Amazon.com video review:
The subtext of this grim, snail-paced Francis Ford Coppola film is
the death of Coppola's son, Giancarlo, in a boating accident. Coppola
came back with this Vietnam-era military drama about the men
assigned to patrol and serve at the funerals at Arlington National
Cemetery. James Caan is the world-weary patrol leader with a fatherly
interest in a gung-ho cadet (D.B. Sweeney). Caan tries to show Sweeney
the potentially fatal future that awaits him if he volunteers for
combat, but he can't break through his young charge's zealousness. The subplot
involves crusty Caan's attempts at romance with Anjelica Huston, who
can't quite fathom his contradictions. The story is all glum and lumbering,
despite a warm, full-bodied performance by James Earl Jones as one of
Caan's buddies. --Marshall Fine
