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No tears for ‘Gardens of Stone’By JOHN PRICE Francis Ford Coppola does an about-face with “Gardens of Stone, which takes a much different look at the Vietnam conflict than the director’s celebrated “Apocalypse Now.” But the more traditional “Gardens of Stone” has feet of clay — a leaden story and some appallingly wooden acting.The problem isn’t the movie’s anti-Vietnam-but-pro-military tone, which is just as in tune with the times as was Apocalypse Now” with the post-Vietnam '70s. “Gardens of Stone” simply isn’t a very good movie.What thing Coppola can’t be accused of is repeating himself. “Gardens of Stone” will remind audiences of “Apocalypse” about a$ much as Alan Parker’s “Angel Heart” evoked Alan Parker's “Fame.” (For those of you who have no idea how much that is. the answer is: Not at all.)“Gardens of Stone” takes place not is the jungles of ’Nam, but here at home: at Fort Meyer, Va., and in Arlington National Cemetery (the “gardens of stone”). The film is a shallow exploration of the relationship between two Army sergeants (James Caan and James Earl Jones) in the 3rd “Old Guard” Infantry Regiment and a gung-ho young specialist whom they take under their wings.The year is 1968, the height of theGARDENS OF STONEStarring James Caan, Jamas Earl Jonas, Anjtlica Huston, D.B. Swaeney, Mary Stuart Masterson and Dean Stockwall; directed by Francis Fond Coppola. Rated R profanity, violence Playing at Jumpers Mall and The PlazaCAPITAL RATING: * *war. Business is boomiag for the Old Guard, whose job consists of burial duty. Jackie Willow (D.B. Sweeney) is chafing; he wants to get to Vietnam, to the front line, even though Sgt Clell Hazard (Caan), a combat veteran of two tours there, tells him there is no front line. “There’s nothing to win and no way to win it.” Hazard (why do military pys in movies always get saddled with names like this?) loves good wine,Persian rugs and a Washington Post reporter played by Aajelka Huston. He has no use for America’s military objectives and strategy in Southeast Asia, but he has even less use for ‘‘peacenik” protesters like one played by rock impresario Bill Graham in Nehru jacket and hub-cap-sized medallion, whom Hazard punches out at a part?.Sgt. Major “Goody” Nelson - (Jones, who looks like a black Buddha is fatigues) is more is line with conventional Army thinking, although he has started echoing Hazard’s contention that the Old Guard is merely “the nation’s toy soldiers.”The two grizzled vets, who fought with Willow's dad in Korea, join together as the kid’s guardian an-gels, shepherding him through inspections, barroom brawls, promotions, marriage to his high school sweetheart (Mary Stuart Masterson of “Some Kind of Wonderful”), officer candidate school — and finally his assignment as a lieutentant in Vietnam.Yet their generous, unquestioning patronage doesn’t quite sit right, because the kid’s a real jerk - a smug, self-righteous, apple-polishing know-it-all. And in a way that’s the point of the movie: Hazard does his best to instill a little common sense in the kid, but the kid won’t listen, and so the kid gets his in the end.“Gardens of Stone,” leaving nothing to chance, spells this out for us. Near the end, Hazard tells Samantha (Miss Huston) that since he can’t save all the boys, he had tried his damnedest to save one — as if Willow were a lab rat in an experiment But even this, combined with their comradeship with Willow's father, doesn't seem enough to explain the two battle-hardened sergeants’ tolerance of, much less love for, this twit.And the acting rings hollow in flatemotional scene after Sat emotional scene, between Hazard and Samantha, Hazard and Willow and Wfikm and Rachel. Caan, who’s been AWOL from movie screens for years, provides no reason to celebrate his return.He and Miss Huston, sobbing in each other’s arms, may very well have been exchanging real tears, had they any inkling of how they were going to look together,“Gardens of Stone” ends, as it begins, with the Arlington funeral of Jackie Willow. (The story was grue-someiy paralleled last Memorial Day with the death of Coppola’s ten, Gian-Cario, in a boating accident on the South River during filming.)We’re supposed to be all choked up. Yet to be moved by death, ooe must care for the dead. By the time the last note of taps has sounded and the credits for “Gardens of Stone” begin to roll, the feeling isn't sorrow, but relief.Some thrilling evening!”Don Wilis, WBAL RadioLIVE STAGE SPECTACULAR MAGIC, MUSIC DANCEI got it
Newspaper Details
Capital Gazette
Annapolis, Maryland, US
Fri, May 15, 1987
Page 61
Full Page
Clipped by
Jon C.
NJ, USA 16 Jan 2020
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