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Lost innocence and a growing pain blossom in 'Gardens'Jame$ Coon plays o lough, old Sergeant.By Lou GaulCalkins NewspapersIn the first shot of Oliver Stone's “Platoon, a raw recruit views a number of filled body bags being loaded for transport back to the U.S. for burial* Francis Coppola's new film, “Gardens of StoneM forms a perfect bookend for “Platoon/1 since it opens at Washington's Arlington National Cemetery -nicknamed The Garden — during a burial.While Stone's Oscar-winning picture deals with life, death and madness on the front lines, Coppola's work, set in the late 1960s, concerns itself with readjustment to Army life after Vietnam* Though not in a league with the incredibly powerful “Platoon/* “Gardens of Stone” proves an often emotionally stirring work because it conveys a sense of loss suffered by the soldiers who served in that insane conflict which split the country.Based on Nicholas Proffitt’s novel, the R-rated film details the relationship between a veteran NCO, Sgt Clell Hazard (James Caan), who served two tours of duty in 'Nam and now works in the “show business end of the Army by serving in color guards and masterminding fancy military burials, and Pvt. Jackie Willow (D.B. Sweeney). The spit-and-polish recruit, who itches forA REVIEWfrontlines action, arrives in Hazard's Old Guard unit at Fort Myer, views his assignment at Arlington as just a time killer until he's accepted into Officer Candidate School and then goes overseas.Willow has visions of bravery, valor and honor whenever contemplating Vietnam. JIA soldier in the right place at the right time can change the world/’ he says with conviction. But Hazard, a grizzled Korean war veteran, knows better.The war, related via television news footage, cost Hazard much more than just his marriage. The sergeant views his Army buddies as his 4‘family and strives to serve his country. But in Southeast Asia, he learned to his dismay that the concepts of right and wrong were blurred. There is no frontline in Vietnam/1 he tries in vain to tell the wide-eyed private. “There's nothing to win and no way to win it/'Since “Gardens of Stone/' told in flashback, opens with the buri-ai of Pvt. Willow, the soldier's fate is immediately revealed, an approach which provides the story with an added sense of loss. From the outset, the viewer knows that all of Hazard's warnings will go unheeded. Willowsimply cannot believe that America — a country which has never lost a war and which has always protected the rights of the weak — would allow itself to be in such a position.Because Hazard and Willow's father were Korean war buddies, he takes a special interest in the recruit. Additionally, the failure of Hazard's marriage prevented him from ever having a relationship with his son, a situation which leads to the veteran soldier's paternal interest in the ill-fated Willow.Though the kinship between the two soldiers is explored, most of the other relationships in the film receive little exposition. Hazard forms a romantic liason with a liberal Washington Post reporter (An jelica Huston), a woman who hates the war and protests it with a vengeance, but the screenplay, written by Ronald Bass, never examines their bond. Also, the private's romance with his old flame (Mary Stuart Masterson) never fully evolves.James Earl Jones steals just about every scene as Master Sgt. Goody Nelson, Hazard's wisecracking buddy who takes an absurdist view of the world, but it wouid have been insightful to see a dramatic moment shared by the two Vietnam veterans; instead, their relationship is mostly played for laughs.Imbecilic stories make 'Creepshow 2' hard to stomachBy Stephen Huntera nr\/inA/parents of the baby boom (and reveals his essential fraudulence appearance of Dorothy Lam our“Gardens of Stone marks a screen comeback for James Caan. Though possessing the required grizzled look, the actor lacks the dramatic gifts necessary to fully mirror the anguish suffered by Sgt. Hazard, but he certainly does a competent job, (Burt Reynolds campaigned long and hard for the role and even did a screen test. Coppola then selected Caan, with whom he had previously worked on The Godfather/')Coppola nicely captures the slang - including words such as “starched (killed in battle) and “a drop (burying a body) — and the feel of Army life. The famed director, whose most recent success was “Peggy Sue Got Married/' deliberately sidesteps any cinematic flourishes, focusing on the human elements in the story. He makes one major misstep in a sequence in which Caan's character easily outfights an obnoxious liberal who calls him a “baby killer. It's a case of melodramatic overkill. But for the most part, Coppola keeps a tight rein on the story, stressing its human elements.In 1979, Coppola gambled his personal fortune on “Apocalypse Now/' a surrealistic, nightmarish vision of the Vietnam war. “Gardens of Stone “ offers the flip side of that viewpoint. Coppola humanizes the characters, showing soldiers as human beings caught in the misfortunes of a war which had no heroes, only victims. It's a very adult approach to a sad and complex time in America's history.
Newspaper Details
Doylestown Intelligencer
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, US
Fri, May 08, 1987
Page 28
Full Page
Clipped by
Jon C.
NJ, USA 16 Jan 2020
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