To keep the loyalty of a village during the Vietnam war, a U.S. Army officer and his unit struggle to deliver it a live elephant. During the Vietnam War, a village that American forces are using to spy on the Ho Chi Minh Trail has its sacred elephant killed by the North Vietnamese Army because they were cooperating with the Americans. The villagers need an elephant for a ceremony that will occur within the week. Captain Sam Cahill, an easygoing man who is heading home, and his hotheaded replacement Captain TC Doyle scrounge up another elephant with the help of sneaky supply chief warrant officer David Poole, luckless farmboy Lawrence Farley, and short-timer Harvey Ashford, and transport it across South Vietnam to get it to the village on time, running into all sorts of transport problems, personality conflicts, and an NVA squad that wants the Americans out of the village. I do not understand the criticism that some professional reviewers give of this film about its unrealistic treatment of the Vietnam War. I was opposed to that war from about the time that it started but I never doubted the good intentions of those young men who risked their lives fighting it. What is so wrong in playing up that aspect of it? The film is, after all, based on a true story. The film seemed to me to be like a movie version of the television show MASH done for children. Everybody has good words for MASH. Nobody ever complained about doing a comedy about the Korean War. This is a good kid's film with some really fine acting by Liotta, Glover and Leary. Great actors – Danny Glover, Ray Liotta, Denis Leary (hilarious in "The Ref"!) – unite in a not-so-great, "truth"-inspired film about an elephant drop. Need I say more? Typical Disney dreck that occupied their resume in the 90s. Came out a year after "The Lion King." Animation is just their thing. (Although sometimes Disney proves that wrong.)<br/><br/>2/5 stars.<br/><br/><ul><li>John Ulmer</li></ul>
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354 weeks ago