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Private War (also known as Operation Paratrooper, The Paratrooper and State of Mind) is a 1988 action thriller war film written and directed by Frank De Palma and co-written by Terry Borst, Björn Carlström and Jan Guillou. A co-production between Yugoslavia and the United States, it stars Martin Hewitt as an American soldier who, while on a hunting trip, finds himself fighting for his and his party's lives against his psychotic former commanding officer played by Joe Dallesandro.

Plot
While serving in the Vietnam War, Vincent Rayker and his friend Cooper are taken prisoner by the Viet Cong. During a breakout, Rayker reluctantly leaves a wounded Cooper behind to be executed by the Vietnamese. Years later, Cooper's son, Phil, transfers to Sergeant Rayker's paratrooper unit, which is stationed in Italy. Rayker, who shows signs of PTSD, treats his men with undue harshness and is arrested after he uses live rounds to injure Cooper during a training exercise. As Rayker awaits his court-martial, Cooper is asked by Major Donnerman to drive him and two others, Joseph Bates and Colonel Rusty Peterson, out into the wilderness for a hunting trip. Unbeknownst to Cooper, the trip is also an illegal arms deal involving Angelo Rossi, Paul Devries and Roland Caldwell, three men who are implied to be either militants or Mafioso.

Rayker escapes from MP custody and follows Cooper to Donnerman's cabin. At sunset, Rayker lures Cooper, Donnerman and Peterson out into the woods by gutting Peterson's dog. Rayker captures and interrogates Peterson, who is accidentally shot by Donnerman. When Cooper happens upon the scene, Donnerman blames Rayker for Peterson's death. The two then head back to the cabin and discover Devries's corpse, which Rayker has strung up and taken a finger from. In the morning, the hunting party is joined by Kim; a magazine reporter who had hoped to expose the arms deal, Kim was attacked by Rayker after stumbling onto his camp. Kim leads the men to Rayker's hideout, which Rayker blows up to prevent his arsenal from being taken. Rayker also critically wounds Bates, stabbing him and severing two of his fingers.

Donnerman orders Cooper to escort Rossi back to civilization so that Rossi can get in touch with his associates. Rayker demolishes the main road's bridge, stranding everyone and killing Rossi. By the time Cooper makes it back to the cabin, Bates has died and a drunk and paranoid Caldwell has assaulted both Donnerman and Kim. After Cooper kills Caldwell in self-defense, he, Kim and Donnerman begin trekking through the forest in hopes of finding aid in a nearby village. When Donnerman succumbs to one of his traps, Rayker takes his body, cutting three fingers off of it.

Cooper and Kim reach the village, but to their dismay discover that its' only inhabitant is a deaf farmer with no means of contacting help. Taking one of the villager's horses, Kim escapes on it while Cooper distracts Rayker. Rayker rants at Cooper, explaining that he is trying to mold Cooper into the perfect soldier, the kind that he wishes he was back in Vietnam. When Rayker finally corners him, Cooper is saved by reinforcements that Kim had managed to get to. As Cooper is evacuated by helicopter, Rayker fakes his own death by placing his dog tags on Donnerman's remains, which he throws into a fire.

At the military base, Cooper says goodbye to Kim and decides not to reenlist. A troubled Cooper then travels Rayker's house, where Rayker ambushes him. When Cooper gains the upper hand in the fight, a weary and delusional Rayker congratulates him on becoming a true warrior right before Cooper stabs him in the neck. A dazed Cooper proceeds to exit Rayker's home with an old photograph of his father and Rayker.

Cast

 * Martin Hewitt as Phil Cooper
 * Joe Dallesandro as Vincent Rayker
 * Kimberly Beck as Kim
 * Reggie Johnson as Cal Liston
 * George Shannon as Major Donnerman
 * Sam Hennings as Joseph Bates
 * Robert J. Bennett as Angelo Rossi
 * Curt Lowens as Paul Devries
 * David Clover as Colonel Rusty Peterson
 * Ray Andrade as Major Tom
 * Igor Galo as Lieutenant

Production
The film's screenplay was written by French-Swedish author and journalist Jan Guillou. After it was reworked into a "Rambo-like movie" by other writers, an outraged Guillo disowned the film (which he has derisively dismissed as being nothing but "an all-out turkey") and convinced its producers to give him only a story credit. According to Guillo, the original screenplay starred a Canadian Vietnam War veteran and an Indian woman and contained "a lot of civilization criticism" that explored the behaviors of different countries going back to World War II.