Apocalypse Now - could be argued
Deer Hunter - ditto
Full Metal Jacket - also ran
Platoon - no,no,no
and so on
Vietnam films really took off in the angst ridden climate of late seventies America, it was a theme that had been implied and promoted in earlier films (normally to avoid censorship by claiming allegorical status - this technique was used to get films as diverse as 'Last House On The Left' and 'Soldier Blue' past the MPAA) but only when overt American involvement had been curtailed did studios and filmmakers feel that the subject could be approached. When the floodgates opened you couldn't move for the number of them; Oliver Stone, a little late on the scene, made up for lost time by making three of them, TV series ('Tour of Duty') recalled M*A*S*H on downers, John Irving gave us 'Hamburger Hill' and, of course, 'Coming Home In A Bodybag' was an indie sensation. And yet, despite all this no-one had given us the bonkers overload of ultra-violence, broken loyalties, introspection and history all in one package. To do that you need but one man...John Woo.
Woo's
study of three friends growing up together and apart has parallels in both
Michael Cimino's 'The Deer Hunter' and also in Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon
A Time In America'. We are introduced to them in true Woo style - seamlessly
blending Christian children’s drawings, dance, violence and the oft reprieved
theme 'I'm A Believer'. It is this lief motif that emphasises many of the
key scenes of loyalty in the film, and when the three work together we
too 'believe' that they can pull through. This bubblegum song approach
is entirely in keeping with the fableistic nature of the narrative, Woo
manages to wring out every emotion to limit level and never allows
plot absurdities to concern the viewer. In fact the more grandiose the
premise becomes the more affecting the emotional response, a complete opposite
to the 'suspension of disbelief' bypass required for more mainstream films.
This has the effect of making the work operatic in scale and emotion, as
it dispatches conventional realism for emotional, heroic and mythological
realism. The sheer pathos of the proceedings is occasionally overpowering.
The 'Bullet in the Head' of the title has a number of meanings; initially it reflects the friends first experience in Vietnam - a terrorist bombing followed by the public execution of the terrorist by American forces - this is given double strength by the fact that the Americans clearly have no understanding of countries or cultures ("We are Hong Kong. No Vietnam. Here passport." plead our heroes to no avail) and that the execution itself is shot identically like contemporary news footage, as the film progresses the titular statement becomes alternately blurred and then clear until the true meaning is revealed in all its tragedy. What is refreshing is that the political angle of the film is never overstated but never compromised, it's politics are secondary to the emotional narrative and better for it. Instead of being ranted at about the injustice of either side (cross reference "Platoon" and "The Green Berets") we are shown the mess. The English are officious and cruel in Hong Kong, the Americans sadistic and stupid, the Viet Cong perverse and fanatical. The only other 'hero' to emerge is 'The French Man' Luke (played with exceptional smoothness by Simon Yam Tat Wah the serial killer in the unavailable video nasty 'Dr Lam')and even he is dealt a crap hand.
Our main point of reference is Tony Leung Chi Wai's character, clearly the most stable and normal of the three, if anyone should make it alive it should be our Tony. However, one of the friends turns out to be a self centred capitalist of the most treacherous variety - Waise Lee wildeyes his way through the role with maniacal gusto, a man possessed by geldlüst to pathological degrees (at one point he'd rather be shot at whilst drowning, to save as much gold as possible).
Inspired casting of the decade ensues when pop star and general heart-throb Jackie Cheung Hok Yau takes the third pivotal character- to see this naive character, with the weight of several years of smoochy songs, deteriorate into drug aided psychosis, mental instability and depravation is moving and very difficult to watch. Throw in doomed love interest (teen pop star forced into drug riddled prostitution at a classy bar) and quite possibly the most sadistic prison scenes seen (Christopher Walken's prison was wimpy in comparison).
In the end you desperately want someone to get out happy or at least capable of pulling their lives together - in the films climax we are reminded of happier times cycling and sticking together and how that has been distorted by the insanity of war and the madness of personal greed - but this is not to be. In Hong Kong cinema you never know if the hero will live or die, here you desperately want one to live but if he does you know that, while leaving marginally happier than anticipated, you will feel cheated. It is interesting to note how our expectations have changed because of our familiarity with Hollywood cinema- Hollywood is like the bastardisation the Victorians inflicted on the works of the Brothers Grimm to make them more acceptable and less gruesome, lurid or sexual. Because a happy ending is worth significantly more at the American box office it is more common to have a happy end regardless of it's narrative verisimilitude. Woo harks back to more folk tale roots and returns with a faerie tale - a Grimm one. Perhaps this is why the film strikes such a cord - it is primitive and yet epic.
'A Bullet in the Head' was not a commercial success in Hong Kong(or in America where 'The Killer' and 'Hard Boiled' virtually guaranteed it a box office). After making it Woo turned to the lighter comic tone of 'Once a Thief' and eventually turned his back on the Hong Kong film industry altogether to make bigger budget but inferior Hollywood flicks ('Face/Off' shows a return to form but lets face/it not quite up to the best of his Hong Kong output). It is unlikely that such an epic, expensive, emotional, visceral and just downright bonkers film will ever be made again.
