Tigerland

Tigerland is a 2000 movie Colin Farrell in his role as Boz, taking place in a training camp for soldiers to be sent to the Vietnam War.

Related Topics:
2000 - Movie - Colin Farrell - Vietnam War

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At the beginning of the film, Boz, a drafted soldier who is opposed to the war, is shown to be an unruly soldier who has no respect for authority: disobeying orders, talking back to his superiors, and having a foul mouth. He quickly befriends another soldier known as Paxton.

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As the film progresses, another side of Boz is shown. Having "x-ray vision for loopholes," Boz finds ways for soldiers to get out of the army, one because he has not only his children, but a handicapped wife with her own, and another soldier who has gone insane. Boz also shows his reasoning behind being opposed to the war: his human compassion. This is best shown in a scene where a demonstration on using the radio teaches something not in the books - getting information from the enemy by using the high-voltage electricity of the radio to shock the enemy's testicles. After this is demonstrated, Boz walks away and when Wilson, the platoon leader, cannot keep him in line the demonstrator tells him to "drop trow.. and crank 'er up," threatening to shock his testicles. While he only scares him with the electricity, this is also the turning point where Boz and Wilson start to become enemies.

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Eventually Boz's natural leadership and ability shows the inability of Wilson, which results in a fight between the two. As the fight is broken up and Paxton gets involved, he also garners the hatred of Wilson. After this incident, Boz becomes the new platoon leader.

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Later, while doing life fire excercises, Wilson goes after Boz and Paxton with a gun, telling them he's going to go after one of them. Boz tries to take away the guy, and the two wrestle each other to the ground, Wilson getting the upperhand, and putting the gun to the back of Boz's head and pulling the trigger. Miraculously, the gun gets jammed, saving Boz's life. The commanding officer lets Boz choose the punishment: have Wilson court-martialed or "let me deal with him," strongly suggesting the latter. Despite the commanding officer strongly pressing to let him deal with it, Boz says he wants Wilson "out of the army" because he recognizes Wilson has taken an emotional beating ever since his inability to command became obvious - stronlgy parallel to what he tells Boz about his father disrespecting him at home. Boz leaves the office saying he wants Wilson out.

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As the movie nears the end, the platoon is sent to "Tigerland" - a place specially designed as the best possible replica of Vietnam. During an excercise, the platoon competes with another, which they find out is commanded by Wilson who did not get kicked out of the army after all. As the excercise ends with Boz's platoon "winning," Wilson tells Boz he will kill him no matter what it takes.

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Sooon thereafter, Boz is about ready to make an escape in a van with some hippies he paid to help him. A member of the platoon sees him, and tells him to stop. If he runs away, Wilson will go after Paxton instead of him and he will be responsible for his friend's death. The scene ends with Boz climbing into the van, but the next morning as the platoon falls in, Boz comes back.

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During the last training excercise of the movie, Boz's platoon is sent out to find Wilson's. As Wilson's platoon prepares for the attack, he replaces his blank cartridges with live ammunition and removes his barrel plug. As Boz's platoon nears, he opens fire - while he does not hit anyone, it is obvious he is using live ammunition and the trainer for the excercise tries to stop it. As he does, Boz is standing above Paxton and fires a round, wounding Paxton's head. The trainer then gets in front of Wilson, aiming a pistol at his head and getting him to hold his weapon up and surrender, telling him he will be court-martialed.

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At the end of the movie, the platoon gets ready to head to Vietnam. As he says goodbye, Paxton tells Boz his wound won't cause permanent damage but he's going home. He also tells Boz he's going to write about him, but Boz adamantly does not want to be made into a hero. The movie ends with bus driving off, Paxton telling Boz through the window he'll write about him. Boz says he wont, holding up Paxton's journal, ripping out pages as the bus drives off, Paxton trying to regain his journal while Boz rips out pages then throws the journal back down before the bus speeds away to Vietnam.

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