There are some mild spoilers here.
I really liked this film. It has a lot in common with Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, which came out a year before. I have no idea if it is accidental or not. No one seams to talk about the similarities. Both films are about the moral bankruptcy of masculinity. Both film feature a sexually confused woman and a battle between a soft man and super masculine men.
The idea for the film supposedly came from the same story that Brian De Palma's Casualties of War was based on. This is a fictional version of what could have happened after everything in the story Casualties of War is based on. Two of the men who raped the girl in Vietnam come home to the person (Bill Schmidt) who reported them to have their revenge.
I loved the character battle in this film. Bill's father in law is a writer of western books. This is important because he stands for the old west, the old time, the culture of violence, where you took what you wanted, no matter if it was yours or not. He hates Bill because he thinks he is too soft, not enough of a man and definitely not worthy of his daughter. He even wonders if his grandchild is his grandchild since it has a blood of a sissy in its veins. He however falls in love with the guys who come for a visit to take revenge, the Vietnam war criminals! And when he hears about what Bill Schmidt had done to them (reporting how they raped and killed an innocent girl) he replies: Why did you not kill him? So no sympathy there.
Bill Schmidt's wife Martha Wayne is rather confused. She is daddy's little girl but still not blindly so. She is kind of torn between two world-views and can't make up her mind.
And now let the battle begin... :)
And jumping forward in time. I wonder if this film influenced Funny Games (1997). Two visitors with bad intentions come for a visit and a power play between them all. Sounds like Funny Games to me :)
I have no idea why this film is so underrated. I was on the edge of my seat while watching it. Maybe my expectations were just so low that it caught me off guard?
I really liked this film. It has a lot in common with Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, which came out a year before. I have no idea if it is accidental or not. No one seams to talk about the similarities. Both films are about the moral bankruptcy of masculinity. Both film feature a sexually confused woman and a battle between a soft man and super masculine men.
The idea for the film supposedly came from the same story that Brian De Palma's Casualties of War was based on. This is a fictional version of what could have happened after everything in the story Casualties of War is based on. Two of the men who raped the girl in Vietnam come home to the person (Bill Schmidt) who reported them to have their revenge.
I loved the character battle in this film. Bill's father in law is a writer of western books. This is important because he stands for the old west, the old time, the culture of violence, where you took what you wanted, no matter if it was yours or not. He hates Bill because he thinks he is too soft, not enough of a man and definitely not worthy of his daughter. He even wonders if his grandchild is his grandchild since it has a blood of a sissy in its veins. He however falls in love with the guys who come for a visit to take revenge, the Vietnam war criminals! And when he hears about what Bill Schmidt had done to them (reporting how they raped and killed an innocent girl) he replies: Why did you not kill him? So no sympathy there.
Bill Schmidt's wife Martha Wayne is rather confused. She is daddy's little girl but still not blindly so. She is kind of torn between two world-views and can't make up her mind.
And now let the battle begin... :)
And jumping forward in time. I wonder if this film influenced Funny Games (1997). Two visitors with bad intentions come for a visit and a power play between them all. Sounds like Funny Games to me :)
I have no idea why this film is so underrated. I was on the edge of my seat while watching it. Maybe my expectations were just so low that it caught me off guard?