Gardens of Stone

Gardens of Stone is set during the Vietnam War era at Arlington National Cemetery, where an honor guard of decorated veterans performs burial duties for soldiers killed in combat. Among them is Sergeant Clell Hazard, a career soldier who cannot return to the fighting himself and who has grown doubtful about the war. When the idealistic young recruit Jackie Willow, the son of an old army comrade, joins the unit, Hazard takes him under his wing, hoping to prepare him for what awaits in Vietnam. Hazard also becomes involved with a journalist, Samantha Davis, whose views on the conflict differ sharply from his own.

Francis Ford Coppola directed the film, his thirteenth of twenty-six in chronological order, following Captain EO and preceding Tucker: The Man and His Dream. James Caan plays Hazard, with Anjelica Huston as Samantha, James Earl Jones as Sergeant Major Goody Nelson, D.B. Sweeney as Willow, and Mary Stuart Masterson as Rachel Feld. Ronald Bass wrote the screenplay, and Coppola produced with Michael I. Levy.

Released on May 5, 1987, the film runs 111 minutes. Made for about 14 million dollars, it returned roughly 5 million at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds a 6.3 rating from around 6,800 votes, and on TMDB a 6.2 from about 131 votes. A critics' rating of 5.6 from 17 reviews places it below the audience scores.