Tigerland

Worse than batman forever.... This movie is so damn boring, it spends all of its time trying to convince the viewer how "cool" the main character is, well he isn't "cool", he's a goober... Nothing happens in this movie, it's just about showing us what a "great guy" the main character is, so what? If you want to see a boring movie with homo-erotic undertones which are never addressed, than this is the movie for you

While some scenes of training were realistic, too many of them depicted military instructors as ex-Nazi types. Obviously, the people who wrote the screen play were either anti-military types or writing a film for that audience. I am a Viet Nam vet and, even during this period, military instructors who behaved in the manner some of these did would probably still be serving time in military prison. And I really loved the scene where the "hero" and his buddy (both privates) are sitting down in the Captain's office, smoking cigarettes and talking and cussing with the Captain as if he were their buddy. This sort of thing never happened in training or in a formal situation, as was the purpose for the scene. At the end I asked myself, "What was this film about?" as it seemed to wander around all over the place with no focus except "I hate all authority." Thank God I got it from the library and did not pay to rent it.

It is certainly interesting to write a review about a film that took place where I actually resided for two months. In September of 1971 when this film is set, your's truly was doing his basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana. I did get to the North Fort at one point in my training where the infamous Tigerland was located. In fact Tigerland was a nickname given to the whole northern part of the army base. I was doing the basic training to be a weekend warrior and avoid Vietnam. But I saw so many of the kids who were just like the ones portrayed in the film it was actually a rather nerve wrecking old home week. In 1971 everyone except the policy makers in Washington knew that this was going to end when as Senator George Aiken declared, we said we won and then went home. And of course the South Vietnamese government we were protecting would fold like a napkin. By that time the army was scraping the bottom for soldier material and you can see it in the company of men that are in Tigerland. This is where more soldiers shipped for Vietnam than any other place in the nation. The Louisiana swamps best approximated the climate conditions of Vietnam. This particular company has a real odd ball in it with Colin Farrell. He's doing his best to get out of the army, but the army just won't oblige him. So he's waging his own war against them by becoming a 'barracks lawyer' and getting others out. And he's driving the officers and NCOs quite nuts doing it. I would rate Tigerland a lot higher because there is much I liked about the film. It was not shot at Fort Polk, but in places that gave you feel of the place. What I remember best about it was rain and mud. In that summer of 1971 it rained nearly every single day I was there. But the rain and sometimes it would come a few times a day. Would be a sudden downpour, maybe at most 20 minutes then it would cool off and then resume being muggy. And the ground couldn't absorb it fast enough so it was always muddy. You did your best work in that brief period after rain stopped it was then actually decent enough for normal activities. What I couldn't quite grasp was Colin Farrell's motivations for what he was doing. I blame that on the writer and also the director. As for the other players the best in the cast was Thomas Guiry playing this poor sad sack kid from the Louisiana bayous. I met a few just like him, he stopped his formal education at the 6th grade. It was a touching performance on Guiry's part. So here's to Fort Polk, not a place I recommend, but sometimes a place which is needed to train our soldiers. It got a good film, but not a great one in its honor.

It's been awhile since I saw it and would not waste my time watching it again but as a Nam vet and NCO who went through Tigerland twice, once as a trainee and once as a training sergeant, this movie was very disappointing. Not real historically accurate on many fronts. Most importantly this whole deal about Bozz being such an individualist and non conformist is pure nonsense. The whole point of military training, especially for combat infantry is to eliminate individualism and get everyone playing on the same team. There is no room for non conformity in combat. Our combat units could not be effective if we had any doubt of what to expect from the guy or the unit next to us. Guys like the Bozz character depicted in this movie end up in the stockade or at least get run out of combat units. Although not technically a war movie because it covers only training for war, it is a movie whose central theme is about Vietnam and on that note I found it to be the second worst Vietnam genre movie behind only that miserable piece of garbage, Tunnel Rats.

