Brian De Palma’s Casualties of War (1989) is not a subtle movie – nor did I expect it to be. He has the tendency to make his movies’ otherwise serious subject matter seem trivial by substituting realism with cinematic flourishes (Scarface and The Untouchables come to mind). Be that as it may, Casualties was a very pleasant surprise.
The message is rather simple: that in times of chaos (such as war), in the face of all odds, it is essential to keep one’s humanity intact. The main character even said it so himself (“Everybody’s acting like we can do anything and it don’t matter what we do. Maybe we gotta’ be extra careful because maybe it matters more than we even know.”) If the context of this message wasn’t dramatized as effectively as the film has, I would have deemed it cheesy. But it was an engaging take on a real dilemma between morality and loyalty. Granted that – attributing to De Palma’s direct and straighforward storytelling – morality wins, there still exists some space for ambiguity. But, the choice is a very hard one, and that is what’s important here.
Is isn’t only the message that doesn’t have its subtleties. Every major plot point is written out in dialogue such that you will never have to second guess what the characters’ motivations are. The “bad guys” come off as really bad guys (e.g. you would want to strangle the shit out of Sean Penn and his cohorts by the time you get halfway through.) with no hope of redemption. Suprisingly, De Palma’s trademark suspense is very effectively used here, and he was even able to sneak in a couple of Hitchcock-style sequences without making it feel out of place.
In the end, does the lack of subtlety matter? Maybe not. I think the movie gains more poignancy by presenting things in a crystal-clear manner; a more ambiguous approach would add realism, but at the risk of blurring what it really wants to say. There is, however, one satisfyingly welcome instance where this no-subtlety rule was broken: the very end.
I was a fan of Brian de Palma, but not in this sort of way. Now, having seen Casualties of War, probably his best movie ever, I am now his fan – period.
