Gung-ho bombast is definitely macho director John Milius's forte. Unfortunately, it can't save this claustrophobic and endlessly talky drama, set during the winding-down stages of the Vietnam War. Milius co-wrote Apocalypse Now, but this moralistic study of the vainglorious US military effort isn't in the same class. The high-profile cast, including Danny Glover and Willem Dafoe, does what it can considering the ideological script, but it's fighting as much of a losing battle as the one depicted on screen.

U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Jake Grafton and his bombardier buddy, Lt. Cmdr. Virgil Cole, are two soldiers embedded in the Vietnam War growing frustrated by the military's constraints on their missions. Despite the best efforts of their commanding officer, Cmdr. Frank Camparelli, to re-engage them, this disillusioned pair decide to take the war effort into their own hands with an explosive battle plan that could well get them court-martialed.