{"id":2327,"date":"2010-12-17T12:45:12","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T12:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2327"},"modified":"2010-12-17T12:45:12","modified_gmt":"2010-12-17T12:45:12","slug":"my-lai-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/latest-news\/my-lai-four\/","title":{"rendered":"My Lai Four"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"My<\/a>
My Lai Four<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New in Italian cinemas, My Lai Four<\/strong>, a movie about the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.\u00a0 Here’s the blurb:<\/p>\n

Freely adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Seymour Hersh, this film recounts the story of a platoon of American soldiers led by Second Lieutenant Wm. Calley. Falling into an ambush, they come under enemy fire and in the disastrous fight that ensues, two young soldiers lose their lives; a third is so badly injured that Sgt. Cowen is forced to put him out of his hopeless agony.<\/p>\n

Gripped by tension and hysteria, the platoon moves on, eventually coming to a small fishing village where they give vent to their thirst for revenge.<\/p>\n

In a journey filled with violence and terror, the soldiers go through a collective personality change; in frenzied delirium, they execute Calley\u2019s ever more crazed orders, until the final tragic day comes: 16 March 1968.<\/p>\n

They join a larger group of soldiers who have taken over the charming village of My Lai, a few kilometres from Quang Ngai in South Vietnam. Believing this to be a Vietcong hiding place, the senior officers order a house-by-house clear-out, but Calley, now completely out of his mind and seeing that the only inhabitants are children and old women, orders an all-out massacre.<\/p>\n

These endless, ever more violent actions are seen from a small reconnaissance helicopter crewed by pilot Chief Warrant Officer Thompson, co-pilot Andreotta, and door-gunner Colburn.<\/p>\n

Deeply upset by this atmosphere of collective insanity, the three young airmen overpower their own compatriots in an armed confrontation, bring the atrocities to a stop, and succeed in saving the lives of nine people.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile under the bleeding corpses, Thi Le and his son Dung are still alive. When calm at last returns to this place the American soldiers have brutally turned upside down, they emerge into the light to face the day.<\/p>\n

Rather atypical subject matter for Italian cinema, for sure, and it has a few curious people involved with it.\u00a0 Several of the cast-members (Beau Ballinger, Joe Suba, Alvin Anson) have made straight to video films together in the Philippines (The Hunt for Eagle One<\/strong> (2006), with Jeff Fahey and Rutger Hauer, Black Market Love<\/strong> (2008)), where I’d guess this is filmed.\u00a0 The producer, Giovanni Paolucci, is an old hand, having worked on Antonio Margheriti’s Ark of the Sun God <\/strong>way back in 1984, as well as numerous Bruno Mattei films, many of which were also shot in the Philippines (ie Cannibal World <\/strong>(2003) and Zombies: the Beginning <\/strong>(2007).\u00a0 So I guess this has a full-blooded background in international exploitation cinema, and it would be interesting to see how they treat the relatively prestigious source material.<\/p>\n

Director Paolo Bertola has apparently made a handful of low budget b-movies, such as the horror films The Witch <\/strong>and Aranea<\/strong>, but I can’t find any reference to them being released…\u00a0 Anyway, My Lai Four <\/strong>has come out in twelve cinemas, and good luck to it!<\/p>\n

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