I rented this movie because it was recommended to me, and I love
the Hughes Brothers. Wanted to see a little action that might take
my mind off the news lately (boy, did I get a wrong number there)
and be at least mildly entertained.
SPOILERS AHEAD, WARNING!
Yeah, they definitely mis-marketed this-- it is not a 'heist' movie, or
a simple 'action' movie. There is a heist, but only the last half hour
of the film (and it's a 2 hour film) is spent on it. It starts out in the
late 60's-- I was thinking please God, let this not just be a short
prologue and have the whole movie take place in the 60's and
70's, and I got my wish. Tate's character hangs out with his
friends, wants to have fun and get laid, and go to Vietnam and
'make a difference' since a local poolhall owner and his father are
both vets, he looks up to them. The first 1/3 or so takes place in
1969, shows what a dangerous but fun lifestyle (not to mention,
great music and great wardrobe) Tate's character is living it up
with his friends (including Chris Tucker, who has more depth than
I thought). By the first 15 minutes, I was glad the movie was
mis-marketed, because I was enjoying the kind of coming-of-age
story and characters. The next 45 minutes or so--there's a great
transition talked about in the other reviews, switching from Tate's
character (sorry, blanked on the name!) sprinting over fences and
backyards after he almost gets caught with his pants down, to him
literally dodging bullets in Nam-- are spent showing his tour of
duty in Vietnam.
Things get ugly there, I mean really gory and disturbing- BIG switch
in tone. I feel like all the most gruesome, disturbing moments and
scenes from hours of Nam movies were all crammed together,
and the 45 minutes or so in this movie still tops them. Do not eat
while watching this. All the violence and nightmarish scenes are
not just for the sake of being violent, they are essential to the plot,
and I'm not complaining (though something tells me I'm in for
some really bad dreams tonight) but I was totally unprepared. I'm
surprised Fangoria didn't do a story about all the splatter effects.
We're talking heads chopped off with machetes, said heads
carried around by insane soldier as a 'souvenier' (As he was
shoving the head into his pack with difficulty, I was thinking that if
he was going to start taking souveniers, he should pick a much
smaller body part if he wants to get a collection of souveniers
going) keeping it around until said head is rotting with maggots,
people being blown into smithereens, body parts all over the
place, characters with their guts strewn everywhere but still alive,
people's genital chopped off and shoved in their mouths, and this
is all on-camera and in daylight-- really, really graphic.
Tate manages to get through this without developing a serious
drug habit or going insane. He comes home after a 4 year tour of
duty, so the last third takes place in 1973. He goes back to the old
neightborhood to find some unpleasant surprises-- not the least of
which is money problems, so that's when he and his surviving
buddies- who are not in the greatest mental or financial shape
themselves-- start to work out the heist.
The movie got the message through without hitting me over the
head-- black men fighting a white man's war, coming home and
finding things much worse, little respect. The character
understandably ends up joining a revoluntionary group. I guess I
was dissapointed when he decided his only option was to pull a
very ill-advised heist (hmmmm, at least one of the guys in on it has
a serious drug habit, a few of them don't get along, another has
totally lost it and just wants to blow up things and people for the joy
of it, could this possibly have a happy ending?) but considering all
the atrocious, hideous experiences in Nam (he has very graphic
and disturbing nightmares and flashbacks) then coming back to
all the depressing ***t that he does, I guess I don't blame him for
having bad judgement or doing something desperate.
Not a cheerful movie. But grim as it was, I was very impressed,
especially considering how young the directors were-- they pay
homage to other directors but don't rip them off. It is too bad the
studios didn't market it to be more of the themes of war, struggle,
and survival the movie really focuses on. I'm pretty sure that the
Hughs wanted to market it that way, but the racist studio heads
took it out of their hands and figured that all audiences expected to
see a black cast doing was shooting and robbing people, so they
geared it towards that. Too bad, the movie deserves a better
campaign and a wider audience.
the Hughes Brothers. Wanted to see a little action that might take
my mind off the news lately (boy, did I get a wrong number there)
and be at least mildly entertained.
