Review for Tigerland

Tigerland tells the story of Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell) who has been drafted in 1971 (when everyone was already declaring that the Vietnam War was lost) and we see his development through the training which sees him become the 'go to guy' when it comes to wanting to get out of the army.

Bozz is a subordinate who has many confrontations with Wilson (Shea Whigham) including a pistol fight that changes the lives of both men. Bozz is shipped off to Tigerland, which is a training facility that was used as the closest to replicating the jungle of Vietnam before reaching Vietnam. Here even more violence and chaos occurs and results in the training exercises becoming a little close to reality.

Tigerland could almost be viewed as a prequel of sorts to all war films. Apart from Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, I don't think any war films have gone into the actual preparation and training of the recruits before they are sent out to war. That is mostly what this is about. However, unlike Kubrick's film in which the training is just one hilarious putdown after another, this film just shows the pain that the recruits suffer.

I enjoyed the film and I think the reason is that it didn't feel as cliched as many war films. There was the madness and chaos that all war films have, but the strength of the film was that the characters, particularly Colin Farrell's Bozz and Matthew Davis as Paxton amongst others are well acted and well thought through. Instead of just being carbon copy cut outs of what we think a soldier would be, these people feel more real and because of that the film is elevated immensely.

The film is shot wonderfully and it proves that (despite his disastrous direction of the Batman films), that Joel Schumacher is actually a very effective director with the right script. The action is as good as any war film that has come before and the progression of the story is perfectly balanced with the use of music and editing aiding this immensely.

On the Blu-ray there is an interesting commentary by the Director, a number of featurettes looking at the making of and also the real Tigerland, there is also a look at the casting session with Colin Farrell. This is all rounded off with trailers and tv spots. Most of this was available on the original DVD, but the extra stuff, particularly the look at the real place was fascinating.

Tigerland could easily be written off as 'just another war film', but this actually more a drama with the war just being something that's occuring around it. The film has some great moments and is not a film that should be ignored. If you want to look at what someone goes through before they get into the battlefield this is the film to watch.