Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Brian Wright Couturié builds his authentic human story on the framework of nightly network news broadcasts, mostly in black and white, from the ratcheting up of America's "commitment" (when LBJ ascended to the presidency) thru the so-called Vietnamization of the war—withdrawing American troops—in the years following the Tet Offensive of 1968. Also, the director posts, on a black and white background showing aircraft in the sky, the statistics at the end of every year: (American) dead, wounded, missing. Final tally: 58,159 dead, 303,635 wounded, 2,000 missing. You watch the stats grow every year, and shake your head.Such remarkable simplicity in a cinematic creation does not happen by chance, and the love in "this labor of" shines through......For my complete review of this movie and for other movie and book reviews, please visit my site TheCoffeeCoaster.com.Brian Wright Copyright 2009

Phil Coulter This piece was comprised completely of real film captured during Vietnam, which is really so hard for a person like myself to grasp. I wasn't alive for the war, and the only reference point I have ever had, was films like Apocalypse Now. To see these images, and to be told that they were in fact real, and not pre-planned and scripted was really shocking. The images ranged from uplifting shots of soldiers bonding together as Americans united against a cause, and devastating shots of bodies being carried away. The music was unfortunately very clichéd, and was not appropriate for the tone and mood of the piece. I think the narration from actors both worked for and against the final product. At times I could recognize the voice, and it would make me think of the person reading the letter instead of the letter itself. The most moving performance to me was that of Ellen Burstyn, who read the letter of the mother at the end. It was very moving, and appropriately emotional.

Barry Goodsmith What's there to say about a documentary which combines letters from soldiers in the Vietnam War with news clips and music of the day?I saw "Dear America" only once, back in 1987 as a senior in high school, yet I remember it as well as movies I saw last year. Celebrities--including Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Robert DeNiro, and Michael J. Fox--read actual letters from the soldiers fighting the war with such passion, it seemed the letters were read by their writers. But somehow, the focus stayed on the grunts who wrote the letters.The most moving and memorable was the final letter, read by Ellen Burstyn, written by a mother to the son she lost to the war. The actual letter was placed at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC.It's been nearly 17 years since I first watched "Dear America." I use the video now, a lifetime later, to teach *my* high school students about the Vietnam War.PG13: real war footage, mild language, and brief nudity. Despite the rating, less mature middle and high schoolers might see "Dear America" as just another war movie and not appreciate its importance.

goya-4 Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam is a documentary based on the book which printed letters from the soldiers and nurses who served in Vietnam. This emotional and powerful film takes the viewer through the war from optimistic beginning to seeds of doubt to the bitter end and a postscript with the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial. While read by famous actors..some of whom you will recognize..it does not in any way detract from the raw power and emotion of the words of the soldier or nurse who having seen enough of the war, now wonders why and when they will make it back home. A true masterpiece that should be seen by all those in power before sending troops. This is the Very best film - fiction or non fiction - that i have seen. On a scale of one to ten..way up there...10