Long before "Cloverfield" earned praise for the immediacy of its approach to a "Godzilla" horror story by shooting from the perspective of a handy cam in the fist of a survivor, writer & director Patrick Sheane Duncan's "84C MoPic" pioneered this novel technique. This 95-minute, low-budget Vietnam War movie with its largely unknown cast boasts the distinction of being helmed by a 'Nam veteran. Deane emphasizes authenticity by lensing everything from the view point of a combat photographer. Indeed, the camera serves as the film's point of view, and Patrick maintains this point of view from fade-in to fade-out.
Unquestionably, the conceit of "84C MoPic" is nothing short of brilliant. A combat photographer (Byron Thames of "Johnny Dangerously") films a reconnaissance unit choppered into the bush as a training film for the military. Deane's distinctive film then has not only an immediacy about it but it also contains a clever rational for its artless artistry. The closest thing in real life to "84C MoPic" is John Houston's World War II documentary "The Battle of San Pietro." Everything is seen from the camera and the camera is constantly in the rear because no cameraman would expose himself to enemy fire by standing in front of his own troops. The hand-held, cine'ma ve'rite' style of film-making fuels the realism of "84C Charlie MoPic." The soldiers do nothing in this movie that isn't thoroughly believable. The procedure of bagging and tagging a body hammers home hard the lack of glamor. "84C MoPic" manifests few pretensions and the character never argue about the validity of the Vietnam.
If genuinely artistic photography were the only necessity for a great movie, then Deane's film would have amounted to a classic. Unfortunately, despite the excellence of Deane's first-person, in-your-face technique, "84C MoPic" provides only intermittently entertainment as an action-packed war story. Deane populates his screenplay with relatively bland, one-dimensional characters that rarely engage our sympathy. They lack charisma. Since we never become emotionally attached to any of them, the ones that die generate little concern for us. The G.I. humor is old and stale. Ultimately, despite some tense moments of combat near the end, "84C MoPic" is not memorable in the least. None of the characters stand out and the enemy is rarely seen. Deane occasionally undermines his powerful atmosphere of realism by having his camera running during a dangerous moment. Would anybody seriously risk their life by photographing an unsuspecting enemy who might hear the sounds of film whirling through their camera?
Primarily, Deane's screenplay is an anthology of war story clichés. "84C MoPic" replicates the World War II movie cliché that the unit contained an ethnic collection of oddballs. Alas, these guys are bland, and the story is for the most part boring. There is the guy with less than a month to go before he is shipped home but is paranoid about his chances of survival. There is the green, inexperienced lieutenant, LT (Jonathan Emerson of "Graveyard Shift"),who couldn't find his own dog tags with his hands in broad daylight but volunteered for combat to earn a promotion. There is the angry black man simply named OD(Richard Brooks of NBC-TV's "Law & Order") who threatens to kill his superior officer. There is a backwoods North Carolina redneck,Cracker (Glenn Morshower of "Black Hawk Down"), who turns a blind eye to the black man and considers him a true brother, something that he admits would never happen back home. Each character addresses the other by their nicknames: 'Pretty Boy,''L-T,' 'Cracker,' and 'OD.' The performances are ordinary enough.
Nobody hams it up, but they don't make much of an impression. There is nothing incredibly gory. The closest to real violence is the scene where an enemy sniper targets Pretty Boy. The sniper keeps on shooting the soldier and nobody can come to rescue. At one point, the soldier even tries to blow himself up with a hand grenade. Although the story is neither original nor dramatic enough, "84C MoPic" deserves three silver stars for its technique and its interpretation. The irony of the ending is a neat touch. Mind you, this movie isn't as memorable as "Apocalypse Now," "The Deer Hunter," or "Platoon," but it is worth watching.
Altogether, "84C MoPic" still qualifies as a unique film that is too realistic for its own good. Surprisingly, given the potential of the premise, nobody has remade it with a big budget for special effects.
Unquestionably, the conceit of "84C MoPic" is nothing short of brilliant. A combat photographer (Byron Thames of "Johnny Dangerously") films a reconnaissance unit choppered into the bush as a training film for the military. Deane's distinctive film then has not only an immediacy about it but it also contains a clever rational for its artless artistry. The closest thing in real life to "84C MoPic" is John Houston's World War II documentary "The Battle of San Pietro." Everything is seen from the camera and the camera is constantly in the rear because no cameraman would expose himself to enemy fire by standing in front of his own troops. The hand-held, cine'ma ve'rite' style of film-making fuels the realism of "84C Charlie MoPic." The soldiers do nothing in this movie that isn't thoroughly believable. The procedure of bagging and tagging a body hammers home hard the lack of glamor. "84C MoPic" manifests few pretensions and the character never argue about the validity of the Vietnam.
If genuinely artistic photography were the only necessity for a great movie, then Deane's film would have amounted to a classic. Unfortunately, despite the excellence of Deane's first-person, in-your-face technique, "84C MoPic" provides only intermittently entertainment as an action-packed war story. Deane populates his screenplay with relatively bland, one-dimensional characters that rarely engage our sympathy. They lack charisma. Since we never become emotionally attached to any of them, the ones that die generate little concern for us. The G.I. humor is old and stale. Ultimately, despite some tense moments of combat near the end, "84C MoPic" is not memorable in the least. None of the characters stand out and the enemy is rarely seen. Deane occasionally undermines his powerful atmosphere of realism by having his camera running during a dangerous moment. Would anybody seriously risk their life by photographing an unsuspecting enemy who might hear the sounds of film whirling through their camera?
Primarily, Deane's screenplay is an anthology of war story clichés. "84C MoPic" replicates the World War II movie cliché that the unit contained an ethnic collection of oddballs. Alas, these guys are bland, and the story is for the most part boring. There is the guy with less than a month to go before he is shipped home but is paranoid about his chances of survival. There is the green, inexperienced lieutenant, LT (Jonathan Emerson of "Graveyard Shift"),who couldn't find his own dog tags with his hands in broad daylight but volunteered for combat to earn a promotion. There is the angry black man simply named OD(Richard Brooks of NBC-TV's "Law & Order") who threatens to kill his superior officer. There is a backwoods North Carolina redneck,Cracker (Glenn Morshower of "Black Hawk Down"), who turns a blind eye to the black man and considers him a true brother, something that he admits would never happen back home. Each character addresses the other by their nicknames: 'Pretty Boy,''L-T,' 'Cracker,' and 'OD.' The performances are ordinary enough.
Nobody hams it up, but they don't make much of an impression. There is nothing incredibly gory. The closest to real violence is the scene where an enemy sniper targets Pretty Boy. The sniper keeps on shooting the soldier and nobody can come to rescue. At one point, the soldier even tries to blow himself up with a hand grenade. Although the story is neither original nor dramatic enough, "84C MoPic" deserves three silver stars for its technique and its interpretation. The irony of the ending is a neat touch. Mind you, this movie isn't as memorable as "Apocalypse Now," "The Deer Hunter," or "Platoon," but it is worth watching.
Altogether, "84C MoPic" still qualifies as a unique film that is too realistic for its own good. Surprisingly, given the potential of the premise, nobody has remade it with a big budget for special effects.