Gardens of Stone (1987)

Gardens of Stone is the second film Francis Ford Coppola has made about the Vietnam War, after 1979's Apocalypse Now. This movie is unfairly compared to Apocalypse Now, but the films are totally different. This film focuses more on the home front and the feelings Americans felt about the war. In that regard, the film hits a powerful chord. The film is also a romance film and I liked the main romance between the sergeant and the reporter, but the romance played between the two kids seem a tad underdeveloped.Coppola's film is about a battle-hardened sergeant who is an opponent of the Vietnam War and is desired to save the lives of soldiers sent abroad, but is continuously denied doing so. He decides to help the son of an old war friend while beginning a romance with a reporter who is in clear opposition from the war.The acting is admittedly great. James Caan is a solid actor who established a nice career and he was excellent here and gave some emotional speeches. He shared nice chemistry with Anjelica Huston, who played the reporter. James Earl Jones is as always excellent as Caan's best friend. D.B Sweeney was solid in his role, but I felt Mary Stuart Masteron's character could have been a little more developed.Overall, Gardens of Stone is a solid movie about the Vietnam War and the conflict it brought to the home front. Was the romance necessary for the film? Probably not, but it was a good addition to the story. In short, there was lots of opposition to the war as many soldiers paid with their lives for no apparent reason. This movie should not be compared with Apocalypse Now because they are two completely different movies. This is a good film with some powerful scenes, but it does not quite reach it's full potential. I rate this film 8/10.

In the late 60s, during the Vietnam War, the idealistic soldier Jackie Willow (D.B. Sweeney) arrives at Fort Meyer expecting to go to the Academy and then to the Vietnam War. Jackie is the son of a veteran sergeant and soon he becomes the protégé of the former friends of his father, Sergeant Clell Hazard (James Caan) and Sergeant Major 'Goody' Nelson (James Earl Jones).Jackie is promoted and gets married with his childhood friend Rachel Feld (Mary Stuart Masterson) and Hazard and Goody convince their superior, Captain Homer Thomas (Dean Stockwell), to recommend Jackie to the Academy. He is promoted to lieutenant and asks to go to the Vietnam, returning to the Arlington National Cemetery."Gardens of Stone" is another movie by Francis Coppola (without Ford) about the military life and the prize of the Vietnam War, after one of his masterpieces, "Apocalypse Now". The cinematography is magnificent and the cast is top-notch, and it is so good to see the actors, like James Caan, James Earl Jones and Dean Stockwell still young and actresses, like Anjelica Huston and Mary Stuart Masterson, charming and beautiful. The dramatic story has a theme certainly important for Americans and for fans of movies about military life. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Jardins de Pedra" ("Gardens of Stone")

It's strange how Hollywood still feels the constant need to pursue its glorification of the military when every other nation's film industry has pretty much moved on from the war film genre. Of course, America is a nation that has been engaged in more conflicts than most other nations in the past half-century and, while that isn't intended as a criticism, it does perhaps provide the key to America's seemingly endless fascination with the arena of war in all its guises.Coppola's return to the theme of the Vietnam war is as different from its predecessor as any two films with the same backdrop can be. The story of Gardens of Stone takes place in America, amongst the soldiers detailed to bury the bodies that are shipped back to Arlington National Cemetery from the scene of the conflict with monotonous and terrifying regularity. It is a relatively meditative and introspective study, weakened by a thinly drawn pivotal character (Jackie Willow, played by D. B. Sweeney) who is incredibly one-dimensional for a film that is attempting to offer an insight into the mentality of the soldier away from the battlefield at a time of war. James Caan, in his first movie role for five years, makes good use of a much stronger role as Sgt. Clell Hazard, the experienced soldier frustrated by the impotence of his position, who believes he should be fighting in the field or at least training youngsters on how to stay alive out there instead of burying them when they come back. Both he and James Earl Jones in another good part, display a healthily jaundiced view of the war. Angelica Huston also has an important (if slightly ineffectual) role as the individual caught in the middle who opposes the war but understands Hazard's reasons for wanting to fight. Jordan Cronenweth's camera-work is worthy of praise here, softening Huston's angular features and making it possible for her to convincingly play a gentler and softer character than she normally does. All other characters are strictly genre stereotypes.Unfortunately, any good work by the principle members of the cast is spoiled by a weak and unconvincing storyline that fails to involve the viewer – the 'tragic' ending is particularly unmoving, although it may have a greater impact on American audiences whose families were more closely involved with the conflict. At a time when Vietnam films were all the rage, Coppola is to be applauded for choosing a different – but no less relevant – perspective, but any message he may have wished to deliver is hopelessly weakened by a mediocre script and uninvolving storyline.

This movie is little-watched compared to Coppola's other Viet Nam movie, "Apocalypse Now", which is unfortunate, because it's a gem. Taking a device straight out of Aeschylus' masterpiece "The Persians", the war itself is almost entirely an off-screen presence (except for a few atmospheric news-reel clips, which serve to separate acts, as it were). Instead, like "The Persians", it considers the war through its effects on those at home, and does a generally excellent job.It is particularly good at showing the view from inside the military "family", both of that life in general, and the effects of Viet Nam in particular. James Caan and James Earl Jones (the latter especially) turn in fine performances as veteran non-coms (the backbone of any army). One reviewer condemned D.B. Sweeney's portrayal of the young gung-ho recruit Willow because he sounded as if he were reading his line from cue cards - which rather misses the point, which is that because the green Willow doesn't know what it's really like, the slogans he repeats inevitably sound tinny and false.Despite a few flaws (e.g. Mary Stuart Masterton's character is rather under-developed, and a few scenes are clangers), overall this is one of the greatest of all Viet Nam movies.