Casualties of War

During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.

• Director:Brian De Palma
• Genre:Adventure / Biography / Drama / War
• Runtime:109 minutes

Cast

Michael J. Fox : Eriksson
Sean Penn : Meserve
Don Harvey : Clark
John C. Reilly : Hatcher
John Leguizamo : Diaz

The story is presented as a flashback of Private First Class Max Eriksson (Michael J. Fox), a Vietnam veteran.

In November 1966, a squad of American soldiers is on patrol when they are suddenly attacked by the Viet Cong. The ground cracks under Eriksson while he walks above a Viet Cong tunnel, and he is stuck in the hole while mortar shells land near him. Unknown to him, a Viet Cong soldier in the tunnel below him prepares to silently kill him. Sergeant Tony Meserve (Sean Penn) hears Eriksson, pulls him out of the hole, and kills the Viet Cong soldier. Eventually, the Americans stave off the attack.

The squad takes a break outside a river village in the Central Highlands. While relaxing and joking around, one of the squad members, Corporal “Brownie” Brown (Erik King) is shot in the neck by Viet Cong across the river. The squad kills several enemies until they realize there’s Viet Cong running through a flooded field behind them. One throws a grenade at Eriksson, but in a miraculous shot he blows up the grenade in mid-air with his M-79 grenade launcher. Brownie is evacuated but dies at the hospital. Shortly afterward, Private Antonio Diaz (John Leguizamo) arrives as Brownie’s replacement.

The unit is then re-deployed to a nearby village, which is believed to be an ally to the Viet Cong. Because of their reassignment, the unit has their leave time cut short. Frustrated because his squad has been denied leave for an extended period, Meserve orders the squad to kidnap a Vietnamese girl, Than Thi Oanh (Thuy Thu Le) to be their sex slave. Eriksson strenuously objects, but Maserve silences him and ostracizes him from the rest of the squad. The girl is forcibly taken to the squad’s next command outpost and is repeatedly beaten and raped by all the men except for Eriksson. Oanh grows ill and develops a persistent cough. Read more

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