if you expect to view anything close to the way the Army was in that era. I went through basic training at Fort Polk in 1972. It was nothing like this film portrays ... the barracks and mess hall were made of what was called World War II wood -- the typical barracks design that housed millions of soldiers in World War II. That was not what was portrayed in the film. I could tell that the film was not filmed in Louisiana and looked it up -- filmed in Florida. Some filming at Camp Blanding - and I've been there but didn't recognize any of the areas from the camp in the film. I don't know about 1971, but in early 1972 the Vietnam war was drawing down and NO ONE from my company was sent to Vietnam. Personally, I was assigned to Germany. The conduct and troop interaction portrayed in the movie was unlike anything I witnessed at Fort Polk. First, no NCO (sergeant) or officer laid a hand on any recruit. There was no friction among soldiers as portrayed in the movie and no racial issues. We did have one guy who refused to take a bath and several platoon members threw him in a dumpster to get his attention and that worked. It is true that the Army was in very bad shape during that era. I and other new soldiers there were subjected to a lot of harassment, but many things were done as teaching points to help us survive if we had of been sent to Vietnam. Oh yeah, I pulled KP and never had to peel a potato - the Army had machines to peel potatoes in 1972.

TIGERLAND (2000) ***1/2 Colin Farrell, Matthew Davis, Clifton Collins, Jr., Thomas Guiry, Shea Whigham, Russell Richardson, Nick Searcy, Afemo Omilani, James McDonald, Keith Ewell, Arian Ash, Haven Gaston, Cole Hauser. Filmmaker Joel Schumacher makes an audacious attempt to rekindle his directing juices in this low-budget semi-independent film about Vietnam with a cast of unknowns that works remarkably well. Set circa 1971 Louisiana in a special Army training camp for new recruits prior to shipment in the ongoing war and told in flashback by one of the survivors the film centers its bare bones plot around the able shoulders of Irish newcomer Farrell in a potential star-making turn as Private Roland Bozz (think 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' in fatigues and you get the overall impression), a feckless troublemaker of his platoon whose antics have a method to his madness: keeping yourself alive despite the odds. Raw and uncompromising are best suited to describe the film's gist and in particular its focus of Bozz leading his comrades in arms through their hellish grunt duty prior to their fated dooms. Original and smartly written by Ross Klaven and Michael McGruther giving their characters a fresh spin on an all too familiar genre with humanity at its core.

American military authority is the enemy for Pvt. Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell), a nonconformist trainee who, along with other infantry trainees, endures brutal, sadistic treatment in preparation for combat in Vietnam. Tigerland is a swampy, steamy camp near Fort Polk, Louisiana that is supposed to simulate conditions in Vietnam. The story is set in 1971. The amount and severity of physical and verbal aggression displayed in this film may be a tad overstated. But the point the film is making is that many, if not most, of the young guys drafted into the army in the late 60s and early 70s absolutely did not want, or deserve, to be there. Roland Bozz is one of those young men. He's angry at the war, angry at the army. The army won't release him because they know that's what he wants. If Bozz can't get himself out, the next best thing is to try and get other recruits out. That will be his revenge, his way to fight the system. A fellow trainee shares his background with Bozz, who then tells the trainee: "I know army regulations the way prisoners know the law. You're a hardship discharge, man, if ever I saw one. Okay. I'll get you out of the army". Bravo for Roland Bozz, a young rebel with a mission, a cause, trapped like the others by an oppressive, controlling institution. Acting is very, very good. Colin Farrell is terrific, at a time when he, and the rest of the cast, was largely unknown. No need for overpaid A-list actors. The film's acting style trends naturalistic, spontaneous, and emotionally intense. None of the acting seems forced. With a hand-held camera, combined with grainy film stock, and using quick zooms and unexpected cuts, the cinematography and editing convey a documentary look and feel, which results in sequences that are quite realistic. Lighting is mostly natural. Sets are plain and unadorned. Background music is minimal. Much better than I ever expected, "Tigerland" is a well-made film with an intense, anti-war theme. It's about putting others ahead of one's own selfish interest. That Hollywood largely shunned this low-budget film is all the more reason to see it.

