THE STORY – Allen Nelson was born into a poor family in New York and joined the Marine Corps at the age of 18 to escape discrimination and poverty. After serving at Camp Hansen in Okinawa, he was sent to the front lines of the Vietnam War in 1966, believing he could become a proud soldier like the war heroes seen in films. But what awaited him there was not glory. On the grounds that the Viet Cong had infiltrated villages, people of all ages were treated as suspects and killed one after another. It was a terrifying and gruesome reality in which he was forced to kill. As Allen took more and more lives, his mind gradually became desensitized. When he returned home at the age of 23, what awaited him were agonizing days and sleepless nights, spent haunted by memories of the battlefield. Terrified by loud noises and the dark, his relationships with his family fell apart, and he eventually became homeless. The only thread keeping him connected to the world was Dr. Daniels, a psychiatrist working at a veterans’ hospital, who provided him with counseling and support.
THE CAST – Rodney Hicks, Geoffrey Rush, Tatyana Ali, Mark Merphy & Lily Franky
THE TEAM – Shinya Tsukamoto (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 116 Minutes
A classic horror movie scene forms right before our very eyes: A young Black man sleeps in an abandoned, filthy building with food scraps scattered all about. It’s far from a restful sleep as loud sounds and graphic visions plague him from his time as a soldier in the Vietnam War. As he jolts awake, he wakes up to the nightmare of a man so changed by war, living in a society that he no longer recognizes and one that doesn’t understand him. What makes all this, and the harrowing story explored in Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s “Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?”, more horrific is that it’s based on a real person and their experiences. This film doesn’t shy away from showing and exploring the brutal aspects of humanity and how quickly people can lose themselves in pursuit of what they think is a “greater good.” But it also goes so over-the-top with melodrama that it becomes distracting and a slog to get through.
When Allen Nelson (played by Mark Merphy in flashbacks and Rodney Hicks in the present) returned from war, he didn’t receive a hero’s welcome. Instead, he found himself struggling with PTSD, to the point that almost anything would trigger him, including loud city streets, flashing lights, and dreams that feel so lifelike. Like many other men at that time, Allen struggled to talk about his experiences, to the point that speaking in front of students would send him into a sweaty stupor, and there was not much help available for combat PTSD. So he kept much of it bottled inside for decades, much to his and his family’s detriment. But now, with the help of therapist Dr. Daniels (Geoffrey Rush), he’s going back to the place he last wanted to return to.
Told mainly through flashbacks, Allen recounts the dehumanizing and horrific events he experienced as a young man who wanted to leave poverty and a violent family environment. It’s in this section where Tsukamoto doesn’t hold back from showing just how traumatizing this brutal war was: Loud, grueling combat training that is visually so in your face; the jump-worthy sounds of bullets flying by in every direction; and unimaginable acts of cruelty inflicted on civilians, many of them innocent people, because the soldiers’ objectives were to shoot to kill. We feel the same energy and fear as the soldiers, as if we’re on the battlefield with them, and the extremely graphic visuals are another element that’s hard to watch. There’s no such thing as subtle in this section because Tsukamoto wants viewers to see every horrifying aspect of war. Though, after about a handful of shootings and shots of bullets going through people’s heads, the point is understood, and it gets to be a bit much. Once the filmmaker likes something, he really leans into it, and he also overuses overlay cuts at the beginning of the film.
This section illustrates so well what other war dramas don’t always emphasize: the loss of humanity that combat brings out. Once Allen kills his first person, something shifts inside him that makes him a killing machine, no longer thinking about the lives he’s taking. You can see the glimmer leave Merphy’s eyes as he takes his character to a new level, and it’s unnerving to see him shut out all emotions. Many of Allen’s peers are even worse — a white soldier cheerily cuts off the ears of all the people he kills to collect them as trophies. As the older Allen recounts all this, he’s met with a repeated question from Dr. Daniels: Why did you kill those people? He’s asked multiple times, and he always reiterates that he had no choice, that was his objective, and he would have been killed if he did not act first. That doesn’t satisfy his therapist, and each time he asks Allen to confront his actions, he responds with an over-the-top outburst that gets tiring. It’s a reckoning this man, so many years after those events, is still not ready to face, and in many ways, one that others can’t, whether related to this war or others. Even as Allen has a life-changing experience on the battlefield that shifts his perspective about the war, guilt and terror eat at him alive, which is another standout moment for Merphy.
Hicks excels at capturing Allen’s reserved, reflective moments, like when Allen and Dr. Daniels reach a breakthrough in their sessions. That would have been a perfect ending to this film, but then it jumps forward in time. Unfortunately, this is when Tsukamoto and his actors turn up the melodrama to such extremes that this becomes a Lifetime movie at times. Scenes showing Allen’s outbursts at home are always dialed up to an exhausting level 10, and Hicks plays up the emotions too big. That’s not to say these things wouldn’t happen to an individual suffering from PTSD, but sometimes less is more.
In fact, any “good” moments in this man’s life are so few and far between that it gets tiring to see so much cruelty inflicted on him. His wife, Linda (Tatyana Ali), plays the “supportive wife” role so fully that she basically becomes a stock character. A storyline involving his stepson considering the military once again fills the film with drama, and when another “perfect ending” moment arrives, the film jumps forward in time yet again. The film explores interesting aspects of this man’s life, but its structure and pacing keep it from captivating audiences and matching the energy of the war flashback sequences.
There’s also something to be said for Tsukamoto, a Japanese filmmaker, taking on a very American story and perhaps not considering all the aspects a veteran may encounter. Allen was homeless for some time following his return from the war. Still, we don’t necessarily know how he helped himself out of that situation, if he attempted to get a job despite his PTSD, or if he faced challenges with Veterans Affairs, a government agency that has faced significant monetary losses. We also never see any relationships he has outside of his therapist and family, primarily with other veterans. Granted, those are all nitpicks and extra details, but they would provide a fuller picture of this man.
All in all, Tsukamoto’s “Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?” is a tough watch, and sometimes for the wrong reasons. Its exploration of the Vietnam War and the idea that there were no winners is very effective, especially in its no-holding-back war sequences, but certain visuals become too much after a point. Merphy and Hicks also deliver strong performances throughout, but the melodrama kicks in, and it’s easy to find yourself losing interest. This movie clearly tried to tug at viewers’ heartstrings, but it couldn’t find the right balance as it went on, leading to diminishing returns.
