Tigerland

Tigerland may not actually be in the jungles of Southeast Asia, but it's about as close as you're gonna get. The conditions of this Louisiana training facility have been duplicated to resemble the front lines in every way in order to get new recruits ready for the real thing.

The time is 1971, and Private Bozz (Colin Farrell) is the last person you'd expect to don a military uniform. He may appear rugged and tough on the outside, but on the inside he wants nothing to do with the war (then again, who did?). His rebelious nature reluctantly gains him the support of his fellow soldiers, but it also gains him the scrutiny of his superiors. Between the harsh training environment and one particularly psychopathic soldier named Wilson (Shea Whigham), Bozz has a better chance of staying alive in Vietnam than he does in Tigerland.

The last person you'd expect to direct a movie like this is Joel Schumacher. Ever since the early 80's, Schumacher has been synonymous with A-list talent and big-time Hollywood films, ranging from the good (A Time To Kill) to the bad (Falling Down) to the just plain awful (Batman and Robin). In past few years, Schumacher made a radical departure with films like 8MM and Flawless, but the results were less than impressive.

With Tigerland, Schumacher not only hits his mark, but he redefines his craft. Shot with 16 millimeter cameras on a meager budget with a cast of unknowns, Schumacher lets the material speak for itself. Vietnam is the last place Bozz wants to go (not that anyone in their right mind ever wanted to go there in the first place), and he makes no effort to hide his contempt for the war in general. If he doesn't like what he's told to do, he doesn't just speak his mind--he gets up and walks away. He's not about to undermine his spirit or his integrity to fight a war he doesn't believe in.

By 1971, if there was any patriotism left to support the war, it was hard to find. The brutality that these grunts have to endure during their training becomes pointless, since they eventually become numb to the pain. This is certainly the case with Bozz, who only gives in to his superiors when his rebellious nature effects one of his fellow soldiers. When he's given the unenviable task of leading his troops, his carefree and honest nature ironically winds up winning him their respect. He still takes it all with a grain of salt, since he's just biding his time until he can jump ship and take off to Mexico.

Try and imagine what would happen if George Clooney and Russell Crowe had a kid, and the result would be Colin Farrell, who has to be one of the most talented and charismatic new faces to come along in recent memory. By perfectly balancing his rugged nature with his hidden sensitivity, he makes for an instantly appealing hero on every level. His initial reluctance to make new friends is broken when he bonds with the equally impressive Matthew Davis, who plays a patriotic soldier with ambitions to write his story when the war is over. The two couldn't be more different, but Farrell finds a soft spot in Davis' refreshing naiveté, while Davis admires Farrell's strength of will.

Tigerland may be the last place on earth you'd want to be if your were in the military, but as far as movies go, it's a place you shouldn't miss. It's a small movie with the big message that the power of friendship and humanity can endure even in the most hellish of circumstances. These soldiers may have been losing the war, but they sure as heck weren't gonna lose this battle.