The tale of a soldier's issues during war wartime (World War II) takes on two different perspectives as the viewer gets to see the same soldier (Dean Stockwell) on different sides as he gives us a look at being both American and Japanese. A slight change in facial features and a bit of darkened photography shows Stockwell as young men on both sides of the combat coin, and the results are sensitive and introspective. The make-up for Stockwell isn't garish or offensive, but the script is rather talky and overly detailed for such a short episode. One major plus though is the fear shown by Stockwell in his sequence as the Japanese soldier when he has a momentary breakdown and the extreme close-up on Jerry Fujikawa as his captain is rather frightening. But for the most part, I found this episode to not really be all that interesting, even though it did give me a new insight as to how the every day ordinary soldier must feel in battle as they have no other choice but to shoot at the enemy, even if that enemy is as young and innocent as they are.
Review of A Quality of Mercy
