Casualties of War is a 1989 American war drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Rabe, based primarily on an article written by Daniel Lang for The New Yorker in 1969, which was later published as a book. The film stars Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn and is based on the events of the 1966 incident on Hill 192 during the Vietnam War, in which Pan Thi Mao, a Vietnamese woman, was kidnapped from her village, raped and murdered by a squad of American soldiers. All names and some details of the true story were altered for the film.
Casualties of War was released by Columbia Pictures on August 18, 1989. The film received positive reviews from critics but underperformed at the box office, grossing $18.7 million against a $22.5 million budget.
Plot The story is presented as a flashback of Max Eriksson, a Vietnam veteran. A platoon of American soldiers led by Lieutenant Reilly is ambushed by Viet Cong (VC) after a panicked soldier exposes their position during a night patrol. Eriksson falls into a VC tunnel entrance, and Eriksson's squad leader, Sergeant Tony Meserve, pulls him from the hole as the platoon breaks contact.
While resting by a river village in the Central Highlands, the platoon is again ambushed by VC. One of Meserve's friends, Specialist 4 "Brownie" Brown, is killed, leaving Meserve deeply affected. The platoon is ordered to return to their base. Frustrated because his squad has been denied leave for an extended period, Meserve orders the squad to kidnap a Vietnamese girl to take with them on their next mission, an extended reconnaissance patrol. Eriksson's objections are ignored, and he voices his concerns to his closest friend, Rowan, before Meserve leads him out of camp, along with Corporal Thomas E. Clark, Private First Class Herbert Hatcher, and Private First Class Antonio Dìaz, a replacement radio operator. The squad enters a village after nightfall and kidnap a Vietnamese girl, Tran Thi Oanh.
The squad treks into the mountains seeking privacy for their planned sexual assault, and Dìaz begins to reconsider his part in kidnapping Tran and begs Eriksson to stand up to Meserve with him. The group enters an abandoned hooch, and when Eriksson is threatened by Meserve, Clark and Hatcher, Dìaz gives in to peer pressure and leaves Eriksson isolated in his opposition. Meserve forces Eriksson to stand guard while the men take turns raping Tran.
At daybreak, Eriksson is ordered to guard Tran while the rest of the squad takes up a position near a railroad bridge overlooking a Viet Cong river supply depot. Eriksson has earned Tran's trust and prepares to desert in order to return Tran to her family, but he is ordered to take Tran to the bridge before he can carry out his plan. Meserve requests close air support for an assault on the depot and orders Dìaz to kill Tran with a knife. To prevent the murder, Eriksson fires his rifle into the air, alerting the nearby Viet Cong. Tran, repeatedly stabbed by Clark, tries to escape during the ensuing firefight. Meserve subdues Eriksson with his rifle butt and the squad shoots Tran numerous times, knocking her off the bridge to her death.
Eriksson wakes up in a field hospital and tells Rowan everything that happened. He suggests reporting to Reilly and company commander Captain Hill, but they prefer to bury the matter. When Eriksson presses the issue, Hill decides to transfer him to a tunnel rat unit and reassign the men in Meserve's squad. After narrowly escaping an attempt by Clark to kill him in the latrine with a grenade, Eriksson assaults him with a shovel. Eriksson tells Meserve that killing him is unnecessary because no one cares about the crime. Shaken, Meserve dismisses Eriksson as crazy.
The incident is finally investigated after Eriksson discusses it with an Army chaplain. The four men who participated in the rape and murder are court-martialed and convicted. Meserve receives ten years' imprisonment at hard labor and a dishonorable discharge, Clark receives life in prison, and Hatcher and Diaz receive fifteen and eight years of hard labor, respectively.
Eriksson awakens from a nightmare to find himself on a transit line in San Francisco, just a few seats from a Vietnamese-American student who resembles Tran. She disembarks at Dolores Park and forgets her scarf, prompting Eriksson to run after her to return it. As she thanks him and turns away, he calls after her in Vietnamese. She surmises that she reminds him of someone and that he has had a bad dream, but assures him that "it's over now."
Cast The film continued the pseudonyms Lang used in his article, even though the soldiers' real names had since become public.
