 |
|
HOLLYWOOD HUES VIETNAM, or Nam as some of the Americans call it, is a happening thing for them. Remember the carpet-bombing days of LBJ in the late-1960s and the anti-Vietnam protests that followed. The hippies were part of this anti-war protest. In fact, they have a psychological malaise called the post-Vietnam syndrome. So the war in South-East Asia for the Americans is something they cannot easily erase from their minds.
The late-1970s saw a rash of films on Vietnam like Apocalypse, Now, Coming Home, Deer Hunter and Go, Tell the Spartans. Oliver Stone’s Platoon came later. Now these Vietnam films are sort of drying up. Tigerland is the latest one which fits in with that top bracket of the genre. It is the story of
Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell), a rebellious anti-hero, as told by one of
his colleagues, Jim Paxton (Matt Davis). So it is a ring-side account
of the super sadism or sado-masochism that went on in the training
camps prior to the Vietnam war assignment. Masquerading under the name
of patriotism, these young soldiers were broken in by the
establishment like broncs in a coral. Their spirits were shattered,
their minds boggled and they were psyched into readiness of what was
anticipated as guerrilla warfare. "See anything move, just
shoot," they were told by their sergeants. The Vietnamese were
pointed as the villains, though it was the USA that got into that war. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
And then we get a close look at the hero Bozz, who pricks the bubble of the great American Soldier, "the proudest, toughest, best-trained infantry man in the world." In fact, the signpost at Tigerland, Louisiana, reads, "Birthplace of the infantry soldier." But Bozz was not one to buy this gobbledegook. He questioned his sergeants, even confronted them and became a sort of leader to this bunch of greenhorns who were virtually devastated by those sadistic sergeants. He also knew how to retaliate. Knew the rules of the game and got some of his broken colleagues marching home for cover. Ross Klavan’s screenplay is graphic as he himself enlisted in the Army Reserves (stateside) and did Advanced Infantry Training (AIT) at Tigerland in 1971 and translated his experience into the screenplay. It is a ruthless, sadistic world. "Under fire you will dig a hole and do it with your teeth if you have to," the young recruits are told. But Bozz wouldn’t buy this. "You’re not going to kill me, Sergeant, I don’t know what you’ll do to me, but you’re not going to kill me," he once retorted. It is a case of questioning authority and Bozz did it with elan. That’s what made him a hero to Paxton and hence the novel. But there are also a plethora of characters like Private Wilson (Shea Whigham), the trigger-happy one and Miter (Clifton Collins Jr), who wants the Army to make a man of him, or the sentimental one with the "same moon" sermon. Then there are blacks, as today neither Hollywood nor the USA can any longer marginalise them, and they sing a song , "I miss my grandma’s apple and I miss getting high’... sending us to die." The characters are well-developed by
director Joel Schumacher, who for a change wanted a break from those
Hollywood blockbusters. And boy, does he do justice to the subject? It
is a telling comment on that monster of war and totally deflates the
great American dream, turning it into a virtual nightmare. And in Colin
Farrell, Schumacher has found a gritty, spunky youth, a kind of James
Dean or Marlon Brando, who is able to put across that angst and search
for the truth. Farrell is supported by cameos by Matthew Davis and Shea
Whigham but it is the war that is the anti-hero as much as Bozz is and
it is films like this that will deglorify war and bring out the harsh,
despicable reality that it really is. |
 |
 |
