Tigerland | | Cast : | Colin Farrell | | Director : | Joel Schumacher | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 01, 2000 | | DVD Released Date : | April 15, 2003 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 16, 2005 | | Summary | Vietnam War As Conceived By Oprah Winfrey | Content
 | This is an awful movie. It wants to be Cool Hand Luke but the constant weeping by all the protagonist's buddies kills any hope of that.
Colin Farrell plays the Post-Modern Cynic With A Heart Of Gold who helps guys get out of the Army before they get shipped off to Vietnam.
Clumsy acting, directing--overall bad storytelling here. Lots of stereotyped cursing and Hollywood "Militaryspeak" which rings laughably hollow throughout the entire movie. You don't have to be a military historian to see through some of the wanna-be writing here. This is a soap opera version of boot camp--complete baloney. I haven't seen so many men cry like little girls since... since... man I can't even think of an example!
Awful. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 06, 2005 | | Summary | A Vietnam War movie without the war | Content
| Though by the time the film was made in 2000 the Vietnam War had been history for well over two decades, Tigerland takes a different approach to the controversial conflict and thus not only avoids a "been-there/done-that" feel, but emerges as an astounding film. Much has been made of Colin Ferrell's performance, and while it is by all accounnts tremendous, especially in light of the fact that his character is the crux of the film, I fear a very good movie has been lost in the accolades for Ferrell.
The movie takes place in 1971 when public opinion for the Vietnam War was very negative. Nonetheless, the war must still be fought and troops must still be trained. Into this situation comes Roland Bozz, fresh out of the stockade and headed for Fort Polk training camp and then Tigerland, "the stateside province of Vietnam." Bozz, the type of man who would carry Johnny Got His Gun on a troop truck merely to enrage patriotists, feels that neither he nor any of the men belongs in a war. He is constantly disobediant, rabble-rousing, and troublemaking. He uses loopholes to get some of the GIs out of training and back home, and soon becomes a leader and to some degree a hero, in the spirit of Randle McMurphy's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Although subplots concerning Bozz's relationship with a hostile soldier and his hesitant friendship with Private Paxton (Matthew Davis) are handled well, it is Bozz's non-conformity and fight against the army that make up the heart of the movie. This is a good thing, for those scenes are very well done and keep the viewer locked-in. While the movie never touches Vietnam, it is a superlative war movie and does not (as others have claimed) model itself after Full Metal Jacket. The camerawork by Requiem for a Dream Filmography Director Matthew Libatique is superb, the acting solid, and the movie wonderful to watch. ****/4 |
| Rating | | | Date | June 05, 2005 | | Summary | Tigerland... | Content
| This movie depicts Colin Farrell as a young, extremely reluctant leader going through US Army training during the Vietnam War era. Farrell does his best to cause much trouble for his superiors and gung-ho soldiers as he is opposed to US policy in Vietnam. Politics aside, it is interesting to see Colin Farrell in one of his early roles and before he became a big movie star. He is wonderful in this movie and one sees why he moved on to larger roles.
The audio and video quality of the DVD are good, and the film has the grainy look which is typical of actual Vietnam-era footage. Even though the film was made by Joel Schumacher, it is not the big-budget, big special-effects type of film usually attributed to him. The extra features on the disc are somewhat sparse, but the casting sessions with Colin Farrell are particularly interesting. Recommended! |
| Rating | | | Date | May 30, 2005 | | Summary | Atmosphere, Acting and Philosophy.. | Content
| And this is a Joel Schumacher film? It's hard to believe this is the same guy who did Batman and Robin.
Tigerland does not accurately portray life in military training during Vietnam. And that's not it's purpose. It's theme underlies this and is about war, leadership and loyalty.
Each of these themes is represented by the excellent characters and foil characters. The main one being Roland Bozz, played by a then unknown Colin Farrel before he knocked Charlie Sheen off of the title as the Hollywood Love Machine.
Bozz is a rebel, a nihilist and a natural born leader. His character is attractive, and makes you like him from the start. He doesn't care about the war, all he knows is that he doesn't want to die in it. He sees this as ridiculous and a waste of his life.
He soon becomes fast friends with Jim Paxton. Paxton wasn't drafted, he enlisted out of college. Why? For the life experience, so he can have something to write about. His different take on the war is seen as foolish by Bozz, but Bozz admires his courage somewhat.
Another main character, Wilson, is a gung ho sadist who can't wait to shoot, kill, maim, and torture every Vietmanese person on the planet. He believes in the army, the system and all it stands for. He is also severely unbalanced. With this exception excluded, he is the perfect soldier.
