Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Casualties of War Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 1, 2018

Brian De Palma's "Casualties of War" (1989) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Swiss label Explosive Media. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; archival featurettes with director Brian De Palma and Michael J. Fox; deleted scenes; and more. In English or German, with optional English SDH and German subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Different soldiers

There cannot be different opinions about the nature of the act that is the center piece of Brian De Palma’s film Casualties of War. It is heinous, completely and utterly indefensible. It is what animals like the ones that destroyed Syria during the last couples of years do, not soldiers.

But while this is the indeed the correct description of the act, it is certainly not the complete one. There is more to it that is simply lost while De Palma carefully enhances the contrasts that would slowly draw the line between the right and wrong. On one end there is the hatred and lunacy that consume the soldiers and then make them believe that they are untouchable because they represent the ‘right’ side, so over time in their minds their moral superiority becomes unquestionable. On the opposite end, however, there are only sporadic glimpses of the madness that has destroyed their moral compass without them fully realizing it. So, in the film De Palma actually begins following the soldiers after the destruction is completed and they have essentially lost their identities.

The above clarification is important because it allows one to ponder the nature of the soldiers’ guilt in an entirely different context, very similar to the one that Francis Ford Coppola introduced in Apocalypse Now. In Coppola’s classic film the Vietnam War is depicted as what it truly was, a massive grinder that crushed physically and mentally anyone that was forced in it. So after a while the enemy essentially became anyone that was unrecognizable, and the longer the soldiers stayed in the grinder, the more difficult it became for them to correctly identify their enemies. It is how and why so many of them lost their minds, and as shown in De Palma and Coppola’s films ultimately turned against each other.

The crucial event -- the brutal rape and murder of a young Vietnamese girl -- was first reported by Daniel Lang in The New Yorker magazine in 1969. In the film it is seen primarily through the eyes of a young soldier (Michael J. Fox) who finds the courage to confront his unhinged superior (Sean Penn) after he instructs three other soldiers (Don Harvey, John C. Riley, and John Leguizamo) to kidnap the girl (Thuy Thu Le) while on an important mission. He is the only one that refuses to participate in the rape and later on demands that they are prosecuted.

Visually the film is often very impressive, but the manner in which De Palma builds the drama and especially Fox’s performance are quite disappointing. For example, there is a very obvious tendency to consistently produce crystal clear and carefully crafted contrasts that would repeatedly hammer the point that war is a very ugly business. This also has an awful effect on the supposedly evolving emotions of the soldiers as they make their way through the jungle and hurts their authenticity. What is really unfortunate is that De Palma also quickly loses interest in the gritty realism that is present in the first act and replaces it with the type of melodrama that conventional big-budget Hollywood films love to use. So while they enter the same ugly grinder and force their audience to ponder its nature in a similar way, there really is a sea of difference between this film and Apocalypse Now.

*Explosive Media’s recent release of Casualties of War contains two high-definition versions of the film: the shorter Theatrical Cut, which is approximately 114 minutes long (01:53:32), and the longer Extended Version, which is approximately 120 minutes long (01:59.06).

Casualties of War Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Brian De Palma's Casualties of War arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Explosive Media.

The two disc-set contains the Extended Version of the film as well as the original Theatrical Cut. The first 19 screencaptures in the review are from the Extended Version, while the remaining 4 are from the Theatrical Cut.

The release is sourced from Sony's 2K remaster of Casualties of War, which is the healthiest presentation of the film that I have seen to date. However, it is not immaculate. For example, there is some very light sharpening that sneaks in, and where it is most noticeable it looks somewhat similar to the one present on Sony's 4K restoration of The Remains of the Day. The grading also supports some stronger than usual blacks, which trained eyes will quickly link to some of the black crush that occasionally sneaks in as well (see screencapture #11). There is also room for some minor encoding optimizations, but you do not have to worry about compression artifacts affecting your viewing experience. The good news is that density levels are very strong and even on a very large screen the entire film holds up really well. The range of primary colors and nuances is also very convincing. Image stability is outstanding. There are no large distracting debris, cuts, damage marks, stains, warped or torn frames to report. However, some tiny white specks can be spotted. Both discs are Region-Free. My score is 4.25/5.00.

Casualties of War Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both versions of the film come with English DTS 5.1 tracks. German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS 5.1 tracks are included as well. There are optional English SDH and German subtitles for each version. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.

A lossless English track would have been preferable, but the DTS 5.1 track is actually very strong. My guess is that if eventually a U.S. release materializes the best way to offer some noticeable improvements in terms of depth and dynamic activity would be to offer a newly created Atmos track. Otherwise, I think that most people will likely not hear a substantial difference between a DTS 5.1 track and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. (You can actually experiment with the German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track to get a rough idea of what the difference might be). There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report.

Casualties of War Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

BLU-RAY DISC ONE - THEATRICAL VERSION

• Trailer - original U.S. theatrical trailer for Casualties of War. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Deleted Scenes - a collection of deleted scenes. In English, not subtitled. (9 min).

• Making of Featurette - in this archival featurette, director Brian De Palma explains why the Vietnam War did not make sense to him and how he got out of it, and discusses the production of Casualties of War. In English, with optional German subtitles. (32 min).

• Eriksson's War - in this archival featurette, actor Michael J. Fox recalls his initial encounter with Brian De Palma and how he was cast to play Eriksson in Casualties of War. The actor also has very good observations about the moral dilemmas that his character -- and real soldiers that went to Vietnam -- faced. In English, with optional German subtitles. (19 min).

BLU-RAY DISC TWO - EXTENDED VERSION

• Extended Version - high-definition 1080p presentation of the Extended Version of the film. In English or German, with optional English SDH and German subtitles.

Casualties of War Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are some striking visuals in Casualties of War, but I find the manner in which Brian De Palma builds the drama and especially Michael J. Fox's performance quite underwhelming. They give the film a melodramatic quality that I think irreversibly damages its realism. I much prefer the manner in which Francis Ford Coppola recreated the brutal grinder that the Vietnam War was in his classic Apocalypse Now. This recent release from Siwss label Explosive Media contains the shorter Theatrical Version and the longer Extended Cut of the film, and offers the best presentations of each on the market. It also comes with a nice selection of archival bonus features and is Region-Free. RECOMMENDED.