Casualties of War

Based on a true incident from the Vietnam War -- the kidnapping, rape and murder of a young Vietnamese woman by US soldiers in 1966, first chronicled in a New Yorker article by Daniel Lang -- Casualties of War was a decade-long passion project for De Palma. After one of their comrades is killed in a surprise attack by the Viet Cong, a five-man squad commanded by the hard-bitten Sgt. Meserve (Sean Penn) kidnaps a teenager from a mountain village (Thuy Thu Le) to service their sexual needs. Horrified, Pvt. Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) refuses to participate in the rape, and finds his loyalty (and even his life) threatened by his squadmates. Back at base, Eriksson fights to bring the truth to light, against much opposition from the military brass.