Try as Oliver Stone did, this movie just wasn't moving. Vietnam War movies were all but extinct by the 90's. "Heaven and Earth" didn't cover the Vietnam War exclusively, but it was instrumental being that the movie was a first person account from Le Ly, a Vietnamese woman.
The movie began with her being a little girl before the Vietnam War. Once the Vietnam War descended upon her country and her poor little village, she began to face one trial after another. As in most wars, the local people caught hell from both sides.
Eventually, Le Ly fell for an American man (played by Tommy Lee Jones) and moved to America. Her life wasn't quite a bed of roses there, but it wasn't unlike the life of many American women: a bitter marriage to a difficult and abusive husband, but with a lot of freedoms and advantages that she wouldn't have elsewhere. Le Ly, by all accounts, "made it". Things weren't perfect, but she was an American with businesses and money: things that her family in Vietnam did not have and even other Americans did not have. She was a success by many metrics even if it wasn't a utopia for her.
Le Ly's story was an interesting one, no doubt. She underwent a lot. Bookworthy? Yes. Movieworthy? Not really.
The movie began with her being a little girl before the Vietnam War. Once the Vietnam War descended upon her country and her poor little village, she began to face one trial after another. As in most wars, the local people caught hell from both sides.
Eventually, Le Ly fell for an American man (played by Tommy Lee Jones) and moved to America. Her life wasn't quite a bed of roses there, but it wasn't unlike the life of many American women: a bitter marriage to a difficult and abusive husband, but with a lot of freedoms and advantages that she wouldn't have elsewhere. Le Ly, by all accounts, "made it". Things weren't perfect, but she was an American with businesses and money: things that her family in Vietnam did not have and even other Americans did not have. She was a success by many metrics even if it wasn't a utopia for her.
Le Ly's story was an interesting one, no doubt. She underwent a lot. Bookworthy? Yes. Movieworthy? Not really.