This small-budget departure for Joel Schumacher is an intimate, intense and very erotic film largely using hand-held cameras. From the opening scenes of Roland Bozz (Farrell) on leave from boot camp to the closing scenes where a chorus of doo-wop singers sing good-bye to the men as they leave to fight a losing war in Vietnam, this is a sad and reality laden film. Our hero Bozz is a non-conformist - his basic humanity and intelligence leads him to help unfit men out of the service and constantly gets him in trouble with the authorities. After many attempts to correct his behavior through punishment, the powers-that-be make him platoon leader to harness his natural abilities. Bozz's relationship with his fellow soldiers is either a love him or hate him situation - most of the men revere him - as most viewers will by the film's end. Farrell's performance is radiant - and no denying it - he is major hunk. In an early scene Bozz and a buddy go to a cheap motel with some women to get down and dirty. After some very hot sex where we are treated to many shots of the guys butts, the women get hungry and simply leave the men who express no interest in them beyond sex. The naked guys share a joint and talk in a highly sexually charged and homoerotic atmosphere. Although there is nothing explicitly gay in the film - there's plenty of male beauty to entertain us in this gripping film. This is a war (anti-war) movie the way we like it - great drama - great men - and no war!

"But right now, in ''Tigerland,'' the scruffy, sullen, unpredictable, and magnetic Farrell is to male stardom what Dogma is to Joel Schumacher -- a blast of fresh air in the Hollywood jungle, an inspiration."
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly