On the verge of departure to a then little-known land, called Vietnam, Private Birdlace and his fellow ruffian marine buddies descend upon 1963 San Francisco for one long last night of pure decadence. The evening's main event features a competition involving a company of marines and the most unattractive females that each can capture in the Bay Area. Along the way, this band of marine buddies pledge "semper fi" in their pursuit of drunken debauchery. They manage to achieve their goals with a certain military discipline, rumbling with navy seamen, blowing coinage on pinball, getting inked at a tattoo parlor, and engaging in a dogfight.

Released in New York City in 1991, Dogfight seemed to drift into obscurity almost as soon as the theater lights dimmed for its premiere. While the film employed the talents of River Phoenix (Birdlace) and a lesser known, Lili Taylor (Rose), the remainder of the cast (including an early cameo role for Brendan Fraser) is as irrelevant as their roles in the film. While there are moments of success in this film, the majority of the feature sinks like a torpedoed ship on the high seas. Phoenix and Taylor provide the brightest moment and arguably the best acting of the film when they badger the haughty maitre d' of a classy hotel restaurant. The two actors feed off of each other's fire and the end result is a wonderful scene that rides like a coaster from anger and sadness to buffoonery and merriment.

Despite the lack of overall engagement, the film does provide historically accurate scenery, wardrobe, and a soundtrack that periodically serves to revive your interest before the burning ship is completely engulfed with flames. In addition, the language is authentic 1960s dialect, blurring 50s innocence with 60s rebellion. However, without Phoenix's talent to solder the bulkheads back together, much of the boat would be scattered in the current by the time the Corp is scheduled to ship out of San Francisco Bay.

On the heels of the sadistic "ugly girl" competition, a love story develops between Birdlace and Rose, but only after he effectively reduces her to the lowest common denominator for his Corp-mate's enjoyment. While he initially sets out to meet the expectations of his of Semper Fidelis pledge (i.e., Always Faithful), he succumbs to his humanistic side and the fear of being a young man on the verge of an abyss. While Birdlace's fellow Corp men slosh about the Bay City, he finds himself enamored with Rose, her love of folk music, and the way she endeavors to free herself from society's traditional doctrines.

Ultimately, the film never delivers enough considering its two lead actors (Phoenix and Taylor) had/have (respectively) enough talent for the director and producer to avoid adding any substantial names to the cast in supporting roles. While Taylor had previously completed notable roles in Mystic Pizza and Born On The Fourth of July, River Phoenix brought with him a resume that included a string of classic films such as The Explorers, Stand By Me, The Mosquito Coast, Running On Empty, Indiana Jones (Last Crusade), and My Own Private Idaho. Following Dogfight, Phoenix would never actually achieve a higher level of appreciation, for which it could be said that this film represents the pinnacle of the career of an actor that probably would have been one of the greatest of his generation.

The soundtrack to Dogfight endures the ennui that creeps in during the several extremely dull scenes that seemingly serve no purpose but to slow down what could be a good story. In addition, the bad acting by those irrelevant cast members mentioned earlier, is sometimes joyfully covered over by tracks from Gary U.S. Bonds, Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Rascals, Ricky Nelson, and others. By the time the needle grows dull, the film has overstayed its welcome much like those marines did in 1963 San Francisco. When the ship sails out of the bay, you'll be glad to see it go, but only to find that Vietnam has its way with Birdlace who eventually comes limping back to the dog that became his best friend.

For more information on this film, go to:

Dogfight

Rotten Tomatoes: Dogfight

More on River Phoenix:

River Phoenix

More River

More on Lili Taylor:

Lili Taylor

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D. M. Sinkovits is a 29 year-old graduate student, currently working on his M.S. in Communications at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. He works full time as a Copywriter and spends free time working on short stories, screenplays, and a video for his friend's progressive rock band. In addition, he fills all other time listening to music and watching films.