Tigerland

Director: Joel Schumacher
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 2.5

Well-intentioned Saving Private Ryan-Thin Red Line-Full Metal Jacket homage - only the film ends where everyone leaves to go to Vietnam (or specifically, Tigerland). Schumacher's vision has the real war going on within the men themselves, during boot camp, where they quarrel and battle with each other (and the Army itself) to try to get out, go home and avoid dying (most were drafted and understandably frightened). It actually works in parts (newcomer Colin Farrell's performance is up to snuff, despite the character's Dean-esque trappings), and the cinematography, which is grainy and muted (and has the filmed speeds heavily tampered with), accurately reflects the unglorified aura of dehumanization (naturally, the style was "borrowed" from Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Kaminski). But Tigerland feels like too much of an amalgam to really stand out from the slew of Vietnam movies or war movies in general, the boot camp sequences don't feel as hauntingly formal as Kubrick's and the last half-hour, which has the troops going to extreme lengths to kill each other, falters due to a preoccupation with style rather than character development (all psychology is external - worn on the sleeves, as it were). The bad guys are the bad guys because that's how the filmmakers want them to be. To quote my father, "It doesn't ring true," and he would know.