I never hear this movie's name brought up when talking about other war movies of the same time like Platoon or Full Metal Jacket. Anyone have an idea why that is? Maybe just too much saturation of vietnam movies in the 80's? Either way, this is one of my favorite war movies and I wish more people knew about it or at least give it the credit it's due.
shareI couldn't agree with you more. I LOVE this movie because of the acting skills shown by Fox and Penn specifically. Great cast especially when dealing with such a horrible factual story. This is my #2 when it comes to all Vietnam War movies. It's just behind FMJ and totally ahead of Platoon imho....
shareFox, Michael J. He wasn't suitable for the role.
shareHe was a bit of an odd choice for the role, I grant you that. I do think he did quite a commendable job though in a role/film that was so completely out of his usual zone of acting in comparison to most of his other previous projects. Perhaps this particular film was simply too much of a drastic change for him to transition into, especially for audiences who knew him so well from his more light-hearted TV and film roles.
To me MJF has always been the type of actor whose performance style is very much along the same lines as the late John Ritter in that he's very much capable of turning out strong dramatic performances, but is one whose simply more gifted and natural when it comes to showing off his various comedic talents/skills in both film and television.
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