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Count a Lonely Cadence (1990)

Director: Martin Sheen

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

'He's an intelligent enough kid, just lacks discipline'. With these words still ringing in his ears, Charlie Sheen is summarily despatched to the US Army, and before you can say AWOL has taken up a 90-day lease in the stockade. The camp commander, a strict disciplinarian, is Martin Sheen, but this displaced father-son conflict turns out to be only one aspect of the story. The bulk of the screen time is devoted to Charlie and the other five prisoners, all of whom are black. The progression from mutual suspicion to friendship may not be revelatory, but the performances (Fishburne, Stewart, Beach) are lively and Sheen's direction assured. If there's something a mite patronising about the 'colourful' soul-patrol antics, the movie comes as near as dammit to acknowledging, at the close, the gulf that still divides the races, and that's a surprise in this eminently liberal work. On the down side, there's no real feel for period (the mid-'60s), and that dull Sheen psychodrama doesn't go away.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

  • cara said...
    Posted on Jul 30 2007 14:58 I don't really agree that there's no real feel for the time period (60s). First of all, they talk about Vietnam (ongoing), as Charlie Sheen's unit is being deployed. Secondly, check out the 60's style fatigues the soldier wear. (My dad still had some of those when I was a kid...very different from the camoflauge BDUs that I wore when I enlisted in the 80s). Lastly, listen to way the black inmates talk. Of course they didn't have big afros and wear peace signs! They were in the Army! As for the racial divide still existing, well, it was realistic in that, while they did learn to accept each other and even become friends, the world doesn't change overnight. Some doubt still existed in their minds. But if you watched until the end of the movie, the black inmates did have him 'fall in on the cadence,' and one of them spoke to Charlie Sheen's character (Bean), giving him his lighter back and telling him not to 'sweat the 'nam and stick with the brothers.' I've seen this movie several times and it always makes me cry at the end!
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Cast & crew

Director: Martin Sheen

Producer: Richard Davis

Cast: Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, F Murray Abraham, Larry Fishburne, Blu Mankuma, Michael Beach, Harry Stewart, John Toles-Bey, James Marshall, Ramon Estevez full cast

Duration: 97 mins


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