During the Vietnam war, a girl is taken from her village by five American soldiers. Four of the soldiers rape her, but the fifth refuses. And then tensions between him and the rest of the unit heat up and finally explode during a firefight with Viet Cong troops.
1947, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
12 May 1966, Massapequa, Long Island, New York, USA
31 May 1960, St. Clair Shores, Michigan, USA
24 May 1965, Chicago, Illinois, USA
8 December 1963, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
1962, Detroit, Michigan, USA
9 May 1957, San Francisco, California, USA
18 February 1963, Indiana, USA
9 June 1961, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
22 July 1964, Bogotá, Colombia
13 February 1958, Peekskill, New York, USA
16 December 1961, New York City, New York, USA
6 May 1952, Lakewood, Colorado, USA
July 20, 2016
Speaking to our near-masochistic desire to revisit works in the hope that we can reverse the tragic outcome, Casualties of War perhaps transcends the very label of "war film."June 24, 2006
Casualties of War is dull.May 20, 2003
Mr. Penn plays Meserve with terrific elan. There is plausibility in every movement and gesture, and especially in his crafty handsomeness. His Meserve is the sort of man one credits with thoughts when the mind may, in fact, be completely blank.March 16, 2015
There's a moral charge to the action, but it's also swooningly exciting, coldly scary. Every friend may be an enemy, every innocent a traitor.January 01, 2000
Another Brian De Palma movie, another bludgeoning. Or stabbing. Or body-drilling. Whatever -- as long as the victim's a woman.March 16, 2015
A typical De Palma film, disturbingly based on true events, Casualties Of War works well enough.March 16, 2015
Michael J. Fox is a revelation as the mouse that roared, whilst the score, the direction, and the rest of the cast turn a risky film into a solid addition to the Nam canon.May 28, 2015
Makes us look at the mistaken Vietnam War as something that's dehumanizing.May 10, 2016
The strong conclusion ensures that the film ends on a somewhat powerful note...March 16, 2015
Top acting honors go to Penn as the sergeant and Thuy Thu Le as the captive girl.March 26, 2009
A powerful metaphor of the national shame that was America's orgy of destruction in Vietnam, Brian De Palma's film deals directly with the harrowing rape and murder of a Vietnamese woman by four GIs.January 01, 2000
It is a breakthrough work, a signal of an artist's blossoming maturity, and one of the most punishing, morally complex movies about men at war ever made.