I was there in 1970. Most of the things that went on in this movie could never have happened unless as an isolated incident. Things like torture, etc. were never suggested or encouraged; in fact we were warned strongly and seriously against violations of military procedures. And the beatings of enlisted men by non-coms would surely have been reported and investigated by other non-coms and officers. These were enlisted men and draftees, not Special Forces or an elite covert unit! This movie turns out to be just another addition to the list of Hollywood fantasy pieces that claim realism but toss away truth when it gets in the way of their anti-war theme. For me, it was a very disappointing film.

While it was filmed at a Florida National Guard site, "Tigerland" totally reminded me of Fort Polk, LA., firing ranges, maneuver areas, waist-deep water and all. The movie was fairly authentic and the characters similar to those same ones at my AIT in 1974. The difference between the Tigerland year, 1971, and mine of 1974 is all the drill sergeants and instructors knew they weren't going back to Vietnam, as it was pretty much all over, so training was very relaxed - not a challenge at all. That was the precursor to all our troubles in the 70s and 80s, which I know for a fact as I stayed in until 2004. I never heard anyone mention "Tigerland" but the Army did have realistic Vietnam training villages at different bases across the U.S. Vietnam Vets tell me that up to 1972 Basic & AIT could be pretty rough and rugged, because the trainers had been there and were mandated to train Vietnam-bound men those skills to make it, although that was not always the case. Both a drill sergeant at Polk and later one of my Vietnam Vet NCOs, when we had become instructors at a basic training brigade at Fort Bliss, told me there was nothing they could do to get anyone ready and people just had to find out and figure out for themselves. This movie rates high.

TIGERLAND / (2000) ***1/2 (out of four) By Blake French: Throughout the years audiences have seen and understood war films with every point of view possible, and somehow producers and writers always come up with new and innovative methods of portraying various soldiers on the battlefield. Joel Schumacher ("8MM," "A Time to Kill"), easily one of the riskiest directors currently working, has found resemblance with "The Thin Red Line" in the way his new drama "Tigerland" steps in an individual soldier's shoes. This movie, written by Ross Klavan and Michael McGuther, has more guts and irony than "The Thin Red Line" or even "Saving Private Ryan." Although the movie's dramatic impact is somewhat lessened due to the perversity of the material present, it certainly enlightens us on a new perspective of young men training for war. I would want to know Joel Schumacher's experiences with the army. Are the men really this unabashed and brutal? I am sure some of them are, but the movie views its uncompromising world through the eyes of a young man named Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell), who is rebellious against the ideas of war. His personality instantly counteracts with several other characters, one who becomes his best friend, Paxton (Matthew Davis), and another, Wilson (Russell Richardson), whose flamed temper often exasperates Bozz's tension with the idea of going to war. The war depicted in this production is not found on a battlefield, but on training grounds of a Louisiana-based instruction camp between conceptions and fears of the soldiers in training. This film is specifically about the preparation for war, nothing more nothing less. It ends when the soldiers finally go to war, kind of disappointing since witnessing the characters in action would have served as a supurb payoff. Shot on location in about 28 days using 16mm stock and a minuscule budget, Joel Schumacher accurately displays a gritty, perverse, cruel, and unmerciful atmosphere using hand-held cinematography, unique lighting techniques and direct sound. Schumacher's grainy and blown-out images make the movie feel like a documentary feature. This unusual style of filmmaking only contributes to the hard core realism of the movie, quite graphic in its use of coarse language, perhaps a little too disturbing. Waves of four-letter words pound the audience, some in shock of what they are hearing. Even the extreme amount of vulgarism does not keep the dialogue from prevailing as heartbreaking, true, and emotional. If anything, "Tigerland" provides us with a minor appreciation of how much our soldiers go through for our country in the beginning stages of combat. Such bravery must it take to enlist in the army during times of war, knowing the hardships and risks that are being taken. Such thought-provoking ideas are made possible through the heartbreaking performances by the young aspiring actors who portray the various trainees. This movie is not for all audiences, but one that young men should take a look at before enlisting themselves in the army...and adult audiences should watch to appreciate the courage needed to do such.