85

You gotta get close to get to the truth.

Belushi and Woods are hard to like, but excellent.

84.375

Very gonzo: sixties idealism, and seventies cynicism meets Reaganite central America. A film full of passion and righteous anger but still great to watch - Woods is an absolute blast, such energy!

Stone lays on the swelling music a bit too thick at times and having most of the Salvadorans speak English was weak. You have to respect the size of his balls though for making this at the height of Pax Reagana, leading it to be one of his most overlooked films. Woods & Belushi have great asshole chemistry but I'd imagine the latter isn't that much different in real life.

An olio of simply absurd aspects mixed together that defy explanation. It's so tonally incoherent that I could barely pin a concept to it until someone in the accompanying documentary mentioned Hunter S. Thompson. It truly is some kind of oddly wonderful bastardization of Gonzo journalism in fictional form. James Woods is a fantastically eclectic lead, paving the way towards moral oblivion amidst the backdrop of a frightening reality in 1980s El Salvador. Hell, even Jim Belushi is good in this.

I was surprised at how good this was considering it has Jim Belushi in it -- it's kind of like a political 'Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas' -- dark yet also quite funny at times. Great performances, good writing, and tightly paced and directed. Thumbs up!!

The way the film creeps ever more serious thoughtfulness into its basically frivolous demeanor helps to redeem it as a war movie in the same way that its initially amoral hero's gradual conscientious awakening redeems him as a human being. Thematically kindred to Peter Weir's Year of Living Dangerously.

For some movies, the measure of how good they are is how badly one does NOT want to see it again....like "Casualties of War," this exceedingly depressing story is told so well, you won't ever want to see it again.

Stone goes two for two in 1986, delivering a scathing critique of the US involvement in central America in the 80's. Even Jim Belushi gives a wonderful performance and the some of the events really churn your stomach, as they should.

Stunning.

James Woods and James Belushi as American party animals loose in a Central America that's going to hell. This is really something

Almost certainly Stone's best.