Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Written by Ross Klavan and Michael McGruther
Starring: Colin Ferrill (Boz), Matthew Davis (Jim Paxton), Clifton Collins Jr. (Miter), Tom Guiry (Cantwell), Shea Whigham (Private Wilson), Russell Richardson (Private Johnson), Nick Searcy (Captain Saunders), Afemo Omilami (Sergeant Ezra Landers), James MacDonald (Sergeant Thomas), Keith Ewell (Sergeant Oakes), Matt Gerald (Sergeant Eveland), Stephen Fulton (Sergeant Drake), Tyler Cravens (MP Sergeant)
Rated R (for vivid sexuality, strong language, and brutality). Released in 2000.
Joel Schumacher's Tigerland is a story of two young men who meet and become pals while trying to survive boot camp and Tigerland, a preparatory state prior to being sent to the Vietnam war. I loved it! One of the best films of last year! The script, written by Michael McGruther, is disturbingly honest, unflinchingly realistic, and poignantly sincere. Colin Ferrill, who plays the lead actor Boz, is remarkable--it helps that his personality is a mix of mysticism and pro-individuality.
A friend of mine who served in Vietnam once explained to me about that war that laws and rules and goodness (values, morals, and ethics) don't matter to the soldier because the soldier has been trained in such a way that he is paranoid, not able to discern who is on your side, who you can trust, etc. This film capitalizes on this theory, even going as far as to show that self-serving men (trained in the tactics displayed in the film) become dangerous, even monsters toward their own men. (I'm referring to the character named Wilson.)
Tigerland is as riveting as one of my other favorite war films, The Thin Red Line.
Boz is the humanity admidst the inhumanity at Tigerland. He's the realist who is confident that goodness cannot be sacrificed, even at war. Boz attempts to retain this characteristic while at Tigerland. The only problem is, as is too well depicted in the film, that one must suffer the verbal and physical punishments of the Army (any establishment, really) for not towing the line and playing along with their game of making killing machines for their country. Boz, when being trained on how to interrogate a "gook," walks away from the commanding officer as the officer is saying that they can even electrocute "gooks" by placing the positive and negative charges on their balls. The officer goes after Boz. When confronted, Boz replies "Why would you want to do that to another human being?"
When it comes to our establishments that govern and direct us, this question seems rarely asked. And this point alone makes this film an important one to watch.
