Gardens of Stone (1987)

“Clell, Old Boy, you mean you haven’t told the lady? Why Madam,we are the Old Guard. We are the Nation’s Toy Soldiers. We march with rifles that cannot shoot. We fix bayonets that cannot stick. We are the Kabuki theater of the profession of arms.Jesters in the court of Mars, God of War, do-da, do-da.” – Goody Nelson

Number of Times Seen – twice  (late 1980’s on cable and 2 Oct 2013)

Brief Synopsis – A veteran soldier tries his best to safeguard the soldiers under his care who are responsible for being the honor guard at funerals for soldiers killed in Vietnam.

My Take on it – I recall seeing this movie on cable once and didn’t quite remember how bad it was.

This movie IMHO is a colossal failure on the part of Director Francis Ford Coppola who took an interesting idea, but just couldn’t find a way to really make us care about any of the characters.

The movie has numerous time jumps with little to no explanations as to what happens during those intervals.

James Caan is cast well as an Army Sgt-Major, but James Earl Jones is not as good.

The dialogue was banal and I didn’t care much for the storyline or plot.

I just wanted it to end!

Skip it!

Bottom Line – Boring movie that doesn’t really do a good job of making me want to care about it.  Avoid it

Rating –Razzie Worthy