Private Miter is also a typical soldier. Like Wilson he believes in the system, but lacks the confidence and leadership skills to be all he can be. Later we find out why he's there to begin with.
The ones in command are either horribly sadist, or just trying to get the point accross that there is no other alternative, and so they better "soldier up" if they don't want to be killed.
Bozz of course, finds this to be a joke. But his friendship and loyalty eventually make him understand that his leadership abilities will take him to the war no matter how much he doesn't want to go.
Right now when we have soldiers and young men going off to Iraq, or leaving the country to escape service, it makes this movie all the more relevant and questions the very basic concept of wars not worth fighting. I have to wonder if there were more people like Roland Bozz, would we ever have wars in the first place. In the director's commentary, Schumacher let's his feelings be known, and makes an excellent statement about the Children's Crusade, saying that all wars are really children's crusades.
Some fantastic performances all around. Props to Thomas Guiry who I hadn't seen act since The Sandlot. He does a terrific job of creating a very child-like character who you can't help but empathize and sympathize with.
Filmed on an old Air Force Base in Florida in I believe 8 mm film gives this such a feeling of antiquity it makes me feel as if I'm in the early 70's even though I was born in 78.
Terrific, little known, and relevant film. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 13, 2005 | | Summary | Therapy in the Army | Content
| Actually, this Joel Schumacher film is fairly good with good acting and kind of a "Blow" or "Man on Fire" cinematography. I gave it 3 stars but I can yield to an argument that it could be more. The problem is what follows.
It's just hard to believe. It never captured me. The Army has it's Advanced Infantry Training (AIT) and the Marine Corps has its ITR, Infantry Training Regiment. The Corps also has a brutal 26 week course for Officers called The Basic School, carrying with it the peculiar initials TBS. Quantico has the 'Hill Trail' and no one EVER forgets the pain, agony, and frequently, unconsciousness of trekking its hills, gulleys, ravines and streams. But all those things are founded on a principle . . . oh, about 6000 years old, that what you practice over and over again when no one is slinging spears, arrows, rocks or firing Russian mortars at you, you'll be able to do when they are. (Check out Spielberg's quintessential combat sequence in the first thirty minutes of Private Ryan.)
All countries do it and have done it for 60 or 70 centuries. You want to see training camps? Check out "The Washing of the Spears" about Isalwanda and Roarke's Drift and learn about the Zulus, who could run 40 miles, fight a pitched battle, and run home, all in a day.
So Vietnam, or what Vietnam has become in the memory of those who never were there, is no different and the training was no different. To those who say 'yeah and we lost that war,' fair point. But we had a long string of victories up to that.
Which brings up the concept of war. Tennyson writes about his son who died at the Somme, "when they ask you why they died, tell them because their fathers lied." So there's no argument there. But for those aforementioned 60 or 70 centuries, we don't seem to have found an alternative. This doesn't mean we want it. It only means, we seem to keep on doing it.
We have two people in the last century who did something different. Passive resistance. Ghandi and John Paul. They accomplished extraordinary success through non-war, and it's difficult to argue that maybe British Colonialism would have collapsed anyhow (possibly) and maybe the Russian Communists would have drank themselves to death eventually (also a not remote possibility). But they didn't. Still, not many guys or movements to write about in the last 150 years. Perhaps Dr. King as well if you include our dismal Civil Rights history here in the USA. But again, three's not a lot.
Here, in Tigerland, there's too many troops who talk about calculus, emotional thalidomide and Camus when they're smoking a joint. Doesn't happen. The day's too long. You're beat. You sleep. And there's certainly never in the history of combat training, a private sitting in the quarters of the Commanding Officer, talking about the unfairness of war.
Finally, psychos in the Army. Sure. A couple slip through. Hey. You're about to do something that Ministers, Rabbis, schoolteachers and parents have raised you not to do. A little emotional stress and dysfunction is to be expected. Don't forget fear. It's damn scary. But the snake eyed crazo just doesn't exist. He doesn't slip through. Makes a great story if you're doing Freddy and Jason movies. But not very realistic.
So that's my problem. I just couldn't get behind it. Too much required suspension of disbelief. My favorites of that genre still remain Deerhunter and Platoon, with Full Metal a close third.
Farrell does a very good job. You can see he's headed for more centerpiece rolls. And Schumacher's a great director. 3 stars. Larry Scantlebury |
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