Tropic Thunder: Grade C

C
Tropic Thunder (2008)
Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Jr., with appearances by Nick Nolte and Tom Cruise. Co-writer and Director Ben Stiller.

This satire of Vietnam war films takes a self-referential, postmodern approach, meaning that its own satire is part of the joke, making it also a satire of Hollywod filmmaking. A patrol of GIs is filming battle scenes (shot in Hawaii, which had to be expensive), but the actors are bickering and one multi-million dollar special effects explosion is ignited when the cameras are not even rolling. In desperation, the director drops the patrol into the jungle to see if they can straighten out their relationships while trying to survive. Somehow they are dropped straight into the Vietnam war and are attacked by guerrillas. But they think they are still making a movie and act accordingly. That goofy premise makes for some delicious inside-Hollywood laughs and some good parodies of well-known scenes from Rambo, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Rescue Dawn, and others.

One of the funniest bits is between RDJ playing a tough, barking black sergeant, and a young, hip black soldier who is perplexed by his stereotypical phrases and attitudes. There is no real plot, just a series of gag scenes, so everything depends on the humor, which is inconsistent. It loses its satiric edge and degenerates into crude, easy laughs as the movie progresses, until finally it becomes flat and boring. Jack Black has his fans, but is too crude and hammy for me. Nolte does a great self-parody. Cruise comes across as creepy; the magic is gone from him. Directing is notably good, and the sets, props, costumes and production values are high quality, but after about 45 minutes, the movie has little content to keep you going.

Rescue Dawn: Grade B

B
Rescue Dawn (2006)
Christian Bale, Steve Zahn. Director Werner Herzog
Bale is a Navy pilot shot down over Laos during the Vietnam war. He is quickly captured and meets a half dozen other prisoners in a bamboo POW camp. Privation is severe and some of the prisoners (Zahn) are so frighteningly thin that you have to wonder what was going on with the production company. That’s a severe medical condition when a person looks like a skeleton. It is very disturbing to look at. Why did they film it with such disregard for the actors' health?

Eventually Bale hatches an escape plan, despite not knowing where they are and the fact that the U.S. military was in Laos illegally anyway. For reasons that are not clear, only Bale and Zahn escape into the jungle and a buddy situation develops as they hack their way “forward,” toward what, neither they nor we know. There isn’t much story tension. They are not being chased but they are lost, hungry, and desperate. Zahn collapses from weakness and Bale is soon thereafter rescued by a US helicopter that miraculously appears.

Zahn’s acting is especially convincing. Bale does a fine job too, but his character remains an unreflective, single-minded, can-do soldier. The character is drawn perfectly, but doesn't develop over time. Nothing affects him. He eats maggots and bites into raw snakes without hesitation, because he must. The movie is enjoyable because of the realistic sense of time and place you get from it, not because of the weak story and static characters. The portrayals of the people and jungle settings are so realistic you can feel the heat and smell the rain. Costumes and sets are perfect. Music is unobtrusive, and the cinematography is verdant. A little character development would have made the movie perfect.