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17 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Sam graduates from high school in Kentucky, then tries to find out who her father was., 17 February 2002 Author: TxMike from Houston, Tx, USA, Earth
"In Country" is what soldiers called being in Viet Nam during the war, thus the title of this 1989 film. Emily Lloyd, an 18-year-old English actress credibly plays Sam (Samantha) who is being raised by her uncle (Bruce Willis) while her mother (Jane Allen) lives elsewhere in Kentucky. Sam wonders about her father, who was killed in Viet Nam right before she was born. She found old letters of his to her mom, and this sparks her interest in finding out more about him. The film ends when she finds his name in D.C. at the memorial.I was drafted in 1968, and only a medical disqualification kept me out of Viet Nam. I'm certain that some of my college buddies, and ROTC mates, went and never returned. For us who remember those times this is an especially meaningful film. It is slow moving in many places, but well-done and perhaps deserving of a bit higher rating on the IMDb.This is one of the many older movies now being released as budget DVDs. It sold for under $6. It is very basic, no extras, no surround sound. Still, the picture is very true, in fullscreen, and the sound is above average. Includes some good Bruce Springsteen.
12 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Poignant drama about a girl finding her father and her uncle finding himself, 27 April 2001 Author: goya-4 from PA USa
Emily Lloyd plays a young woman searching for her father, who was killed in Vietnam. Bruce Willis plays her Uncle, also a vet, who is coping with the fact that he made it out alive while his brother did not.Very well done with superb acting by Willis in his finest role and by Lloyd who plays her part brilliantly. Underrated as a film, is very much worth the time.. Concludes with a very touching and emotional scene at the Vietnam Memorial8 of 10
10 out of 11 people found the following review useful: A powerful Bruce Willis performance..., 8 August 2000 Author: PureGore from Montreal, Quebec
A lot of the criticism against this movie comes from the fact that it didn't follow the book as accurately as it could have. But since I haven't read the book, that's not an issue for me. I didn't have to sit there and say "Hey! That's not how it happened!"This movie caught me by surprise. The only reason I saw it was because I happened to be channel-surfing and I noticed Bruce Willis with a weird mustache. The movie was just starting, so I settled in to watch the whole thing. This says a lot about the kind of recognizeability Bruce Willis has earned in the years since he made this movie.In all I was very impressed with his performance as Emmett. And while Emily Lloyd was a bit on the anoying side, the role she played was portrayed beautifully (which I guess was the whole point).Being a Canadian, the Vietnam War doesn't hold as much meaning to me as it does to Americans. But this movie went a long way towards showing me how someone who was affected by the Vietnam War dealt with the repercussions. While the movie did develop very slowly and seemed to drag on at times, it was wonderfully refrshing and touching.
11 out of 13 people found the following review useful: One of Bruce Willis' best movie ever!, 10 June 2004 Author: Rebecca Flowers (becca52_19@yahoo.com)
Although this movie isn't well known - I happened on it by accident one day.I must say that I was very pleased with the whole thing. The character Bruce plays is one for my generation. We lost a lot of fine young men and women in the Viet Nam War and Bruce as Emmett was so real.It's a different kind of movie for Willis but it shows his true talent and emotional commitment to this character that I found solid. This movie is a have-to if you enjoy Bruce Willis. Anyone can do a loud, shoot them up movie but it takes real talent to bring to life a sensitive and emotional person to life. The raw, bleeding memories that he shows is so real you'd think Bruce really saw action IN COUNTRY.See this movie!!!!
