Bullet Points: Point Man
Just when you think the Vietnam War themed movie well has run dry, a movie like Point Man comes along that proves there are still some unique Vietnam War themed stories to tell….
- Rocky Start: Point Man’s lightning rod protagonist Andre “Casper” Allen (Christopher Long) is not afraid to share his opinions on the war, the racial tension that was running rampant in the 1960’s and just about anything else. Casper will gladly debate these topics with his fellow soldiers like Silas Meeks (Jacob Keohane) or even his platoon leader Lieutenant Sutter (Matthew Ewald). Casper is a part of a fire team, led by Sutter, that is being sent out looking for the believed to be lost Bravo 39 platoon. Things start off innocently enough as the fire team makes their way through the Vietnamese brush, busting balls and pissing off Sutter along the way… but things get serious when the guys find themselves in a fire fight. This is without question the most action packed scene in the movie… but four men find themselves a little too close to the action. Casper and two of his fellow “soul brothers” Joe and Felix, along with Meeks find themselves pinned down… and how does Sutter respond, by leaving them for dead and ordering the rest of the platoon to retreat.
- Rogue Platoon: The foursome manage to fight their way out of their predicament, no thanks to Sutter… their goal at this point is to get back to the landing zone and track down their deserter of a platoon leader, but things take quite a turn when they come across Lieutenant Marsh and “the lost platoon” Bravo 39. It is apparent almost immediately that Bravo 39 may not be lost in the geographical sense, but the men have definitely lost their way morally. Bravo 39 is taking great delight in slaughtering innocent Vietnamese civilians… not surprisingly the outspoken Casper speaks up about Marsh’s actions, what was surprising is when Casper grabbed Meeks’ machine gun and guns down Marsh and five of his men before they could gun down the civilians. This shocking movie does not sit well with Joe, Felix and Meeks… and it feels like they are going to deliver the same fate to Casper that he just delivered to Bravo 39… but Casper makes some valid points which brings a philosophical layer to the film and gets the buy in from Joe and Felix and to a lesser extent Meeks.
- Where Do We Go From Here?: After gunning down half of Bravo 39, what could possibly happen next? If you said Casper, Felix, Joe and Meeks get into it with the other half of Bravo 39… who like their departed comrades were abusing the locals (one even trying to rape one of the women)… then you’d be correct. At this point, Casper finds himself in one hell of a quagmire… he has Joe and Felix on his side, but Meeks proves he can’t be trusted and it seems like all 4 men may be standing in front of a firing squad for doing the right thing to soldier who were “on their side”… on the surface anyway. Plus, there’s still the Lieutenant Sutter factor.
Point Man was not the most action packed Vietnam movie I have ever seen, but the story sucked me in and kept me guessing. Christopher Long’s Casper was a unique hero… his actions were not mindless, in fact they were quite the opposite… his actions were thought provoking. Casper stood by his convictions and while he certainly did not want to die for what he did, you could tell he was not afraid to.
I would like to point out that we are officially to the point of this Point Man review where I throw it to some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Filmed on Location: Point Man has a unique distinction of being a film set in Vietnam that was actually filmed in Vietnam (not the full movie, but some scenes). That is something the top dogs in the genre Platoon or Apocalypse Now can’t say.
- Double Duty: Point Man was written and directed by Phil Blattenberger. Point Man was Blattenberger’s first film.
- The Friendly Ghost?: If you are like me you are probably wondering how the character of Andre Allen got the nickname “Casper”. The story behind the nickname is shared in the movie… I will tell you this, Allen is not a fan of the name, but it stuck after his Drill Instructor referred to him as Casper after an incident in boot camp.
