Sam Elliot leading the way.
Director Randall Wallace has given us what is perhaps the first pro-military Vietnam War movie since John Wayne's "The Green Berets." The difference between the two is that the critically despised "…Berets" was also strongly in favor of the Vietnam War. "We Were Soldiers…" is not about the political rights and wrongs of any particular war. It is, as the title suggests, about soldiers who have little say in what conflicts they are sent to.
Mel Gibson is Lieutenant Hal Moore who, along with war correspondent Joseph Galloway (Barry Pepper), wrote the book on which the film is based. Gibson plays Moore as a strong-willed, straight-talking man with the physical presence of an idling bulldozer. We can quickly see why men would be willing to follow him into battle. Moore has been assigned to lead his men into what would become the first major battle in the Vietnam War. After meeting all the central characters and seeing their lives during happier days, the film packs us off to combat with the occasional cut-away moment to the soldiers' worried wives.
Moore's second in command is played by Sam Elliot, whose voice has been changed by age from merely deep to the rumbling of a dragon. Also along on the mission is chopper pilot Major Crandal (Greg Kinnear). Kinnear gives an excellent performance that, hopefully, will remind casting directors that the guy can play something other than smarmy yuppies.
The battle scenes here are more direct and less stylized than the recent "Black Hawk Down" (to which this movie cannot escape being compared). This suits the material well, as we have gotten to know these characters at least a little, and, unlike Ridley Scott's chaotic film, can recognize them as individuals. And while the movie makes an effort to show the Vietnamese soldiers as men equally undeserving of death, Moore and his men are still the central characters; the movie is none too subtle in its efforts to make them heroic. I freely admit to being somewhat thrilled by the sight of Sam Elliot's Sergeant Plumley facing down his enemies with a smoking .45.
The film's major flaw is that Wallace, whose only previous film as a director is "The Man in the Iron Mask," doesn't seem to trust himself or his audience to get a dramatic point unless it's hammered home with excess dialogue. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a feeling that not every word spoken by these soldiers before they left for war was such a grand and poetic statement. It would have been nice to hear someone say "I'm hungry" or "Man, these shoes are too tight." At least a good portion of this stuff is delivered with conviction by pros like Gibson and Elliot.
Story- **1/2 Performances- *** Entertainment Value- ****
On DVD: "Deathsport" 1978, directed by Nicholas Niciphor and Alan Arkush.
It is often said that difficult sets produce good movies. Such is not the case with "Deathsport," a notoriously difficult shoot and a ridiculous movie.
After the success of "Deathrace 2000" in 1975, producer Roger Corman once again cast David Carradine as the lead in what he hoped would be a worthy follow-up. Unfortunately, "Deathsport" is missing most of the things that made the previous film so memorable. Things like humor, good actors and a plot. In addition to a poor script, Corman's first choice of director, Nicholas Niciphor, had some difficulties with Carradine. Each man offers a different version of what happened, but the one thing agreed on is that Carradine broke Niciphor's nose and Alan Arkush was brought in to direct the remainder of the film.
The plot casts Carradine as Kaz Oshay, a Range Guide in a post-apocalyptic future doing battle with Death Machine riding soldiers (actually just guys in silver jumpsuits on motorcycles) led by Richard Lynch as the evil general Ankar Moor. Playboy model and drive-in perennial Claudia Jennings lends assistance to the cause and (during scenes where she is tortured by flashing lights and wind chimes) full frontal nudity.
Despite its shortcomings, "Deathsport" succeeds in providing the viewer with a good time. The dialogue is laughably awful and much of it centers around cannibalistic mutants that don't appear nearly often enough to warrant that much discussion. (Here are just a few prime examples of the mutant flavored dialogue: "Are they mutants?" "Mutants did that?" "On a night like this, the mutants will be out.") There is much motorcycle riding and many incoherently filmed action sequences, and things frequently explode for no apparent reason. If that isn't enough, the costumes or lack thereof are often entertainment unto themselves. Carradine spends the first half of the film in what amounts to a big diaper. He later trades up for sweats that make him look like he's carrying a load in the ass.
New Horizons has put "Deathsport" out on DVD as part of their Roger Corman Classics series. The disc comes with trailers for a few other (better) movies, but otherwise it's no frills all the way. Much like the movie itself.
Story- * Performances- ** Entertainment Value- ****