Michael J. Fox as Private First Class Max Eriksson (based on Robert M. Storeby) Sean Penn as Sergeant Tony Meserve (based on David Edward Gervase) Don Patrick Harvey as Corporal Thomas E. Clark John C. Reilly as Private First Class Herbert Hatcher John Leguizamo as Private First Class Antonio Dìaz Thuy Thu Le as Tran Thi Oanh (based on real-life victim Phan Thi Mao) / Asian Student on the Train Erik King as Specialist 4 "Brownie" Brown Jack Gwaltney as Rowan Ving Rhames as Lieutenant Reilly Dale Dye as Captain Hill Holt McCallany as Lieutenant Kramer Dan Martin as Sergeant Hawthorne Wendell Pierce as MacIntire Sam Robards as Chaplain Captain Kirk Steve Larson as Agent #1 John Linton as Agent #2 Vyto Ruginis as Prosecutor Maris Valainis as Streibig Darren E. Burrows as "Cherry" Sherman Howard as Court Martial President John Marshall Jones as Military Policeman Gregg Henry as Attorney (uncredited) Stephen Baldwin as Soldier (uncredited) Amy Irving as Voice of Girl on the Train (uncredited)
Production
Development The film was based on the real-life incident on Hill 192, and on Daniel Lang's lengthy New Yorker article, "Casualties of War," published in October 1969 and released as a book, with the same title, a month later. Film rights were bought by David Susskind who was to produce the film for Warner Bros. Pete Hamill wrote a script and Jack Clayton was to direct. However, the film was not made.
The first film to be made from the story was o.k. (1970), directed by German filmmaker Michael Verhoeven. o.k. was entered to the Berlin Film Festival in 1970, causing so much controversy among the judges that the festival was shut down for that year with no awards given. De Palma was at that festival with his film Dionysus in '69.
The second film to be made from the story was The Visitors (1972), directed by Elia Kazan; it was a fictionalized interpretation of what might happen if Erikkson and his wife were terrorized by his former squad colleagues after they were released. The film showed in competition at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.
In the late 1970s, Susskind announced he would make Casualties of War for ABC. This did not happen.
In the 1980's, Brian De Palma and David Rabe discussed making Casualties of War into a film together. The project received interest from studio executive Dawn Steel at Paramount Pictures, but then it was canceled when studio head Ned Tanen, repulsed by the subject matter, put it in "turnaround". Shortly after that, Steel was fired from Paramount while going into labor giving birth to her daughter.
After De Palma experienced commercial success with The Untouchables, Steel became head of production at Columbia Pictures, Casualties of War was the first film she green-lit, and the project automatically secured financing once Michael J. Fox was cast.
"Historically Vietnam War movies have been very profitable," said Steel. "All of them. Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter. You're looking at movies that have never been not [just] pretty successful, but very successful. The foreign numbers have been extraordinary."
De Palma, Rabe and producer Art Linson had briefly considered filming a climactic nightmare sequence where Eriksson is haunted by Meserve exacting revenge against him. Rabe has commented that he was nervous about writing the scene, concerned that the film was already dark enough, and that he was relieved when the scene ultimately wasn't filmed.
However, Rabe's biggest disagreement with De Palma and Linson arose over the film's final scene, where Eriksson meets a girl on the train who resembles the murdered girl. For the ending, Rabe simply wanted Eriksson to help the girl on the train carry her groceries, but De Palma insisted instead on ending the film with the girl telling Eriksson that his "bad dream" has concluded.
Filming The film was shot in April–May 1988, mostly on location in Thailand, with some filming in San Francisco. The bridge location was filmed in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, the same as for Bridge on the River Kwai. This film was Fox's third major dramatic role. He had previously starred in Light of Day and Bright Lights, Big City. John Leguizamo, who appeared in his first major film role, would later star with Penn in 1993's Carlito's Way, another De Palma vehicle.
Stephen Baldwin was originally cast as Herbert Hatcher, but was fired after only a few days of filming. He still appears in some scenes, his role reduced to that of an unnamed character. Baldwin later theorized that his firing was due to him clashing with De Palma after questioning Penn's use of a New York accent. Baldwin was replaced by John C. Reilly, who was already on location as an extra. This film marked Reilly's screen debut; he worked with Penn again in We're No Angels, State of Grace and The Thin Red Line.
"Let's be honest," said Fox at the time. "If this movie makes a buck and a half it's going to be things like Bikini's Away for me. But to fail doing something unexpected is no disgrace. To fail doing the ordinary is a disaster. This movie is about how much you will risk if you have nothing to gain."
Release and reception
Box office Casualties of War opened in 1,487 theaters, and ranked number 4 in box office for the first week of its release. It went on to gross $18.7 million.
Critical response The film holds an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 50 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Casualties of War takes a harrowing plunge into the Vietnam War with a well-acted ensemble piece that ranks among director Brian De Palma's more mature efforts." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.