Some movies... can leave us feeling simultaneously elated and wiped out. Overwhelmed, we may experience a helpless anger if we hear people mock them or poke holes in them in order to dismiss them. The new Casualties of War has this kind of purity.

Casualties of War is the strongest, the simplest and the most painful of all the Vietnam movies because it isn't about how terrible it is not to understand what's going on around us -- it's about the agony of seeing terrible things too clearly.

Michael J. Fox is a revelation as the mouse that roared, whilst the score, the direction, and the rest of the cast turn a risky film into a solid addition to the Nam canon.

De Palma is a clever filmmaker. But as Casualties of War shows, cleverness filtered through Hollywood self-righteousness and the wrong script can turn into the worst kind of glib horseshit.