This is the third movie in director Olvier Stone's unofficial Vietnam War trilogy after Platoon and Born On The Fourth July. It is the least known of these movies and also the worst of them. Which doesn't mean it's bad, far from it, it's actually pretty good.
Like Born On The Fourth Of July (and many other Oliver Stone films), Heaven & Earth is based on a true story, this time around that of Vietnamese humanitarian Phung Thi Le Ly Hayslip. Though the Vietnam War is very much present in this movie, it is less a war movie than the previous two, instead more of a "biography" film. And one of the problems with this movie is that though the main character goes through many ordeals and suffers many hardships, you never really feel for her, connect with her. Or at least I didn't, and often found her to be somewhat annoying. Despite his prominent presence in the posters, Tommy Lee Jones is really more of a secondary character here and only appears about an hour and ten minutes into the movie, as a fictional character that was merged from two separate men in Le Ly Hayslip's life.
Oliver Stone does have detractors and his latest films haven't been his strongest, but he's generally accepted as one of the "good" directors in Hollywood. Heaven & Earth isn't his best film, but it's still a very well-made one, with some beautiful shots of Vietnam (actually Thailand) and particularly brilliant scenes in America. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this film strongly, but once again, there's still some very good stuff in there, so if you're into Oliver Stone, movies about Vietnam War, or movies in general for that matter, it's a nice one to watch.
Like Born On The Fourth Of July (and many other Oliver Stone films), Heaven & Earth is based on a true story, this time around that of Vietnamese humanitarian Phung Thi Le Ly Hayslip. Though the Vietnam War is very much present in this movie, it is less a war movie than the previous two, instead more of a "biography" film. And one of the problems with this movie is that though the main character goes through many ordeals and suffers many hardships, you never really feel for her, connect with her. Or at least I didn't, and often found her to be somewhat annoying. Despite his prominent presence in the posters, Tommy Lee Jones is really more of a secondary character here and only appears about an hour and ten minutes into the movie, as a fictional character that was merged from two separate men in Le Ly Hayslip's life.
Oliver Stone does have detractors and his latest films haven't been his strongest, but he's generally accepted as one of the "good" directors in Hollywood. Heaven & Earth isn't his best film, but it's still a very well-made one, with some beautiful shots of Vietnam (actually Thailand) and particularly brilliant scenes in America. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this film strongly, but once again, there's still some very good stuff in there, so if you're into Oliver Stone, movies about Vietnam War, or movies in general for that matter, it's a nice one to watch.