Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Tim-121 I had received the book and DVD for Christmas last year. Being ignorant on much of the Vietnam War, I decided to read the book to see if I could apply anything to the Iraq situation. My brother told me to watch the DVD first because if I read the book first, the movie would be a huge disappointment. I read about 3/4 of the book and then watched the movie. Needless to say, the movie was a disappointment. It tries to cover way too much in a short period of time. Bill Paxton is OK as Vann but every scene is way to short. Several characters are composite characters rather than the actual person. Donal Logue appears to be a composite of David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan. Eric Bogohosian is completely miscast as a composite of Doug Ramsey and Daniel Ellsberg (I think they call him Doug Elders in the movie). The beauty of the book is the detail that it has. There's about 100 pages on Vann's 1962 stint and how he became completely frustrated with the American leadership in the war. There's about 100 pages on the history of Vietnam. There are about 100 pages on the Battle of Ap Bac and the fallout. The book weaves Vann's life in and out of the story of the Vietnam War. The movie makes Vann the centerpiece, so it becomes very difficult to get the background information and non-Vann information that one needs to understand Vann and the war. How could you do that in two hours?

Alex-372 This movie recounts the life and times of John Paul Vann, one of the movers and shakers of the US's non-military programs in the then South Vietnam. Although made in 1998, the movie has a very early to mid-1980s feel to it where production values are concerned and seems to be ignorant of and learned nothing from any movies and series made on the subject since (Tour Of Duty, Off Limits, 48 Charlie Mopic, even Hamburger Hill). The only really good effect was the artillery explosions when Vann apparently called in artillery on his own bunker.A much more interesting and exciting movie could have been made of another book on the non-purely military aspect of the Vietnam conflict (which was essentially economic and political in nature and solution) is Orrin DeForest's "Slow Burn", a book about the much neglected area of military and political intelligence. It has intrigue, suspense, intelligence, (real) romance and comradery that in this movie is only touched on.Anyway, because this movie is based on a book, it has a rather shallow feeling, because again (as usual) the director tries to put in too much, and doesn't connect the material and scenes in a way that is anything other than chronological. He should have picked the ones that could have blended together into a more interesting story.

CharltonBoy The first thing that i thought of after watching this film was who is the film critic for the New York post who described this film as"More powerfull than Apocolypse Now". Who ever he or she is she need to be shown the door. This film does cannot hold a light to Apocolypse Now. The story had potential but the script and the acting stank. Bill Paxton is so wooden he should be classed as a fire hazard and the diologue is abysmal. I can also pick fault in the director who made every scene short which made it confusing but more importantly ever scene had Paxton in it and his irritating southern drawl. You can tell this is a movie made for TV. 5 out of 10.

MarioB This TV movie is simply awful! There's no imagination, no innovation, the cast is bad (while Paxton tries hard to behonest), the story is weak and there's an army of clichés: Viet girls are easy to seduce, everybody's crying when the radio tells that JFK was shot. There was Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, or Platoon, to tell everybody how stupid this Viet-Nam war was. But in the 1990's, HBO produce this movies in a very conservative way, for very conservative people, tryin' hard to find a patriotic hero for this nonsense war. This movie is an insult for the young people who died at this war. The 1990's are a very very sad period...