Action pumps life into war flick

By LARA HYDE
Collegian Arts Writer

The Walking Dead has been marketed as more than just another war film. It is the first film touted as a glimpse of the black experience in Vietnam.

But while it is a decent action movie, it is not far removed from those films that it claims to surpass. It fails to clearly demonstrate why the black experience was different.

Rather than portraying the black experience in Vietnam, this film focused more on the social climate in the United States during the war. Flashbacks gave a glimpse of the pivotal, sometimes racial, events that led the four black protagonists to enlist.

The men enlisted because they had a drive that led them to join the Marines and go off to Vietnam in an attempt to latch onto the American dream.

The film, directed and produced by Preston A. Whitmore II, starts with a band of men on a mission to rescue captured soldiers from a prison camp. Troubles befall the men from the start as their helicopters are attacked upon landing and all but five men are lost.

It soon becomes apparent that the small band of men are divided by different mind-sets -- a do-your-duty-by-the-corp faction versus a fend-for-yourself mentality. Yet there is more to each of these characters beneath their tough exteriors.

The flashbacks are used effectively to give a bigger glimpse into who they are beyond their wartime talk. Viewers become used to the flashbacks and perhaps the most ironic sequence is skillfully held back until the end. The most complex tale, that of Sergeant Barkley, played by Joe Morton, proves the most surprising of all.

Despite the suspense and excitement generated by this film, it falls short of expectations. It comes off as a Hollywood-ized, action film --full of gratuitous gore. The battle sequences are filmed to make the characters look like superheroes and the modern instrumental background music is almost comically out of place.

But perhaps the biggest flaw with this film is its poorly developed characters. Hoover, played by Eddie Griffin, goes through such a miraculous change from a foul-talking, selfish, resentful Marine to Mr. Sensitive.

He goes out of his way to take care of a distraught young Marine whose world was just shattered by a "Dear John" letter. This transformation is so incredible that there is absolutely no way it could be justified. It is completely impossible to change that much in the course of a day and only adds to the film's distorted reality.

The Walking Dead is entertaining but not enlightening. It ends up being just another failed attempt by Hollywood to do something important. And movie viewers are left with just another piece of glamorized fluff.