You won't be disappointed!

Sick Product of a Sick System

Absolutely the worst movie.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It's the military funeral of Jackie Willow (D.B. Sweeney) as he recounts his journey. It returns to Jackie's first day at Fort Myer which provides soldiers for Arlington National Cemetery and he's gungho to fight in Vietnam. He's the son of a friend of Sgt. Clell Hazard (James Caan) who tries to talk him out of Vietnam. He helps screw-up Wildman (Casey Siemaszko) from platoon Sgt. Flanagan (Laurence Fishburne). Sergeant Major Goody Nelson (James Earl Jones) and wife Betty Rae set up Hazard with anti-war Washington Post reporter Samantha Davis (Anjelica Huston). Pete Deveber (Elias Koteas) is a clerk and Homer Thomas (Dean Stockwell) is the commander. Jackie marries Rachel Feld (Mary Stuart Masterson), the daughter of a colonel.Francis Ford Coppola revisits Vietnam with something less epic and more traditional. There are great actors. The thing I remember most is the story of the Vietcons fighting helicopters with arrows. This is certainly not as iconic as Apocalypse Now. It doesn't mean that it's not a worthwhile watch. For a war movie, this surprisingly has little war action. That's probably what throws most people off.

The garden is Arlington National Cemetery, where soldiers fallen in combat are interred under the watchful eyes of the Old Home Guard, a spit and polish regiment of self-styled Toy Soldiers organized for one purpose: to honor the dead, with pomp and circumstance. It's hard to imagine a better setting for a home front reflection on the horror of Vietnam, half a world away, but any war film so far removed from the battleground runs a risk of being too remote and detached, which is exactly what happens here. What could have been a stateside companion piece to 'Apocalypse Now is', instead, a strangely inert melodrama insulated from any genuine feeling for the era. The notable cast is let down by a sometimes overwrought screenplay (step forward, Ron Bass) with little to offer except a surrogate father/son relationship torn apart by the distant war. All that remains are some tantalizing hints of what the film could have achieved, as seen in the contrast between the formal precision of military ceremony and the illogical slaughter in Southeast Asia.

I don't know why Francis Ford Coppola thought he had to make another film about Vietnam after he had made the best possible with "Apocalypse Now", but with this film he definitely destroys a part of his reputation as being critical about the United States' role in the war. The problem of "Gardens of Stone" is that it is not uncritical, but seemingly critical. It all seems as if Coppola would use the dead soldiers' bodies or Anjelica Huston's role as an excuse for saying: "Hey, I know that maybe not everything was alright, but you have to do what your country asks you to." This movie is so obsessed with the military and tries so hard not to decide whether it's for or against the war, that it doesn't even notice, that it already has decided with its blind patriotism and denunciation of the peace movement. Rarely have I seen such a laughable characterization as it is done here with Anjelica Huston's "peace activist". Not one of the highlights of Coppola's career.

Certainly the film is worth viewing. James Caan turns in yet another first rate performance proving once again that you don't have to be a Hoffman/Pacino 'ARTIST' to deliver honest, moving performances. Anjelica Huston in a rather controlled, understated role is also interesting as Caan's love interest and anti-war reporter. Lonette McKee who was so good in Coppola's Cottin Club is wasted in this flick as James Earl Jones wife though Jones uses his famous voice particularly well in this movie. D.B. Sweeny is effective as the gung ho army brat who wants desperately to get to Vietnam while Mary Stuart Masterston is wasted in a tiny role as Sweeny's girlfriend. Watch the movie for the performances if not for the cinematic virtuosity.