8 out of 9 people found the following review useful: An intriguing film with an excellent cast!, 25 November 2002 Author: grjordan48 from Bakersfield, CA
"In Country" is a film that, to me, gets better with each viewing. Bruce Willis' portrayal of Emmett, a troubled Vietnam veteran, seemed right on; and if he's done any better pure acting, I'm not aware of it. I strongly disagree with a couple of the negative comments on Emily Lloyd's performance in the film. I thought she was quite outstanding as Emmett's inquisitive niece, Samantha, who was searching for answers about her father who had died in Vietnam. As for why monotonic Winona Ryder wasn't selected for the role of Samantha (as mentioned in a prior comment) now that WOULD have been a drab, annoying performance as far as I'm concerned. There were also fine supporting performances from Joan Allen, Kevin Anderson, etc.
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: The faces that would not be forgotten, 12 February 2006 Author: sambrolan_gee from United Kingdom
I love this compelling drama of self-discovery, partly because I was an extra in it as a nine-month-old baby on holiday in New York with my parents!!! (I'm afraid I was on the cutting room floor this time, but watch out for a flash of red hair in the soldier's graves scene and tell me if you do!!!). English rose Emily Lloyd (known to all you 'Only Fools and Horses' fans as the daughter of Roger Lloyd Pack, who played Trigger) convincingly portrays a young American woman attempting to discover the father she never really knew. Bruce Willis does a real turnaround from the characters we are used to seeing him play, as Lloyd's rather crazy uncle Emmet. I'm not a patriotic person, especially since I'm from Northern Ireland and not the U.S., but the stories of the forgotten men who made the ultimate sacrifice for a cause which in the end was not worth it, is still tragic and heart-wrenching for me. A real human story.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Very true to Appalachia, 23 February 2002 Author: jrappold from Huntington, WV
While many of the comments here have voiced distaste for Emily Lloyd's performance, I've found it , along with the Grandmother, to be very true to Appalachia...I taught many, many students who talked like Sam, and had her personality traits.The people of Appalachia built this country by working the coal mines and steel mills, and in a very real sense never benefited in the wealth they helped create. In Country brings this out, by telling the story of of some of these people. During the Vietnam War, the press many times focused on either the heroic volunteer, or soldiers from our city ghettos, and left out the stories of the many men from rural areas who made sacrifices.After having the film on Laserdisc for some time now, I recently saw it priced on DVD for $6.00. It IS an underrated film, and I challenge anyone not to choke up in the final scenes at the Vietnam War Memorial,
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Dramatic events are highlighted by being shown in common, 3 November 1998 Author: celtlass from Pennsylvania
This film introduces familiar characters and develops them as examples of how losing someone to Vietnam (even if they came home) changed the lives of much of our country. The characters are not "important" figures and the film's impact is greater for displaying how common were those experiences. Bruce Willis' acting is superb and John Terry's character may be the most haunting.
7 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Beautiful portrayals by the two stars, 22 August 2006 Author: wuxmup
It's easy to see why so few people seem to have connected with this underrated movie. There's no nudity, no violence, no killing, no superstars chewing up the scenery. It is, instead, a quiet, maybe too slow-moving, film about a teenage girl at the cusp of womanhood trying to learn about what Vietnam had been like for her father, who was killed there. She also begins to see her ex-G.I. uncle clearly, for the first time, as a survivor of something terrible. In Country is about the Vietnam War only as in the sense that it's also about a family's history whose impact bridges the generations. It's less about events than it is about becoming a grown-up in an America that has a sixty-second attention span and a fifteen-minute memory. Emily Lloyd, who you'd never guess is English, does a beautifully sensitive job in the starring role, and Bruce Willis, as her uncle, turns in a very fine, very dignified performance.
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Outstanding film, 10 June 2005 Author: jaybozwel from United States
Critics and friends have reacted variously to this film, but I found it very, very good. The characters are entirely believable, but the real pay-off for hanging in there with them through all the vagaries of their existence and problems (a number of them are messed up by their experiences in Vietnam -- this film came out just as there was a resurgence in post-traumatic stress syndrome among vets) comes with the way the film reaches a resolution at the end. A quiet, understated scene beautifully underscored by the excellent music of James Horner. I would rank this film very high on my "I give thanks that I got to see this" list.
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