drednm
Watching this film nearly 40 years later, it's amazing that nothing has changed. We are still involved in useless wars, and the military/industrial complex and secret government continue to lie to American citizens as they profit from their wars.FRIENDLY FIRE helped make the Vietnam War personal, taking the unnecessary death of an unimportant soldier and showing the world that every death matters.The story of the Iowa farm couple, the Mullens, is beautifully told here in an straightforward way. It shows us their everyday life, their community, their kids. It shows the devastation their son's death in Vietnam brings. It then chronicles the long journey to discovery the truth about that death.Carol Burnett and Ned Beatty are superb in playing this middle-America couple. There's nothing extraordinary about them. They are average citizens going about their lives until war claims their son. What ensues is a years-long battle with the government and the military to get to the truth. Their mail is tampered with. Their phones are bugged. They are lied to by the military anxious to cover-up their own ineptitude.The Mullens challenge the way the war is sold to the American public on the evening news. They challenge the very concept of this "war to save democracy" that actually has nothing to do with this country and that was never legally sanctioned by Congress.Nothing has changed. Add Iraq and Afghanistan to the list of wars.In casting comedienne Burnett as Peg Mullen, the filmmakers scored a brilliant bulls eye by using Burnett's cozy personality to embody Mullen's flinty determination. Beatty is also perfectly cast. Together they portray a couple shattered by the death of their son, unable to move forward with their lives. Sam Waterston plays the writer who eventually pens the book this film was based on.No one wins a war. And this film perfectly portrays the that fact.
moonspinner55
TV-made drama about a farm family in 1970 Iowa propelled into action against the U.S. military by feelings of anger and injustice when their boy is killed in Vietnam by something the government calls "friendly fire" (a shot fired toward one's own forces while attempting to engage the enemy). Factual account adapted by Fay Kanin from C.D.B. Bryan's book has prestige to spare, and the upswing of turning the victim's passive parents into vocal protesters and rabble-rousers against the Army (or, Goliath). In a trendy bit of casting against type, Carol Burnett as the boy's mother digs deep within for this role; but, unlike Mary Tyler Moore (who set the bar for this sort of transition a year later with "Ordinary People"), Burnett is working with material designed in advance to wallop the audience with emotion. Every character follows a standard pattern, and every event is preconceived into an episodic format. When the mother rages in despair, it's treated like another chapter: she grows frustrated, she plows on. From the family's loss of innocence to their small steps forward in the face of bureaucratic adversity, "Friendly Fire" doesn't bowl us over with emotions because there aren't any surprises. It's been ironed out as one family's battle to get us in the gut. It's good television, no doubt, but it doesn't leave behind that rush of genuine exaltation that great sentimental weepers should deliver.
graysroot3
This movie was made solely to discredit the Military. Friendly fire is a fact of life and has happened in every war. It is unavoidable.That said, the movie went out of its way to discredit the Military as a bumbling bunch of nitwits trying to hide the real truth from the American people, and the poor Mullens were lied to and given the old run around to prevent them from finding out the truth.To say it doesn't happen would be untrue, it does but not to the extent that was portrayed in the movie.When the Military plays fast and loose with the truth Hollywood is the quick to point it out, but when Hollywood plays with the truth and stretches to the point of being absurd no one says a word.The movie, except for the acting was trash.
Susan Schmitt
I saw this movie many years ago on television and I was deeply moved by it. I don't agree with the comment another reader posted that the Mullens were trying to start a revolution about their son's death. What they were mad about, and rightly so in my opinion was the apparent cover-up the military did on the death. They only wanted the real truth about how their son died not a lot of lies which is what they got. I thought Carol Burnett was marvelous in her role. Up until that time, I had never seen her in anything but a comedic role and it was refreshing to see her in a dramatic role. Ned Beatty, as usual, was his stoic self. I would have liked to have seen his character display a bit more emotion but that was how the male society was at that time, very unemotional. Has this movie ever been released on video or DVD? I would love to get a copy.
AD
