At its outstart this film bids fair at being a type of jingoistic tract, opening with footage of American F-111s, the aircraft that attacked Muammar al-Quaddafi's desert headquarters in 1986, with an idea of killing him, although his adopted infant daughter was slain instead, and then we watch United States President Ronald Reagan delivering a somewhat absurd television message commending a successful mission and, finally, Frederick Forsyth, a producer of the film and author of the novella upon which it is based, as well as a large shareholder of Aegis Defence Services (U.K.)., warns of the deadly and ongoing threat of international terrorism. The narrative concerns a plan by Quaddafi to exact revenge against Britain, for housing the American jets, by arranging delivery to the Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.) a wide range of sophisticated ordnance in exchange for an I.R.A. bombing assault within England that will victimize government personnel of both the U.S. and United Kingdom. Having discovered this, Sam McReady (Alan Howard), head of the disinformation desk for British Intelligence, contacts a former S.A.S. officer, Tom Rowse (David Threlfall) latterly an author of spy thrillers, and offers him a single assignment contract to travel into the Middle East and foil the conspiracy. Forsyth is particularly effective with shorter forms of fiction, CASUALTY being one of a quartet of novellas that comprise a volume titled "The Deceiver", all featuring McReady, who in this film is seldom far from Rowse, most of the scenario taking place upon the island of Cyprus, played here by Croatia. The storyline is enhanced by a complex plot and, fortunately, engaging characterizations take over a production that benefits from fine attention to detail, this latter component along with well-scripted dialogue being primary reasons for the work's excellent quality. Although numerous interesting characters abound, the relationships between them give the greatest pleasure to a viewer of a well-crafted film that, despite an unprepossessing opening, should be viewed more than once because of its intricacies. Tom Clegg splendidly directs his cast with a firm hand and there is not a below standard performance from a talented group of performers. Shooting is in Croatia, Hamburg and London, in excellent Technicolor, and overall production values are quite high.
