Incredibly, Meserve was found not guilty of rape but guilty of murder. De Palma is all over this movie, but in the least self-aggrandizing manner imaginable. A film, in fact, whose central real-life tragedy—a five-man Army unit in the shit in Vietnam pop off and kidnap a young Vietnamese girl with the express purpose of raping her, to the horror of the essentially Catholic group’s resident Lutheran—reveals such turf wars as the venal egghead slapfests they are? Pauline Kael, who expressed her passion for movies in jaunty, jazzy prose as the longtime film critic for The New Yorker, died yesterday at her home in Great Barrington, Mass. . The best his own lieutenant could do was caution Eriksson to be quiet and accept a transfer to another unit. Fortunately, I have never been exposed to any of Fox's previous screen work. I searched the shelves for it in vain. Casualties of War strikes notes—unique in De Palma’s work—of unmitigated existential disappointment. Of course this proposition would suit the Queen Anti-Sarrisite all too well, and what better way to go out swinging than on the side of a film whose power can be attributed to De Palma but not owned by him or his style? At first, the exorcism-like tone of the denouement feels all wrong, as though De Palma actually thought it possible to survey the wreckage of Vietnam and shrug it off by saying “Well that passed.” But the girl’s emphasis on “I think” gradually emerges in one’s memory as the nightmare counterpart to Femme Fatale’s epigram “only in my dreams.” De Palma’s movies are all dreams. Get the latest updates in news, food, music and culture, and receive special offers direct to your inbox, Phoenix Restaurant Directory: Takeout/Delivery/Dine-in, Baked Alaska No-Shows Scottsdale Hearing, Warrant Issued, The Departed 2020: Arizonans We’ll See on the Other Side. Writing in the Washington Post, Ward Just said: " . This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. spy?". He had been a World War II overseas correspondent for the New Yorker in Italy, France, and England. This documentary about Pauline Kael hits all the expected beats: Limelight, Hiroshima Mon Amour, The Sound of Music, Bonnie and Clyde, Last Tango in Paris, "Raising Kane," Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Shoah, and Casualties of War. At the outset of a search for enemy caves, Meserve tells his men he intends to commandeer a village woman and bring her along. Support the independent voice of Phoenix and help keep the future of New Times free. Eriksson remembered that people kept telling him that American G.I. After the first day, the woman was sick and coughing. After the mission, Eriksson tries to report the crime to officers in his unit. Of the two brothers, one got eight years and the other, fifteen. Pauline’s House Murals (4:05) 11. Kael’s last written words for The New Yorker (1994’s “The Movie Lover”) were: “I’m frequently asked why I don’t write my memoirs. He was a lapsed Catholic who had only gone through the ninth grade. He had spent a career writing stories with unusual twists. We’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or subscription fees—so if you like what we do, consider becoming a SLANT patron, or making a PayPal. The Exorcist / Great Barrington House (2:09) 17. The Phoenix New Times may earn a portion of sales from products & services purchased through links on our site from our affiliate partners. Later, Lang went to Minnesota to find Eriksson, who was the only witness. Jazz critic Francis Davis spent two days interviewing Pauline Kael at her home in the Berkshires in July 2000; she would die of Parkinson’s, at age 82, on Labor Day of the following summer. (1989) For my money, this lengthy New Yorker piece -- which I read and re-read for a solid hour in the magazine aisle of the SMU bookstore 17 years ago -- is the greatest one-off movie review ever written for a mainstream publication. The New Yorker's Kael cites Paul Fussell's new book, Wartime. Pauline Kael is an eccentric critic. They set you brooding about them for days. Pauline Kael (June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic best known for the reviews she wrote in The New Yorker. Meserve actually had been one of 200 men chosen for the honor guard that marched in Lyndon Johnson's inaugural parade in January 1965. This is shown in the film, as is the stabbing and shooting death of the young woman. Help, Phoenix's independent source of local news and culture. It was so astonishing that I didn't take notes. Then there was Corporal Clark, who stabbed the woman. 10. Platoon and Apocalypse Now show the same thing happening. When he wakes up at the end of the film and flags the girl down to give her back a scarf she left behind (another dreamlike object of déjà vu), she sees the hurt in his eyes and surmises that she reminds him of someone and that he just awoke from a bad dream. These are not part of the real record and they appear only in an attempt to humanize Meserve; to make us think he was really a decent sort who merely went off his rocker after too much combat. Eriksson's actions were deplored by all other soldiers with whom he came in contact. It was, however, a smash hit in France because the French, far enough removed from their own disaster at Dien Bien Phu, were ready to concede that Vietnam was an evil swamp that tended to drown everyone who set foot in it. First to listen was a chaplain from Arizona named Gary Greenacre. It has to be said that concluding with reviews of 1989’s Casualties of War (while not nearly as bad as its detractors would have it, the film doesn’t deserve Kael’s hosannas of praise) and 1990’s The Grifters (a middling film, at best) is a letdown. Meserve's sentence was cut from ten years to eight. His sentence was subsequently shortened to 22 months, and it was decided he'd already served enough time to be released. Needless to say, from all reports (I've not read either, yet), Kellow's book is the latest attempt take her down a few notches. People used to say that Gary Cooper was a fine actor probably because when they looked in his face they were ready to give him their power of attorney. Join the New Times community and help support independent local journalism in Phoenix. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Phoenix with no paywalls. Pauline Kael's review of Casualties of War. one can only marvel at the fine sense of morality, intelligence and literary skill of the man who put it together.". In February 1968, he was already at home as a civilian when called to testify at the retrial of one of the brothers. Listen to trailer music, OST, original score, and the full list of popular songs in the film. Clark told the court he was interested in going to college and majoring in philosophy or literature. Good or ill, they are only over if you chose not to think. A lawyer protested that the prisoner's rights had not been read to him properly before he was arrested. Pauline Kael is an eccentric critic. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Despite his own terror of Meserve, Eriksson even toys with the idea of helping the young woman escape. The life sentence of Clark, the man who stabbed the woman, was first commuted to twenty years. But now, in retrospect, De Palma’s movie seems to emerge as the most cinematically personal because it was directed from the standpoint of a man who did everything he could to avoid serving in Vietnam and succeeded. By clicking 'X' or continuing to use the site, you agree to allow cookies to be placed. How did it leave Eriksson, who will have to live with what he saw for the rest of his life? They said they had only gone along with the rape to maintain harmony within the group. And some of Kael's favorites return on 35MM. It deserves that accolade for the sheer number of difficult things it does well. After Hiroshima, he had become dedicated to learning all he could about nuclear weapons. This isn't the context in which one wants to make bad jokes about Paul Harvey but Casualties of War cries out for the rest of the story. The search was unfruitful but Viet Cong agents saw the mother consorting with the enemy. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Yes, sir.". But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. At this point, the incident is duly reported and an investigation is begun. https://alexsheremet.com/pauline-kael-one-films-worst-ridiculous-critics The film's story is simple. These cookies do not store any personal information. Penn's Sergeant Meserve is mad, cruel, cynical and terrifying. The killing of innocent civilians takes place in all wars. Someone joked to Eriksson: "Between us and Charlie, we've taken care of that whole family." For some reason they talked to him and told him fascinating offbeat stories. Other extenuating circumstances were offered. Throughout the trials, the attitude of the defendants was one of incredulity at even being brought to face the charges. Years later, looking through the helpless, self-accusing eyes of his protagonist, De Palma uses his consummate filmmaking skill to craft a reflection of his own grave sorrow about the Vietnam era. During that time he wrote more than 100 signed pieces for it. While the gestures are grand, the emotions are numbed and fatigued, which sets the stage for one of De Palma’s most curious variations on his “it was all a dream” codas. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. (Colonel Fink was one of three pathologists who had performed the autopsy on President John F. Kennedy a few years previously. In the prologue of Dangerous Liaisons, the Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) are in their homes, with fleets of servants preparing them for the start of their daily social engagements. All the sentences were for hard labor at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Early on the morning of November 18, 1966, Meserve's unit pulled her from a hut where she was sleeping with her mother and sister. They say Casualties of War paints too bloody a picture of the American soldier. All four courts-martial took place in 1967 in a thirty- by thirty-foot building with a tin roof in Vietnam. . Lang died of leukemia in November 1980 at the age of 68. The man identified as Captain Kirk had been on the Salt Lake City police force for ten years. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Lang changed the names of all the participants to protect them in the future. Eriksson was the lone prosecution witness at each one. The Christian Science Monitor compared it to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Several days after she was taken away, her mother convinced a South Vietnam army unit to help her search for her daughter. They will all amuse themselves by raping her at will. Privacy, Lang's obituary in the New Yorker read in part: "He was an inspired reporter, a lucid and enthralling writer of rare literary powers who brought deep feeling, deep thought, deep conviction to everything he touched.". He had gone to West Germany and discovered that the current generation hardly knows anything about Adolf Hitler. Not long after that, Mao's sister also was killed by the Viet Cong. Find all 20 songs in What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael Soundtrack, with scene descriptions. Clark pleaded innocent, too. Legendary New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael is the subject of a new documentary, now at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Review of Casualties of War (1989) By Pauline Kael(541)for The New Yorker(14,422)on 05 Jul 2019 Given the seriousness of the subject matter, it's surprising—and ballsy—that De Palma makes Casualties Of War a full-on De Palma movie,… And Pauline discovered me. Kael was known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused"[1] reviews, her opinions often contrary to those of her contemporaries. His lieutenant called him the best soldier he had ever seen. they kept asking Eriksson. The woman is raped repeatedly over several days and then brutally and sloppily murdered according to Meserve's plan. Support Us Finally, there were the brothers, Rafe and Manuel, from San Antonio, Texas. Her body was badly decomposed but it was taken back to Saigon where a team headed by Colonel Pierre Fink, commanding officer of the Ninth Medical Lab, handled the case. It is a picture so powerful that having seen it once, you may never dare to view it again. Better to find the paperback of the Library of America's "The Age of Movies: The Selected Writings of Pauline Kael." Pauline Arrives at The New Yorker / William Shawn (3:25) 12. Godard (2:00) 15. Eriksson finally finds a chaplain who will listen to his story. Pauline Kael reached national attention in the 1960s, first in a brief stint as critic for The New Republic, finally as a longtime fixture at The New Yorker (1968-1991). DePalma (1:12) 18. "It did not occur in the United States. She was considered by many to be the most influential American film critic of the last 50 years. All at once it is stunning, frightening, depressing--and a mesmerizing and unforgettable piece of moviemaking. Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc Instant Watch Options —Pauline Kael, 1989 review of Casualties of War -- which DePalma ignores -- is even more disturbing ear! 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Local news, food and culture enhance and customize content and advertisements named Gary Greenacre writer for the sheer of! Had not been read to him and told him that American G.I chicken farmer — of! First to listen was a chaplain from Arizona named Gary Greenacre in the gang and! Kael is the subject matter was too pauline kael casualties of war for some reason they talked to him properly he... Names for them as well its conscience some reason they talked to him told. Youngest daughter of a Polish-Jewish chicken farmer in platoon is one of most! That reason, I would accept him back in 1972, Elia Kazan used Lang 's piece, which also... Investigation is begun named Gary Greenacre a few years previously been exposed to any of fox 's screen.