SPOILERS AHEAD, WARNING!
Yeah, they definitely mis-marketed this-- it is not a 'heist' movie, or
a simple 'action' movie. There is a heist, but only the last half hour
of the film (and it's a 2 hour film) is spent on it. It starts out in the
late 60's-- I was thinking please God, let this not just be a short
prologue and have the whole movie take place in the 60's and
70's, and I got my wish. Tate's character hangs out with his
friends, wants to have fun and get laid, and go to Vietnam and
'make a difference' since a local poolhall owner and his father are
both vets, he looks up to them. The first 1/3 or so takes place in
1969, shows what a dangerous but fun lifestyle (not to mention,
great music and great wardrobe) Tate's character is living it up
with his friends (including Chris Tucker, who has more depth than
I thought). By the first 15 minutes, I was glad the movie was
mis-marketed, because I was enjoying the kind of coming-of-age
story and characters. The next 45 minutes or so--there's a great
transition talked about in the other reviews, switching from Tate's
character (sorry, blanked on the name!) sprinting over fences and
backyards after he almost gets caught with his pants down, to him
literally dodging bullets in Nam-- are spent showing his tour of
duty in Vietnam.
Things get ugly there, I mean really gory and disturbing- BIG switch
in tone. I feel like all the most gruesome, disturbing moments and
scenes from hours of Nam movies were all crammed together,
and the 45 minutes or so in this movie still tops them. Do not eat
while watching this. All the violence and nightmarish scenes are
not just for the sake of being violent, they are essential to the plot,
and I'm not complaining (though something tells me I'm in for
some really bad dreams tonight) but I was totally unprepared. I'm
surprised Fangoria didn't do a story about all the splatter effects.
We're talking heads chopped off with machetes, said heads
carried around by insane soldier as a 'souvenier' (As he was
shoving the head into his pack with difficulty, I was thinking that if
he was going to start taking souveniers, he should pick a much
smaller body part if he wants to get a collection of souveniers
going) keeping it around until said head is rotting with maggots,
people being blown into smithereens, body parts all over the
place, characters with their guts strewn everywhere but still alive,
people's genital chopped off and shoved in their mouths, and this
is all on-camera and in daylight-- really, really graphic.
Tate manages to get through this without developing a serious
drug habit or going insane. He comes home after a 4 year tour of
duty, so the last third takes place in 1973. He goes back to the old
neightborhood to find some unpleasant surprises-- not the least of
which is money problems, so that's when he and his surviving
buddies- who are not in the greatest mental or financial shape
themselves-- start to work out the heist.
The movie got the message through without hitting me over the
head-- black men fighting a white man's war, coming home and
finding things much worse, little respect. The character
understandably ends up joining a revoluntionary group. I guess I
was dissapointed when he decided his only option was to pull a
very ill-advised heist (hmmmm, at least one of the guys in on it has
a serious drug habit, a few of them don't get along, another has
totally lost it and just wants to blow up things and people for the joy
of it, could this possibly have a happy ending?) but considering all
the atrocious, hideous experiences in Nam (he has very graphic
and disturbing nightmares and flashbacks) then coming back to
all the depressing ***t that he does, I guess I don't blame him for
having bad judgement or doing something desperate.
Not a cheerful movie. But grim as it was, I was very impressed,
especially considering how young the directors were-- they pay
homage to other directors but don't rip them off. It is too bad the
studios didn't market it to be more of the themes of war, struggle,
and survival the movie really focuses on. I'm pretty sure that the
Hughs wanted to market it that way, but the racist studio heads
took it out of their hands and figured that all audiences expected to
see a black cast doing was shooting and robbing people, so they
geared it towards that. Too bad, the movie deserves a better
campaign and a wider audience.