Last Year in Viet Nam (1971)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Oliver Stone's first and only student film is about a man returning home from Vietnam and not being able to fit in. We see him throw away the stuff he got while serving and then he heads out to walk around NYC. I can't say that this is a masterpiece or a film where you'd take a look at it and say that you could tell Stone would turn into a great filmmaker. From interviews I've read with Stone it seems his professor wanted him to look at his own life and try to create a film about how he was feeling so Vietnam would certainly be an obvious choice and it is somewhat interesting seeing his early ideas of the war compared to later movies like PLATOON and HEAVEN AND EARTH. Some of the most memorable footage here comes from stuff that was shot in Vietnam and it mixes in well with the New York stuff. There's a lot of cross cutting between stuff and I'll admit that at times I wasn't sure where the director was going but this is still worth seeing if you're a fan of the director.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Oliver Stone's first and only student film is about a man returning home from Vietnam and not being able to fit in. We see him throw away the stuff he got while serving and then he heads out to walk around NYC. I can't say that this is a masterpiece or a film where you'd take a look at it and say that you could tell Stone would turn into a great filmmaker. From interviews I've read with Stone it seems his professor wanted him to look at his own life and try to create a film about how he was feeling so Vietnam would certainly be an obvious choice and it is somewhat interesting seeing his early ideas of the war compared to later movies like PLATOON and HEAVEN AND EARTH. Some of the most memorable footage here comes from stuff that was shot in Vietnam and it mixes in well with the New York stuff. There's a lot of cross cutting between stuff and I'll admit that at times I wasn't sure where the director was going but this is still worth seeing if you're a fan of the director.