*some spoilers*
To the best of my knowledge, Oliver Stone's "Heaven & Earth" is the only major American film to depict the Vietnam conflict from "the other side." It's difficult for a filmmaker to believably capture a whole different culture, but Stone does just that, to the point where the audience looks at even the U.S. troops as foreigners, certainly no easy task. It was risky project to tackle, but it works incredibly well. After "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July," which dealt with the American experience in Vietnam, Stone comes full circle to the heart of the matter with this autobiographical story, based upon the memoirs of Vietnam native Le Ly Hayslip, who eventually escaped an uncertain future by marrying an American soldier.
She was a peasant farmer whose life was forever altered by the tragedy that tore a nation apart. When she first makes her appearance in the film, she inhabits a peaceful village where life has been more or less the same for hundreds, even thousands, of years. However, all this is forever gone in a very short time, as the French and Americans intrude upon their way of life. Hiep Thi Le does a credible job in her acting debut, making it possible for the audience to sympathize with her character, even if we do not entirely understand her cultural background. The second half of the film deals with her marriage to an American soldier, effectively played by Tommy Lee Jones. As we look through her eyes, we realize with a shock that from her perspective, the United States is just as "foreign" as any far-off land would seem to us, encouraging us to reevaluate our definition of that term. These scenes are deliberately exaggerated, made to appear as overwhelming and intense as possible. Its effect foreshadows Stone's digs at popular culture in his next film, "Natural Born Killers."
Joan Chen and Haing S. Ngor both offer solid performances as the protagonist's parents, who have not weathered the passage of time nearly as well as she has, adding further dimensions to the material. Both performers have had the difficulty of adapting to U.S. culture after being raised in Asian nations, so they're perfectly suited for the material. Ngor, in particular, has gone through experiences uncomfortably similar to Le's character, being tortured in Cambodia before his escape. Debbie Reynolds appears as Jone's mother; her role is basically a cameo though she gets billed in the opening credits.
Note that neither the United States nor Vietnam are regarded as heroic. Every side committed their share of atrocities; the U.S., the Viet Cong, South Vietnam (aided by the U.S.), and the French, who colonized the area decades earlier. In fact, the rather grim implication is that no one is truly innocent, that all concerned bear a degree of responsibility for the tragedy. This was a very brave move on Stone's part, taking a potentially unpopular, controversial political stand. Then again, that comes as no surprise; he made this right after "JFK." Not since he directed "Salvador" has a major filmmaker attacked his own country's imperialist actions. This powerful film, masterfully photographed and directed, deserves to be ranked with the best of his other works.
***1/2 (out of ****)
Released by Warner Bros.
To the best of my knowledge, Oliver Stone's "Heaven & Earth" is the only major American film to depict the Vietnam conflict from "the other side." It's difficult for a filmmaker to believably capture a whole different culture, but Stone does just that, to the point where the audience looks at even the U.S. troops as foreigners, certainly no easy task. It was risky project to tackle, but it works incredibly well. After "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July," which dealt with the American experience in Vietnam, Stone comes full circle to the heart of the matter with this autobiographical story, based upon the memoirs of Vietnam native Le Ly Hayslip, who eventually escaped an uncertain future by marrying an American soldier.
She was a peasant farmer whose life was forever altered by the tragedy that tore a nation apart. When she first makes her appearance in the film, she inhabits a peaceful village where life has been more or less the same for hundreds, even thousands, of years. However, all this is forever gone in a very short time, as the French and Americans intrude upon their way of life. Hiep Thi Le does a credible job in her acting debut, making it possible for the audience to sympathize with her character, even if we do not entirely understand her cultural background. The second half of the film deals with her marriage to an American soldier, effectively played by Tommy Lee Jones. As we look through her eyes, we realize with a shock that from her perspective, the United States is just as "foreign" as any far-off land would seem to us, encouraging us to reevaluate our definition of that term. These scenes are deliberately exaggerated, made to appear as overwhelming and intense as possible. Its effect foreshadows Stone's digs at popular culture in his next film, "Natural Born Killers."
Joan Chen and Haing S. Ngor both offer solid performances as the protagonist's parents, who have not weathered the passage of time nearly as well as she has, adding further dimensions to the material. Both performers have had the difficulty of adapting to U.S. culture after being raised in Asian nations, so they're perfectly suited for the material. Ngor, in particular, has gone through experiences uncomfortably similar to Le's character, being tortured in Cambodia before his escape. Debbie Reynolds appears as Jone's mother; her role is basically a cameo though she gets billed in the opening credits.
Note that neither the United States nor Vietnam are regarded as heroic. Every side committed their share of atrocities; the U.S., the Viet Cong, South Vietnam (aided by the U.S.), and the French, who colonized the area decades earlier. In fact, the rather grim implication is that no one is truly innocent, that all concerned bear a degree of responsibility for the tragedy. This was a very brave move on Stone's part, taking a potentially unpopular, controversial political stand. Then again, that comes as no surprise; he made this right after "JFK." Not since he directed "Salvador" has a major filmmaker attacked his own country's imperialist actions. This powerful film, masterfully photographed and directed, deserves to be ranked with the best of his other works.
***1/2 (out of ****)
Released by Warner Bros.