Heheh. Not sure how it goes in britland on the "conscription" front, but i know lots of guys around the more deprived areas in the north used to file into the recruitment office every day just for lack of anything else to do/employment.
Wow, i've got to admit, i was under the impression these days it was less "conscription" based than say, vietnam. But perhaps it isn't. I'm sure there were plenty of volunteers recently tho. Still, certainly does clash with the public image!
****, wait, i wrote a review on this thread last night!! Arrrrgh. A non-spoiler one too. ****, either i've posted it somewhere else, or things crashed and i forgot to re-do it. Bugger. Had it saved n'all. ****e.
So, erm, wait, why were you talknig bout conscription monkey? I wrote bout that in the post -argh, how confusing.....(guess just from the plot breakdown you've read)...
OKAY: NON-SPOILERY-REVIEW: BUFFALO SOLDIERS.
Lots of the snappy stylings that appeared in
Two Hands are in evidence here. Joaquin Phoenix does a good job as the anti-hero (a sort of amoral crim who's been given the choice of conscription or prison). I found some elements of the love story in the centre between him and a barrack-child (daughter of a ex 'nam vet) better than some critics would have it. A few bits were kind of endearing in a two-screwed-up-kids-meet-up kind of way. They are accepting of their differences and probs etc.
This film suggests all kinds of shenanigans go on amongst peace-time soldiers (in this case, ones based in germany as the berlin wall was falling). They also cover some of the
survivalistic visciousness amongst these defenders-of-civilisation. Some of the things that happen reflect real events (i.e. tanks wandering around and trashing things/bits of villages by mistake etc). The drug use seems reasonable to assume to some extents, and has precedents too i believe. They take it further of course, into lala land, to make it all interesting. And they certainly don't glamourise drug-abuse overall (tho the smacked-up guys in charge of a tank did make me laugh a fair bit - just the idea of that. Classy)
So over-all:
Good fun hard knocks. Won't knock your socks off but should tickle your feet some.
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