Tigerland

Rating:
Summary: Joel Schumacher searches for credibility
Review: This is exactly what you would expect when a big-budget Hollywood type attempts to "go indie." Tigerland is a trite, transparent, melodramatic mess of a film that manages to create some of the most 2D characters ever brought to screen. Just because the guy uses a 16mm camera to tell the story doesn't mean that it's any different from big-business Hollywood dreck like Batman & Robin.

Why do we need any more films exploiting the Vietnam War? Platoon was good, Full Metal Jacket was good, that's enough. But again we retread the whole "boot camp" motif, replete with "the angry authoritarian", "the duped hick", "the class clown", "the psycho redneck", "the fragile leader", and so on and so on. And not only is the characterization something out of a 9th grade drama class, the storyline unfolds with all the style and panache of a Monster Truck Rally.

... Please. If the script were any more obvious, it would be the sun.

... The cliches pile into other cliches ....

And of course, re: Schumacher, every bit of "action" is telegraphed to the viewer so that even the folks walking by outside comment on the "Oh, I guess he's trying to impress us now!" nature of the exhibition. Hint: throwing in a sweaty sex scene at the outset of the picture does NOT give your film any more believability or "cool points" than usual. But Schumacher keeps trying (jumping off the railroad car, electro-shock radio, psycho shooting live ammo at Boz) to the point where you just want to jump up and shout "Okay, already! I see where you're going! ...

Rating:
Summary: Southern Comfort boot camp
Review: Hard to fault Tigerland, other than the fact its treading on such familiar ground. There have been so many boot camp movies made, but thankfully this is one of the better.
strangely resonant of Southern Comfort, but lacking the depth and soundtrack.
Acting is first rate throughout particuliarly Boz (Farrell), perhaps Hollywood has got it right with the expectant hype surrounding his talent.
Production values are very of the moment with washed out grainy colours and atmosphere throughout, and fast edits and camera shakes which are always required but dont get in the way too much.
The story could do with a little more depth and pace in places but it works.

Rating:
Summary: A Focus on the Unknown Fear of War
Review: Many films of the past ' and in the future, like as not ' deal with the horrors of war, either during it (Saving Private Ryan; Black Hawk Down), or after it (The Best Days of Our Lives; Born on the Fourth of July). Very few, if any, deal with the anxiety of the mere thought of going to war, and the tensions that apply themselves to soldiers ' conscripts and volunteers alike ' who know that their going is not only likely but is absolutely inevitable. When you are on the battlefield, you do your best to survive. Your life becomes a succession of reactive behavior. When you have been on the battlefield ' the real battlefield, the one with bullets whizzing past your ears and buddies dying all around you, day after day ' and have somehow managed to survive it, your life becomes renewed, one way or the other. You spend your time thinking 'Thank You, God, For Letting Me Live,' or 'I'm Sorry, God, For Letting [So-And-So] Die.' Gratitude or grief. I've never met a combat vet who falls somewhere in between. I know I'm not.

Tigerland deals with the third horror of war ' the period you spend before the inevitable. When you're engaged in battle, you're trying to kill the enemy, save yourself, and help your brothers in arms. Hours of tedium intermixed with lethal microseconds of utter adrenalin-pumped horror. After you've been through it, you have the luxury of time ' time for reflection, sorrow, relief, memory. But the weeks and months before you go are perhaps the most nerve-wracking of all. Am I going to see battle? Am I going to screw up? Am I going to live? Die? Come home crippled? Will I shame myself?

This director Schumacher deftly shows us as Private Bozz's platoon prepares itself for its inevitable trip to Southeast Asia. Bozz's contempt for the war ' and the Army ' is well balanced with the duality of his loyalty to his country ('I don't have the guts to quit') against his true understanding of what courage really is ('A brave man admits to himself how scared he really is'). Tigerland is in a league of its own in that it turns the mirror back to we, the viewers, and forces us to ask ourselves the question so many courageous men and women have had to answer: Am I up to this?

Great filming, acting, and direction make this gritty film an absolute must-see.

Rating:
Summary: Modern Cool Hand Luke
Review: One of my all time favorite movies is Cool Hand Luke starring Paul Newman. I never thought I would ever see a greater rebel type character on film again, I assumed that it couldn't be touched. But the charactet of Boz, played by up and comer Collin Farell, shattered that preconceived notion. It just might be one of the best movies about the boiling morals behind the Vietnam War, eventhough the setting never leaves the States. Just like like Dragline and Luke and Butch and Sundance, this is a great buddy film. In case you were wondering the book that Boz is reading on the convoy is "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo, which is regarded as one of the best anti-war novels of all time.

Rating:
Summary: Great,Great,Great
Review: This is truely a great film. The other reviews all tell you it's about abunch of guy's who were drafted and get ready to go to war. Well it is about that but what I got from this film is a story about friendship, about two guy's who don't have anybody and they find each other and form a brotherhood. The movie is so good and the look of the movie is raw and real and it is written so well. The only thing I didnt like was the ending cause it's so real, I think everyone can relate to the ending cause we've all had that friend.

Rating:
Summary: a surprisingly good movie
Review: ... This movie was very good, the story might seem familiar but this is a very different take on the Vietnam War. It's about moral decisions and the costs of these. Although there is no combat action, Tigerland is intense and very dramatic. If you give this movie a chance I think you will be surprised by how much it makes you think.

Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: This movie is boring as far as war movies go. For people looking for entertainment don't bother watching this film despite some of the more critical acclaims given by film review buffs. You will be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Except for all the cliches...
Review: This was a pretty good film. Nicely acted, beautifully shot, I really wanted to like it a lot more than I did. It's an interesting premise, but once again we've got the hardass drill instructor, the cocky recruit who won't confirm, and a dozen other war movie cliches. Which is a shame, because this could have been a great movie.

Rating:
Summary: Total waste of time
Review: Beside bringing every tired cliche of the men who went to Viet Nam this movie has the added attraction of being exceedingly boring. A film can sometimes get away with a total lack of character development if the action is sufficient to keep it moving (ala "Black Hawk Down"). This film has neither. The characters are cardboard cutouts and the action is so plodding it stands still. This could be better described as a SDS propaganda film made twenty odd years after the fact. The use of 16mm film could have added power if there had just been something of a story to be told.
Instead we are introduced to the caring Bos, but we are never given any clues to why he cares, who he is, or what he actually thinks about anything. It's just one stereotype after another. We have it all in this film, the sadistic DI, the psycho recruit, the uncaring leader trying to fill a quota, and the savvy mentor fresh from the carnage. It is not only an insult to those who served, it insults the intelligence of any poor soul unfortunate enough to have rented it. Pure [garbage] and possibly the worst film ever to see the light of day on this subject.

Rating:
Summary: A great war movie without going to war
Review: Tigerland is a movie about the military training of a platoon before they are sent off to war. They are scheduled for eight weeks training at camp before they spend their final week at the infamous Tigerland. Colin Farrell plays Roland Bozz, the loose cannon who refuses to be just another piece of meat for the grinder.

There are many commendable aspects of this film. It is a realistic, riveting war film and is immensely powerful even in the absence of any actual Vietnam combat. Farrell delivers a powerful performance and really holds the film together. Simmering tension in the platoon keeps the audience on edge before it all explodes at the climax of the film. The characters are realistic and three dimensional, not your stereotypical soldiers.

The fact that they do not actually enter combat does detract from the film although only slightly. Other than that I could find few flaws with the film and would heartily recommend it to everone, war buff or not!