This article is about the film. For "Tigerland", the official song of the Richmond Tigers, see
Richmond Football Club.
Tigerland is a 2000 film by Joel Schumacher; starring Colin Farrell in his role as Private Roland Bozz, taking place in a training camp for soldiers to be sent to the Vietnam War. Tigerland was the name of a U.S. Army training camp located at Fort Polk, Louisiana as was part of the U.S. Army Advanced Infantry Training Center. The setting of the movie appears to be loosely based on this training camp.[1]
Plot
Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell), 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 (Matthew Davis).
It is the year 1971 and as the film progresses, another side of Bozz is shown. Having "x-ray vision for loopholes," Bozz 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 later another soldier Miter (Clifton Collins Jr.) who joined to prove his manhood but finds himself way over his head. At one point, another soldier approaches Bozz while on leave and asks for help getting out, saying "I was told if you want to get out of the army, you either pray to Jesus, or go see Roland Bozz." Bozz also shows his reasoning behind being opposed to the war: his human compassion. Eventually Bozz's natural leadership and ability earns him the title of squad leader (sometimes called acting Jack). Another private named Wilson (who is a racial bigot and also an instigator) continuously demeans Miter and Bozz (basically anyone whom he judges to be "weaker" than himself). Bozz is the only one that retaliates, 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.
At a bar, Bozz is seen holding a black book with a hand showing the peace sign. This book is possibly a message from the writer to the audience of where the possible influence for the movie came about. It was a copy of Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.
Later, while doing live fire exercises, Wilson goes after Bozz with a pistol, telling him he's going to kill him. Bozz tries to take away the gun and the two wrestle each other to the ground, Wilson getting the upper hand and putting the gun to the back of Bozz's head and pulling the trigger. Miraculously, the gun gets jammed, saving Bozz's life. The Commanding Officer lets Bozz 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, Bozz 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. Bozz leaves the office saying he wants Wilson out.
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 exercise, Bozz' squad acts as villagers in a mock Vietnamese village and competes with another squad which is charged with determining who the VC sympathizer is. This other squad is led by Wilson, who did not get kicked out of the army after all. As the exercise ends with Bozz's squad "winning," Wilson tells Bozz he will kill him no matter what it takes.
Soon thereafter, Bozz is about ready to make an escape to Mexico with the aid of some civilians he paid. Platoon member Johnson (Russell Richardson)sees him and tells him to stop. Johnson tells him if he runs away, Wilson will go after Paxton instead of Bozz and he will be responsible for his friend's death. The scene ends with Bozz apparently climbing into the van, but the next morning as the platoon falls in, Bozz comes back, acting as if he had merely gone off to urinate.
During the last training exercise of the movie, Bozz's squad and Wilson's squad are pitted against each other on patrolling missions. As Wilson's squad prepares for an attack, he replaces his blank cartridges with live ammunition and removes his blank adaptor. As Bozz's squad nears, he opens fire - while he does not hit anyone, it is obvious he is using live ammunition and the trainer for the exercise tries to stop it. As he does, Bozz is standing above Paxton and fires a blank round with the rifle muzzle near Paxton's face, wounding Paxton's eye. 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.
At the end of the movie, the entire platoon gets ready to head to Vietnam. As he says goodbye, Paxton tells Bozz his wound won't cause permanent damage but he's going home. He also tells Bozz he's going to write about him, but Bozz adamantly does not want to be made into a hero. The movie ends with bus driving off, Paxton telling Bozz through the window he'll write about him. Bozz says he won't, holding up Paxton's journal, ripping out pages as the bus drives off, Paxton trying to regain his journal while Bozz rips out pages. Bozz then throws the journal back down before the bus speeds away to Vietnam.
Tigerland was filmed on location in Jacksonville, Florida and Camp Blanding, site of the Demi Moore film G.I. Jane.
Cast
References
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