Casualties of War 1989

Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times: There's a moral charge to the action, but it's also swooningly exciting, coldly scary. Every friend may be an enemy, every innocent a traitor. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: Mr. Penn plays Meserve with terrific elan. There is plausibility in every movement and gesture, and especially in his crafty handsomeness. His Meserve is the sort of man one credits with thoughts when the mind may, in fact, be completely blank. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Read more

Brian Case, Time Out: Casualties of War is dull. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: A powerful metaphor of the national shame that was America's orgy of destruction in Vietnam, Brian De Palma's film deals directly with the harrowing rape and murder of a Vietnamese woman by four GIs. Read more

Hal Hinson, Washington Post: It is a breakthrough work, a signal of an artist's blossoming maturity, and one of the most punishing, morally complex movies about men at war ever made. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Another Brian De Palma movie, another bludgeoning. Or stabbing. Or body-drilling. Whatever -- as long as the victim's a woman. Read more