Review of Tigerland

Introduction

It`s 1971 and we`re in the midst of basic training with a bunch of recruits getting ready to be shipped out to fight for their country in Vietnam. The recruits final week of training takes place in a swamp called Tigerland. Everything about this place is recreated to replicate the conditions and hostilities in Vietnam and shows up just how unstable one or two of the recruits really are.

Roland Bozz is an idealistic troublemaker who`s irreverence often gets him into trouble and rubs a lot of people up the wrong way, annoys a lot of people, but he`s still there in the army getting through training. As clever as he is he can`t seem to get himself discharged and instead helps those that really need it. Much to the disdain of his superiors he becomes a platoon sergeant and faces the prospect of trying to keep everyone alive.

Tigerland is written by Ross Klavan and Matthew McGruther. Ross had himself been through this training process before serving a tour in Vietnam and returning. He writes novels and wrote this, his first script with McGruther, focusing on a core group of about six characters and how they respond to the pressures of war.

This isn`t a conventional war movie.

Video

Presented with a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, Tigerland retains a grainy look and feel. This is made on 16mm filmstock and to be honest it`s not something you would pick out as being something inherently unconventional. The grainy handheld look is intentional and adds realism to the story. The video transfer is very good, but then there`s a muted palette here so it won`t really stretch the format to any degree. Lots of greens, browns and blacks. Apart from instances of dirt from time-to-time, the documentary feel just lends more to its credibility and visually it`s well balanced and detailed.

Audio

There are English and French DD5.1 soundtracks here with a multitude of other language subtitles including English HoH. This isn`t a typical `war` movie with lots of sound effects and as such is dialogue heavy with this coming through quite clearly from the front. There are sound effects and these are handled quite well with all speakers coming into play, but there`s not a lot of it happening. The final week in Tigerland has some really good use of sound and generally speaking the film uses sound very well. The only minor problem I had was with a few lines of American dialogue that I couldn`t catch the first few times.

Features

Static menus lead to just a few extras. There are four Casting Sessions with Colin Farrell which show Colin going through the script with someone off screen. I found this only mildy interesting and it`s a shame this isn`t expanded to include other cast members. Following this is a trailer, two TV spots which are pretty average and a four minute featurette. Needless to say that it`s glossy and doesn`t do a lot for the film.

Forget these minor extras though since the most interesting feature is Schumacher`s Director Commentary track. I thought it to be quite insightful and interesting from start to finish and would definitely recommend listening to it if you like the movie.

Lastly something which I find irritating is that there`s no way to just switch the Director`s commentary in and out as I please without having to go through the menus. Also subtitles to catch those little things you can`t hear cannot be toggled either. Annoying.

Conclusion

It`s not a film about war, or Vietnam for that matter since it all takes place beforehand in the run up to being shipped out. The recruits here don`t have a choice, with the exception of Paxlon (Matthew Davis) who enlisted, and are on their way to fight for their country and is reminiscent of Kubrick`s `Full Metal Jacket` in that the focus is on them. It`s an interesting character study.

You`d be forgiven for wondering where this film came from since Fox didn`t really do a big theatrical push with it. I had heard very little of it and so was pleasantly surprised by the R2 DVD which is released about a year after the R1 offering. Made in 2000 by director Joel Schumacher, Tigerland was shot with a low budget and a 28 day barebones shooting schedule (no hair or makeup). All made with 16mm film giving us a grainy and somewhat edgy looking picture. In addition, the handheld style gives it the rough and ready feel of a combat documentary and is absolutely the right choice. Incidentally the cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, was also reponsible for photographing `Pi` and `Requiem for a Dream`.

I thought the casting choices here were quite good. The unknowns work well in helping to focus more on the story and makes the film less predictable too since anything could happen to anyone. Colin Farrell`s Texan accent too was remarkably good since there wasn`t a dialogue coach in sight (he`s Irish for those that don`t know). The rest of the crew too turned in good performances. I have to confess to not really being a fan of Schumacher`s work since he`s made some truly dire films so I was interested to see what he could make of this. I have to say it`s one of his best films to date and I enjoyed it from start to finish.

With a runtime of just 90 minutes you may, like me, be surprised that it reaches the end so quickly. This is an entertaining film with a likeable cast and good film direction. This is definitely worth seeing so rent or buy it.