POS? Under Heavy Fire (2001)

 

                “Under Heavy Fire” is a Vietnam War movie by Sidney Furie (the “Iron Eagle” films).  It was the second in his Vietnam trilogy with the first being “The Boys in Company C”.  If you want to be one of the very few people on Earth to complete the trilogy, the third is “The Veteran”.  An alternate title for “Under Heavy Fire” is “”Going Back”.  Believe it or not, the movie was first shown at Cannes.

                The movie opens in Vietnam in 1968.  Friendly artillery fire kills some Americans outside a village and Capt. Ramsey (Casper Van Dien) is blamed even though he clearly did not call in the strike.  So, the movie comes out the chute with a WTF moment.  We flash forward to the five survivors returning to Vietnam years later as part of a reconciliation tour promoted by the Vietnamese government.  The group’s visit is covered by a reporter named Kathleen (Carre Otis).  When Ramsey joins them, it is awkward.  They make the cinematic decision to go back to the village to reenact the incident.  The movie jumps between the present time tour and flash backs to traumatic moments during the war.  One of those involves a briskly paced rescue from a Viet Cong tunnel.  Another involves the squad in Hue for the battle.  They capture a building in a well-done scene.  There Is an atrocity which pits the team against Ramsey.  Finally, we have the village incident.  Whoever thought reliving that moment was clearly delusional, or a script writer.  It has predictable results if you predicted that the men would all freak out in a PTSD orgy.

                “Under Heavy Fire” starts with an interesting premise and you do want to find out what exactly happened.  The flashback format works well.  However, it concludes with a horrendously bad scene that reminds you that your first inkling was correct.  Before that, it is a fairly competent film.  The combat is above average with some POV to go with the obligatory slo-mo.         It is surprisingly unpredictable, except for Casper Van Dien, I mean Ramsey, going to bed with the female reporter.  Casper is truly the draw here and not just for the female reporter.  He gets no competition from the no-name cast.  That’s probably what his agent promised him.   And an all expanses paid vacation in Vietnam.  The movie had full cooperation from the Vietnamese government which saw it as a chance to change its image. There is some local color to humanize the Vietnamese people.  In that respect, the movie is the polar opposite of “The Green Berets”.  It makes the point that the Marines were taught to hate the Vietnamese.  That was tragic because they really were good people, according to this movie.  Go to Hell, John Wayne!

                Should you watch it?  If you are a Casper fan, of course.  If you are determined to see every Vietnam War movie ever made, sure.  If you want to complete the epic Furie trilogy, go right ahead.  If you want to get drunk by taking a drink every time Ramsey smokes a cigarette, enjoy.  Otherwise, you can skip this one.

GRADE =  C