Gardens of Stone (1987): A Vietnam Movie Review
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Nearly a decade after peering into the heart of darkness of the Vietnam War in Apocalypse Now, Francis Coppola countered that twisted, surreal vision in 1987 with Gardens of Stone, a heartfelt, clear-eyed look at the war’s impact on the homefront, on both soldiers and civilians.
It feels like a fitting coda to a string of films chronicling the conflict in Southeast Asia, from Oliver Stone’s deeply personal Platoon to the hard-hitting, but somewhat hollow Hamburger Hill, although by the time it came out moviegoers had begun to have their fill of reliving the war.
Gardens of Stone isn’t a war movie, of course, but it shows how a war can affect an entire population, through different generations, and although the soldiers featured in the film don’t fight, they are never far from the byproduct of war – death – stationed in Arlington National Cemetary. “Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box,” sang Country Joe in the classic anti-war song Feel-I’m-A-Fixin’-to-Die Rag, but it’s men like Sgt.
Clell Hazard (James Caan) and his honor guard who have to escort those boxes to their final resting place every day without letting the sense of loss eat them up from the inside out.
Hazard did two tours of duty in ‘Nam and had his fill; not because he was against the war, but because the army wasn’t fighting it to win. His desire is to teach soldiers how to fight in the jungle and think like the Cong, but the much-decorated Hazard finds himself in Arlington’s “gardens of stone” because the powers that be figure people like to see a real-live war hero at a ceremony. His views on the war make him unpopular with his superiors, but they intrigue comely Washington Post reporter Samantha Davis (Anjelica Huston), who is fiercely anti-war but falls for Hazard’s brusque charm and independent way of thinking……
Also clashing with Hazard is new recruit Jackie Willow (D.B. Sweeney), the son of an old war buddy from Korea who can’t wait to see action in Asia, rather than simply bury bodies Stateside. The grizzled vet takes the private under his wing anyway, despite opposing views, while his oldest friend Sgt. Major Goody Nelson (James Earl Jones, in a wise and lusty performance) has thrown up his hands on the matter; it’s a mess, plain and simple, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
While Apocalypse Now operated under the blanket supposition that war is essentially madness, Gardens of Stone opts for a prismatic approach, with every major character representing a different take on Viet Nam. Eventually, this leads to characters spouting speeches instead of dialogue, but it’s the viewer’s good fortune that the script and direction rarely let the actors down, and they’re up to the challenge of making their characters work. Caan is especially good as the embittered sergeant who feels that if more of the old guard thought like him, the boys in the jungle would have a better chance of surviving, while Huston and Mary Stuart Masterson (as Sweeney’s new wife) have fine moments as the women who feel the loss of the men dying overseas.
Gardens of Stone even has some knowing nods to Apocalypse Now, including a dash of Doors on the soundtrack and a forest encounter with some scary wildlife (a bear here, rather than a tiger), but it doesn’t come close to its predecessor in terms of vision or audacity. However, there is a human elegance in Coppola films of this period (The Outsiders, Rumble Fish) that Gardens of Stone benefits greatly from and prevents the drama from being overshadowed by heavy-handed polemics.
